Author Engel, A. & Korf, B.

Year of publication 2005

This guide looks at how negotiation and consensus building can be used to manage conflict and build collaboration. The guide provides practical, step-by-step advice on working with many different stakeholders to reach mutually satisfactory agreements in collaborative natural resources management. As such, it is concerned with people's livelihoods - their means of living, and the influences that affect the ways in which they live and work. It is also concerned with sustainability - balancing conservation and development to meet the needs of women and men, now and in the future. The guide seeks to provide ideas on how to decide whether consensual negotiation is the most relevant strategy to address a particular conflict. It is intended for practitioners working on participatory/collaborative natural resource management and rural livelihoods projects. It will be useful for extension workers, advisers of government organizations and NGOs, development agencies and private companies who want to learn how to assist people in the process of consensual negotiations. Trainers may use these materials as background for preparing courses in natural resource conflict management, while trainees may use them for background reading during their training and afterwards, when putting their learning into practice to manage conflict. The guide assumes that the reader already knows about and is experienced in collaborative approaches to natural resource management through involvement in community forestry, small-scale artisanal fisheries, integrated watershed management, etc.