Managing Environmental Conflict

First published in 1995. Managing today’s rapidly changing environment inevitably involves managing conflicts between the demands of development and conservation; the needs of the present and of the future; and between different community interests, professional positions and political priorities. Risks and Opportunities provides both a guide to managing environmental change, and a training manual to pave the way to successful conflict resolution. It explores the full range of potential conflicts and looks at various methods for their resolution. It covers the who, what, why and when of managing change, and emphasizes the need to develop an active and strategic approach which indemnifies the interests and abilities of all the stakeholders. The book’s detailed case studies provide in-depth material on the conflicting uses of urban, agricultural and natural environments, and the self-teaching guide and exercises will enable individual readers and organizations to acquire the necessary practical and team-building skills.

Environmental change inevitably throws up conflicts and disputes. This book explores the full range of potential conflicts through a series of detailed case studies and a fully developed project management framework. It covers all the key issues surrounding managing change and emphasizes the need to develop an active and strategic approach which identifies the interests and abilities of all the stakeholders. The case studies provide in-depth material on conflicting uses of urban, agricultural and natural environments, and show different types of conflict and different methods of conflict resolution. They are accompanied by a self-teaching manual and exercises which enable readers to acquire the necessary practical skills, and organizations to build multi-disciplinary teams and other cooperative processes.

Conflicts frequently arise over environmental issues such as land use, natural resource management, and laws and regulation, emerging from diverging interests and values among stakeholders. This book is a primer on causes of and solutions to such conflicts. It provides a foundational overview of the theory and practice of collaborative approaches to managing environmental disputes. Joshua D. Fisher explains the core concepts in collaborative conflict management and presents a clear, practical, and implementable framework for understanding and responding to environmental disputes. He details strategies to bring stakeholders together in pursuit of collective solutions, emphasizing ongoing processes of dialogue, analysis, action, and learning. This collaborative approach can create new opportunities for stakeholders to better understand each other and the natural world, which enables more effective and context-appropriate environmental governance. The primer examines why and how system dynamics can constrain or expand the possibility of constructive management of conflicts. It features a case study from the Amazon Basin, where local communities, extractive industry operators, conservationists, and land managers have often clashed over access to natural resources, drawing out lessons to illustrate how to adapt the conflict management framework to distinct contexts. Managing Environmental Conflict synthesizes knowledge, methods, and practices spanning consensus building, collaborative governance, complex adaptive systems science, environmental conflict resolution, and environmental peacebuilding. Its presentation of this important and timely topic will be invaluable for academics and practitioners alike, including decision makers, scientists, and conflict management professionals.

The concept of sustainable development is a source of inspiration for many, who see it as a call to cooperative action. In practice, however, policies intended to further this goal often generate conflicts of interest. The ensuing disputes occur among governmental organizations, but disputes also arise between public authorities, private interest groups, and the environmental movement. In the opinion of the authors, the fact that environmental policy can provoke such conflict may be attributed largely to decision making procedures in our society. Accordingly, the authors are convinced that a new approach to managing environmental disputes is needed in order to deal effectively with environmental problems. Indeed, this book presents a viable alternative, which is called network management.

The latest developments regarding the theory and practice of effectively resolving conflict in water resources and environmental management are presented in this book by respected experts from around the globe. Water conflicts are particularly complex and challenging to solve because water and environmental issues span both the societal realm, in which people and organizations interact, and the physical world which sustains all human activities. For instance, when large-scale water diversions take place across political jurisdictions, conflicts may ensue among stakeholders within and across regions, while the water transfers may cause severe damage to sensitive ecological systems. Therefore, to arrive at realistic and fair resolutions, one must take into account not only the economics and politics of the situation but also the water quantity and quality changes that may occur within the altered hydrological system as well as the ecosystems contained therein. When the effects of climate change and the closely connected activities of energy production and usage are also considered, the complexity of the problem becomes even greater and messier. Accordingly, one must adopt an integrative and adaptive approach to water and environmental governance that specifically recognizes the conflicting value systems of stakeholders, including nature and future generations even though they are not present at the bargaining table. The 16 chapters in this leading-edge book are written by authors who presented their original research at the International Conference on Water Resources and Environment Research (ICWRER) 2013, which was held in Koblenz, Germany, from June 3rd to 7th, 2013, and subsequently submitted expanded versions of their research for review and publication in this timely book. The rich range of contributions are put into perspective in the first chapter and then categorized into four main interconnected parts: Part I: Management and EvaluationPart II: Global, Trans-boundary and International Dimensions Part III: Consensus-building, Bargaining and Negotiation Part IV: Ecological and Socio-economic Impacts

The concept of sustainable development is a source of inspiration for many, who see it as a call to cooperative action. In practice, however, policies intended to further this goal often generate conflicts of interest. The ensuing disputes occur among governmental organizations, but disputes also arise between public authorities, private interest groups, and the environmental movement. In the opinion of the authors, the fact that environmental policy can provoke such conflict may be attributed largely to decision making procedures in our society. Accordingly, the authors are convinced that a new approach to managing environmental disputes is needed in order to deal effectively with environmental problems. Indeed, this book presents a viable alternative, which is called network management.

Environmental and natural resource policy decision making is changing. Increasingly citizens and management agency personnel are seeking ways to do things differently; to participate meaningfully in the decision making process as parties work through policy conflicts. Doing things differently has come to mean doing things collaboratively. Daniels and Walker examine collaboration in environmental and natural resource policy decision making and conflict management. They address collaboration by featuring a method collaborative learning, that has been designed to address decision making and conflict management needs in complex and controversial policy settings. As they illustrate, collaborative learning differs in some significant ways from existing approaches for dealing with policy decision making, public participation, and conflict management. First, it is a hybrid of systems thinking and alternative dispute resolution concepts. Second, it is grounded explicitly in experiential, team-or organizational-and adult learning theories. It is a theory-based framework through which parties can make progress in the management of controversial environmental policy situations. They discuss both the theory and technique of collaborative learning and present cases where it has been applied. This is a professional and teaching tool for scholars, students, and researchers involved with environmental issues as well as dispute resolution.

A step-by-step guide connecting theory to practice Environmental Conflict Management introduces students to the research and practice of environmental conflict and provides a step-by-step process for engaging stakeholders and other interested parties in the management of environmental disputes. In each chapter, authors Dr. Tracylee Clarke and Dr. Tarla Rai Peterson first introduce a specific concept or process step and then provide exercises, worksheets, role-plays, and brief case studies so students can directly apply what they are learning. The appendix includes six additional extended case studies for further analysis. In addition to providing practical steps for understanding and managing conflict, the text identifies the most relevant laws and policies to help students make more informed decisions. Students will develop techniques for public involvement and community outreach, strategies for effective meeting management, approaches to negotiating options and methodologies for communicating concerns and working through differences, and outlines for implementing and evaluating strategies for sustaining positive community relations.