Abstract:
In the more than three decades since the environmental movement began,
environmental negotiation has emerged as a means for interested stakeholders to prevent
and resolve conflict about natural resource use and environmental degradation. Most
literature on environmental negotiation has taken the form of prescriptions for practice or
descriptive case studies. Research has tended to emphasize the role of neutral third
parties and outcomes (e.g., settlement rates). Only a few studies have compared large
numbers of environmental negotiation cases across different dimensions, and systematic
analysis of the negotiation process, especially the changes that occur in the process over
time, has received little attention.
Focusing on the dynamics of environmental negotiation, this dissertation explores
three questions: First, what changes take place in the interactions among environmental
negotiators as they progress toward agreement? Second, what influence do different
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types of actors, such as parties, attorney representatives, government agencies, and
mediators, have on the changes that occur? Third, to what extent do process dynamics
vary according to case-specific factors, such as whether the negotiation was assisted or
unassisted, the substantive issues at stake, the type of agreement reached, the number of
parties, and the duration of the negotiation? These questions are addressed by applying
an adapted version of Druckman’s (2001; 2004) turning points framework to analyze
chronological events data from 29 environmental negotiation cases that concluded
between 1976 and 2004 in three countries.
This study’s contributions include the following: It identifies a typical pattern of
change in environmental negotiation, particularly with respect to the beginning and end
of such processes. Another finding is that neutral third parties (e.g., mediators) are as
likely as other actors to precipitate parties’ movement toward agreement, whereas actors
external to the negotiation (e.g., mediators and enforcers) collectively do precipitate
movement toward agreement more often than actors internal to the negotiation (i.e.,
parties and their advocates). The research also highlights significant relationships
between case-related factors and variables in the adapted turning points framework. The
results are compared to those from related research on international and labor management
negotiations and potential implications for practice are presented.
