Environmental Mediation: Insights into the Microcosm and Outlooks for Political Implications

In this paper I will argue that to view mediation as a means to resolve environmental conflicts is overly simplistic. It is simplistic for two reasons. First, it neglects the interactive features of mediation. Empirical studies have revealed that mediation consists of complex, contradictory, and even counterfactual elements of interaction. Insights into these features provide some sensitivity to the problems that are systematically associated with mediation. They also guard against overstrained expectations and provide a realistic basis for evaluating the usefulness and prospects of mediation. Second, it neglects the socio-cultural and political conditions necessary for mediation to function effectively. In the case of environmental conflicts the scientific understanding of what these conditions are are, as yet, unknown.