Conflict and consultation: Exploring visions of fair and sustainable dune management in coastal communities

Abstract

Natural resource managers have increasingly recognised that communities need to be actively involved with decisions that affect their local landscapes and natural resources. Yet communities are rarely homogeneous, often having conflicting visions of what their local landscape should look like and how we should manage it as a resource. Managing social conflict and community opposition is becoming a more common feature of environmental management. In coastal environments especially there are often trade-offs between community outcomes and environmental outcomes, such as access versus preservation in coastal dune environments. By understanding the fairness dimensions of these conflicts decision-makers may be able to work towards more durable, participative governance of the environment. This research aimed to explore the specific justice and fairness dimensions of a dune management project at Long Beach, Batemans Bay on the coast of New South Wales. Planting the foreshore had previously been controversial and this community controversy led to the upheaval of an entire project. Another similar, more participatory, project was in the process of being implemented while the research was being carried out. The main research aims were then to identify and understand the key factors in conflicts over the environment and to explore the utility of theories of fairness in implementing participation in divided communities. A series of qualitative interviews were carried out with project participants and members of local organisations. Fairness was explored using the three dimensions of justice: interactional justice- how people were treated, procedural justice- how programs were implemented, and finally, distributive justice- the benefits and impacts of outcomes. The interviews combined with document analysis, revealed that the current project had been a marked shift towards more effective participation, but the community’s perception of historical injustices hindered full participation. There was still some division about the aims of the project, connected to a lack of shared vision between all parties, and linked to perceptions of historical injustice. Nevertheless, improved practice in participation dramatically increased community support and the viability of the project compared to previous attempts. Whilst this was a unique case study, with the implementation of climate change adaptation and more of an emphasis on locally implemented environmental programs, ensuring community acceptance and support of environmental projects will only increase in importance in the future. Challenges still remain in fostering an understanding of local histories and contexts from the perspective of the participants, especially in regards to interactional justice. Making the role of fairness explicit in participatory management might offer a way of increasing community support and, ultimately, achieving outcomes that are both sustainable and fair. Show more