ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the types of tools needed to resolve complex, multilateral environmental disagreements. It introduces an argument for reframing how scholars and policy makers approach conflict. The chapter discusses several environmental conflict examples from the literature, including land and water use, energy and climate change, and resource availability conflicts. It focuses on trust as a conflict determinant, as stakeholder inclusion is a key element in building trust and vesting stakeholders in consensus solutions during mediated or facilitated conflict resolution processes. The chapter also explores the approaches and strategies for conflict avoidance, prevention, and resolution, including proactive planning processes, agreements, dialogs, participation, public-inclusion policies, and institutional designs. Stephan Libiszewski has argued that environmental conflicts revolve around environmental degradation, whereby human actions create a dimension of resource scarcity, including physical scarcity, geopolitical scarcity, and socioeconomic scarcity. Whether environmental problems lead to violent or peaceful actions, will be determined by different contextual conditions, including governance structures, institutions, and conflict regulation mechanisms.
