Skills needed to help communities manage natural resource conflicts

Abstract

Competition for natural resources has spawned unprecedented conflict between users, resulting in litigious and legislative actions. Citizens often expect Cooperative Extension professionals to engage communities in collaborative processes to manage these conflicts. This paper examines thirty‐five skills Cooperative Extension professionals need if they are to engage communities in collaborative processes. Survey methodology is used to assess the skills extension professionals perceive as most needed, and the ranked means of the perceived skill needs are presented. The results offer information useful to strengthen the capacity of extension professionals to play an important role in helping citizens manage natural resource conflicts.

United we stand: a principle-based negotiation training for collective bargaining

“…The training focused on three central skills, previously identified in an empirical study for this specific context (i.e. collaborative process skills, science and conflict skills and monitoring and evaluation skills; Singletary et al , 2008). The curriculum included lectures, case studies and a simulation.…”

Land Tenure Disputes and Resolution Mechanisms: Evidence from Peri-Urban and Nearby Rural Kebeles of Debre Markos Town, Ethiopia

“…For instance, Mbiba and Huchzermeyer [62] noted that peri-urban areas in Africa are dominated by land-related disputes. Though there are locational variations, land can be seen as the direct or indirect source of most disputes in agrarian societies [52,63,64]. In most developing countries, even if horizontal urban expansion is the major cause of peri-urban land disputes [38], the problem is exacerbated in situations where there is a lack of sound spatial planning and where there are institutional problems, inadequate compensation payments, and the absence of effective land tenure security for all landholders [6,49,65].…”

Educating Negotiators: Using Theory, Practice, Case Studies, and Simulations in an Integrated Learning Experience

“…A factor analysis of critical skills needed to assist communities manage natural resource conflicts conducted by Singletary et al. () assisted us in bringing coherence to these challenges and organizing around three broad sets of skills that are important for professionals to master. These are (a) collaborative process skills—enabling parties to understand themselves and the other to collaboratively problem solve—as well as solid facilitation and active listening skills, (b) science and conflict skills—including being able to manage complicated data in a negotiation as well as enabling parties to grapple with scientific uncertainty, and (c) monitoring and evaluation skills—including being able to adaptively manage a negotiation and likewise understanding how to assist parties through the implementation phase.…”

“…However, the development of new pedagogical approaches remains an important area for development. Other research has demonstrated that there is a profound need to develop curricula and pedagogies that enable professionals to engage parties in dynamic and collaborative processes for managing environmental and public policy conflicts (Patton & Blaine, ; Singletary et al., ) that rely on synthesized skills and knowledge from multiple practice and theoretical approaches (Daniels & Walker, ). We have explored the changing nature of increasingly complex real‐world situations calling for new and innovative ways to address these multi‐issue, multiparty negotiations.…”