Managing conflict and promoting learning in interactive arenas in natural resources management: The importance of stakeholder frames related to people-environment relationships

Citizen and stakeholder participation in natural resources management often focuses on conflicts about water and forests, public lands, habitat and biodiversity, recreation and development. Interactive arenas, or participatory decision-making arenas, provide opportunities to: (1) manage conflict, and (2) promote learning about environmental trends and cause-effect relationships. Both are necessary to achieve durable agreements that support sustainability. Yet conducting these arenas is difficult. Participants hold different values and practical constraints may result in "quick-fix," "analysis paralysis," or "feel-good forums." This study gives insight to conflict and learning in interactive arenas in natural resources management.; Two interactive arenas in Minnesota were examined: the Motorized Trail Task Force, addressing off-highway vehicle recreation in state forests; and the Metro Trout Stream Watershed Protection Initiative , addressing urban trout streams. Forty-five standardized, open-ended interviews and surveys focused on participant perceptions of people-environment relationships, conflict, learning, and satisfaction. Computer-aided text analysis (QSR NVivo) helped code and analyze participant responses.; Participants held different values and frames about the conflicts, as expected from existing literature and theory. Yet this research provided new, emerging theory about how stakeholders frame key elements of people-environment relationships, and what this means for the tractability of conflict. Three broad frames emerged: a promotionary frame (promoting recreation or development), acceptability frame (accepting recreation or development if managed to mitigate environmental concerns), and precautionary frame (applying the precautionary principle to protect the environment). Examining the details of these frames uncovered leverage points to manage conflicts by: learning and refraining; negotiating differences; using constructive science; and building an outdoors stewardship identity.; Results also showed that stakeholder frames operated at different scales, including macro- and micro-scales of justice, geography, timeframe, problem orientation, and identity. Integrating scales may help develop durable agreements that support sustainability.; Stakeholders identified learning promoters and detractors, including procedural, substantive and relational features. In contentious recreational access conflicts, participants emphasized the need for timely learning and negotiations.; Designers of interactive arenas should consider basics of: participation methods; conflict management; social learning; constructive science; leadership; and future capacity. Understanding stakeholder frames related to people-environment relationships should also guide opportunities to manage conflict and promote learning.