ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how environmental conflict mediation in Brazil offers a model and a process for identifying different kinds of environmental conflicts, a system for constructively managing those conflicts and an opportunity to transform conflict into productive learning experiences. It begins with the geographic context and strategic reasons for selecting the six Brazilian basin committees within the state of Santa Catarina. The chapter describes the methodology used in this six-basin study and the nature of the data sources. It explains the conceptual model Strategic Planning for Sustainable Development (PEDS), which Grupo Transdisciplinar de Pesquisas em Governanca de Bens Comuns has developed as a mediation model based on social learning and which occurs throughout the development of the river basin committees. The chapter suggests that the PEDS models a form of environmental conflict mediation that might be particularly applicable elsewhere in communities facing water or another potential environmental crisis.
