Stewardship

CUSTODES

The Custodes are the operational core of Lucus.

Each Custos combines three inseparable roles:

• Ranger · actively protecting and watching over the territory
• Host · responsibly accompanying the Hospes
• Steward · knowing the territory and working for its improvement

They are not three separate jobs: each Custos takes on all three. Their continuous presence is a necessary condition of the system.

In Latin, Hospes means both guest and host.

Without Custodes, there is no Lucus.

REVERSIBILITY

Every Lucus structure is designed to be removable. Nothing is meant to stay in the territory for its own sake.

If Lucus withdraws, it must leave no permanent buildings. It must leave what the territory has gained.

What is built is reversible. What is learned is not.

INDEPENDENCE

Stewardship of the territory cannot be subordinated to economic interests.

That is why Lucus keeps the institutional function of stewardship separate from the operational activities linked to the system. Stewardship does not serve operations: operations must respect it.

Institutional stewardship lies with the
[[ext:https://lucuscustodia.org|Entidad de Custodia del Territorio „LUCUS CUSTODIA“, Asociación, Madrid →]]

MEASURE, DON'T PROMISE

Those who steward do not evaluate themselves: measurement and audit will be independent.
Lucus will not claim any result before the first audited multi-year data series.

MINIMALITY

Lucus adopts only the structures needed to fulfil its stewardship function.

Every element must justify its existence by what it contributes to the territory. Complexity that does not serve that function has no place in the system.

Structure serves the territory. Never the other way round.

GROWING, TERRITORY BY TERRITORY

Lucus intends to grow, but not at any price. Each new territory requires the capacity to ensure active, continuous and responsible stewardship there.

Lucus grows through loyalty to each territory, never at the expense of any.

ORIGIN

Jochen Knie, founder.
Custodian of cultural and natural heritage since 1996: Casa del Rey Moro and its Mina (14th century), Ronda; Casa Palacio Alonso de Villafranca (1531), Seville.
Comparative study of stewardship, from the Mediterranean to the Pacific.
Diplom-Kaufmann (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg), Economic Geography and Business Ethics.

Presence is only legitimate if the territory improves.