ABSTRACT
Environmental and natural resource management (NRM) situations are often complex and contentious, sparked by the allocation of scarce public resources, policy priorities, standards, and risks and some stakeholders encounter perceived or real obstacles to understanding, participating, implementing, or assessing. Yet processes to address such situations often focus on their techno-scientific aspects at the grave expense of needed and/or beneficial relationships. Multiple stakeholders possess asymmetrical power and resources, competing values, and diverse perspectives, and as a conflict escalates, the number of parties, issues at stake, and invested resources increase along with levels of hostility, stereotyping, and distorted perceptions. The result can be endless litigation, resentment, damaged communities, and colossal investments of time, energy, and money. Satisfactory resolution for some parties likely comes at the tremendous expense of others. This chapter presents the conflict over preservation and development in the Long Island Pine Barrens where parties employed destructive coercive tactics against each other from a zero sum perspective. It also examines how with external intervention the destructive engagement was overcome.
