Building on common ground to address biodiversity conflicts and foster collaboration in environmental management

Collaborative Governance and Conflict Management: Lessons Learned and Good Practices from a Case Study in the Amazon Basin

“…A rich academic literature has explored the foundations, causes, and impacts of conservation conflicts given their potentiality to undermine conservation goals and erode social and political will to support protected areas and surrounding buffer zones (Bragagnolo et al 2017;Daniels and Walker 2001;Madden and McQuinn 2014;Soliku and Schraml n.d;Redpath et al 2013). Indeed, this literature has developed important guidance on good practices in conservation conflict management (Davies, Bryce, and Redpath 2013;Lecuyer et al 2018;Redpath, Bhatia, and Young 2015;Redpath, Bhatia, and Young 2015;Redpath et al 2018).…”

(Dis)agreements in the management of conservation conflicts in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

“…Shared understanding has been described as the level of agreement among stakeholders regarding what a conflict is about and how to manage it (Young et al 2016). From our findings, we propose that it might be useful to conceive of shared understanding not only as agreement on particular issues, as previously defined Environmental Conservation (Redpath et al 2013, Lecuyer et al 2018, but also as knowing the reasons underlying the position of the other party, concentrating on understanding what the other party is able and not able to do.…”

“…This highlights how the conflict is not about different interests regarding conservation as a general idea (Holland 2015), but rather about how to meet livelihood needs without depleting ecosystems. We highlight the importance of these shared views as starting points to develop conflict management processes (Lecuyer et al 2018).…”

“…We conducted 33 semi-structured interviews in each community, 66 in total, with both landholders (6 women and 14 men in CN and 7 women and 13 men in ELS) and those without land rights (7 women and 13 men in CN and 6 women and 7 men in ELS), selected through simple random sampling from population lists provided by local authorities. Through these interviews, devised from similar studies (Lecuyer et al 2018, Oliva et al 2019 and the literature on conservation conflicts (Young et al 2010, Redpath et al 2013, we collected data on: (1) the community context (e.g., local livelihoods, NGO operations and the history of the community's relationship with the Reserve); (2) the impact of the Reserve and its regulations on local livelihoods; and (3) local perspectives regarding conflicts. We draw on these data to describe prevailing conflicts and to assess the extent of any shared understanding between the communities and the Reserve authorities.…”

“…Some studies have explored related topics in varied environmental management scenarios, though not necessarily in conservation conflict contexts, nor within exclusionary biosphere reserves (e.g., Elias 2008, Bathia et al 2013, Ranger et al 2016. On the other hand, few studies have addressed related topics specifically in conflict management (e.g., Young et al 2016, Lecuyer et al 2018.…”