CDR Associates Training Programs in Public Policy, Environmental and Natural Resource Conflict Resolution

Training Programs in Public Policy, Environmental and Natural Resource Conflict Resolution

Practical Conflict Management Skills to Resolve Highway/Environmental Issues for Washington State DOT. Louise Smart conducted a three-day training sponsored by the Washington State DOT on applying conflict management skills to current highway/environmental conflicts. Course participants came from US Fish and Wildlife Service, US EPA, and the US Army Corps of Engineers as well as WashDOT. The course curriculum focused on endangered species issues, particularly salmon, and participants had detailed discussions about the challenges of NEPA, EPA, and their agency missions, and emerged from the training with specific next steps to address current issues.

US Bureau of Reclamation - Conflict management Service and Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR) Advisors. CDR staff designed, coordinated, and helped deliver an educational program, with both didactic and hands-on components, to a comprehensive collaborative decision -making and conflict management agency. CDR prepared sixteen ADR Advisors who are working across the agency to conduct situation assessments and convening to resolve public disputes, design problem-solving and conflict resolution strategies, facilitate meetings, mediate personnel disputes, and link agency users with professional intermediaries. The program has involved over 300 hours of classroom work, and internships with professional conflict managers.

US Army Corps of Engineers - Negotiation, Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution (2001-Present). This Federal agency contracted CDR Associates to design and conduct a series of four-and-a-half day seminars on a range of collaborative problem solving and dispute prevention/ resolution procedures. The substantive focus of the course is on both internal organizational and public issues including contract disputes, planning processes, environmental controversies and partnering. Some of the procedural topics covered include conflict analysis procedures, negotiation strategies and skills, facilitation and mediation procedures, mini-trail processes, and the implementation of dispute review boards. Over 750 staff of the COE have attended this program.

US Bureau of Reclamation. CDR Associates designed and conducted a series of four multi-day seminars on Effective Water Contract negotiations for contract negotiators from this federal agency. The program was designed to improve capacities in collaborative decision-making and interest-based negotiations, and promote greater cooperation between the agency and the publics it serves.

Central Valley Project, Financial Affairs Committee (FAC), California. CDR Associates custom-designed and conducted a four-day seminar on Effective Water negotiations for members of this multi-stakeholder finance committee. The program was designed to improve capacities in collaborative decision-making and interest-based negotiations, and promote greater cooperation between the agency and diverse publics from the irrigation, utility and public interest sectors.

Department of Environmental Resources, Environmental Conflict Management Initiatives - State of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Protection. This state agency secured the services of CDR to assist it in developing new environmental conflict management systems to address a range of natural resource, inter-departmental, and personnel issues. Dr. Moore consulted with an internal management committee on dispute systems design, developed customized training materials and programs to prepare staff to negotiate and facilitate interest-based compliance negotiations, regulatory negotiations, and policy dialogues; and provided coaching and co-mediation assistance to build staff capacity to constructively resolve agency problems.

International Public Policy, Environmental, and Natural Resource Projects

Azeri Chirag Gunashli (AGC) Phase 1 and the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Oil Pipeline, Multi-stakeholder Forum Facilitation (June - December 2003). CDR has been hired by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to consult on, design and facilitate a multi-stakeholder public involvement process on project impacts and opportunities related to the construction of an oil pipeline between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The IFC is an investor in this private-sector project. The project involves identifying concerned stakeholders, disseminating information on the initiative, designing and conducting surveys of concerned stakeholders' opinions, training local facilitators, designing and facilitating community meetings along the length of the pipeline and documenting public input and lessons learned.

To download an Adobe Acrobat copy of the report click here.

The final report on this project can be found on the IFC website at http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/btc.nsf/Content/MultistakeholderForumMeetingsReport

Okavango River Basin Commission (OKACOM) - Governement of Angola, Botswana and Mamibia; US State Department and USAID; and the US Bureau of Reclamation. CDR partners Chris Moore and Mary Margaret Golten conducted a situation assessment of issues and interests related to the management of the Okavango River, the third largest river in southern Africa. Unlike most rivers, the Okavango does not flow into another river or an ocean. After flowing from Angola through Namibia, it empties into the Okavango Delta, a world-class wetland that is the home of diverse species of flora and fauna, and a significant ecotourism resource for Botswana and the region. Upon completion of the situation assessment, CDR designed and facilitated an international workshop for the commissioners and staff from each of the three countries on "Effective Transboundary River Management." Management of the Okavango River involves meeting the water interests of Angola for agriculture and possibly mining; Namibia for hydropower and municipal water; and Botswana for ecological sustainability, ecotourism and agriculture. www.sharingwater.net/ProjectbriefE.asp

Okavango River Basin Ministers' Meeting (2003). CDR partner Mary Margaret Golten designed and facilitated a multi-day inter-ministerial meeting for Ministers from Angola, Botswana and Namibia concerning the management of the shared Okavango River. The meeting was also attended by Commissioners and staff from the Okavango River Basin Commission, the international organization assigned to jointly manage the river. The meetings explored the use of collaborative planning and cooperative dispute resolution procedures to address international integrated water management issues and disputes, informed Ministers regarding the work of the Commission, and defined issues to be addressed in the future. The meeting was sponsored by the US State Department, USAID and the US Bureau of Reclamation.

Bujagali (Uganda) Hydroelectric Project. The proposed $500 million dam project of the AES Corporation (an international power company) on the Nile River in Uganda near Kampala would be funded partially by the International Finance Corporation. The World Bank would assist Uganda in making power from the project available within the county. The project is highly controversial because of potential environmental, social, and economic impacts. A recent World Commission on Dams Report http://www.dams.org/ establishes criteria potentially relevant to the Bujagali Hydroelectric project. In June 2000, following release of a draft environmental impact assessment by AES, Mary Margaret Golten of CDR (and Catherine Allen of MNG) convened and facilitated the first of three public input processes in Washington, D.C. for international NGOs and other interested parties. Subsequently, Ms. Golten and Stella Sabiiti, Executive Director of the Center for Conflict Resolution in Kampala (CECORE), convened and facilitated a public input process in Jinja, Uganda, near Bujagali Falls, the site of the proposed project. Approximately 200 people attended the meeting, most of them local villagers with widely differing views of the project. On July 17 and 18, 2001 the third public process was held in Washington, DC, after which the IFC and World Bank staffs made their recommendations regarding support for the project to the World Bank Board of Directors.

International Training in Public Policy, Environmental and Natural Resource Conflict Management

Asocacion de Mediacion de Argentina. CDR partner Susan Wildau conducted a seminar on Public Policy and Environmental Mediation for thirty-five Argentine lawyers who were exploring the applicability of these approaches and techniques to resolve natural resource problems in Argentina.

LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) International, Okinawa, Thailand, Zimbabwe and Pakistan. CDR conducted training programs on negotiation and mediation of environmental disputes for 600 environmental (both public and private sector) leaders from fifteen third world countries who were participating in this third international program funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. The theme for this program was "urbanization, mega-cities, and the environment" and dealt particularly with the tensions between urban and rural areas.

Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, Pilot Program on Institutional Development in Environment (PVI) Project. This German technical assistance and development agency has implemented a series of dispute resolution initiatives and training projects to address contentious development issues. Chris Moore have conducted a series of lectures, five-day seminars and skill-building sessions in Bonn, Germany and Harare, Zimbabwe, for GTZ's international project managers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The seminars have focused on applications of dispute resolution procedures to address environmental issues related to air quality, habitat protection, management of parks and game reserves, and water issues.

Environmental Conflict Management in Hungary-Practical Strategies fro Resolving Ecological Issues. CDR Associates conducted a five-day seminar of Environmental Conflict Management for leaders from the Ministry of the Environment, regional/local government agencies, non-governmental organizations, university faculty, and students. This seminar explored how environmental conflict management procedures--negotiation, facilitation, mediation --could be used to address enforcement, regulatory, site-specific, and public policy disputes. The program enabled participants to explore how they could initiate joint cooperative efforts to address critical environmental issues--air and water quality, and development in the country.

Indonesian Ministry for the Environment and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GMBH. In response to the Indonesian Ministry for the Environment's interest in building mediation capacity to resolve environmental disputes, Chris Moore and his Indonesian partner, the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), conducted a series of Executive Seminars on Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR) for senior governmental, non-governmental organization, and business leaders. In addition to these programs, CDR and ICEL also conducted two forty-hour Environmental Mediation Process seminars at national and provincial levels. Approximately 180 people were trained in both the executive and skill-based programs. Follow-up has resulted in the establishment of a national environmental dispute resolution system, which has a major emphasis on the resolution of water disputes.

United Nations Development Program/The United Nations Institute for Training and Research. The United Nations Development Program's Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (PAPP) and The United Nations' Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), sponsored a five-day workshop on environmental negotiations and dispute resolution. CDR Associates, along with the World Foundation for Environmental Development, served as the workshop's trainers. The workshop was organized for Palestinian negotiators from the Palestinian Team to the Peace Conference. The workshop was divided into two parts. The first part focused on imparting substantive knowledge on international environmental negotiations. The second part focused on enhancing the understanding of the participants to the importance and role of the process of negotiation and how this might affect the substantive outcome of negotiations.