Presentation
Calming Coastal Community Conflict: Using Negotiation with Stakeholder Engagement
NSW Coastal Conference 2023
(2023)
Abstract
With over 80% of Australia’s population living within 50 kms of the coastline, there is intense usage of and pressure on the coastal zone environments. The coastal zone can be a highly contested space based on differing individual and group values, attitudes and vested interests. Resultant actions can cause conflict sometimes manifesting in court cases, protests, verbal clashes and political intervention. Conflict may be less overt with issues simmering in parts of coastal zone communities sometimes stymying improved coastal management.
Community and stakeholder engagement is a requirement of most coastal management planning around Australia. For example, in NSW, the Coastal Management Act 2016 requires councils to engage with the community and other stakeholders before adopting a Coastal Management Program (CMPs).
Community and stakeholder engagement plans and actions are usually based on the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) spectrum. However, a limitation of conventional engagement processes, including use of the IAP2 spectrum, is that they do not consider community conflict and its potential to derail ensuing community interactions.
This paper promotes the use of negotiation methods in addition to engagement methods. Consensual negotiation is preferred as it ‘generates agreements and outcomes that are acceptable to all conflict parties with a minimum of compromise and trade-off’ (Engel & Korf, 2005).
The paper presents two examples of successful use of consensual negotiation to resolve conflicting viewpoints related to aspects of CMP development in two NSW coastal communities. The consensual negotiation frameworks coupled with engagement processes resulted in an innovative grower-led program to minimise nutrient flows (Coffs Harbour LGA) and three entrance management plans in Kempsey LGA.
Keywords
- coasts,
- negotiation,
- engagement
Publication Date
October 30, 2023
Location
Newcastle
Citation Information
Neil Dufty. "Calming Coastal Community Conflict: Using Negotiation with Stakeholder Engagement" NSW Coastal Conference 2023 (2023) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/neil_dufty/83/