Environmental collaboration and conflict resolution: tools for analysis and interventionnter title

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Environmental collaboration and conflict resolution:
tools for analysis and intervention
University of Eastern Finland

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Students and researchers from almost 17
countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin
America and Oceania took part in the course
entitled ‘Environmental collaboration and
conflict resolution’ over a two week period at
the University of Eastern Finland campus,
Joensuu. We gathered to discuss methods
and strategies to enhance collaboration in
natural resource management and to explore
future and peaceful possibilities for resolving
conflicts related to land, forest, water,
minerals, and fossil fuels.
The idea for this course emerged when the
authorities of San Pedro El Alto, Zimatlán
de Alvarez, Oaxaca, asked Dr. Irmeli
Mustalahti and her research team for some
type of support to find alternative peaceful
outcomes, and avoid further escalation of
the different disputes and sometimes
violent clashes between this community
and others in the region.
Report for the Community of San Pedro
El Alto, Zimatlán de Álvarez, Oaxaca,
Mexico
Summer School
Joensuu, Finland
8-19 August 2016
Environmental
collaboration and
conflict
resolution: tools
for analysis and
intervention

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As social and environmental researchers, the team
members thought that the best way to support the
community’s concerns was to provide a learning platform.
This would give members of the community of San Pedro
El Alto the opportunity to enter into dialogue and reflect
with students and researchers from Nordic universities
about the challenges and opportunities for peacebuilding
in the region. Unfortunately, due to the lack of financial
resources, the five members of the community destined
to come to Joensuu, Finland to join the course, were
unable to do so. This report is for all members - young
and old women and men - of the community of San Pedro
El Alto who could not personally travel to Joensuu, but
who were in the classroom through our encounters,
conversations, and reflections.
This report provides a summary of the activities, lectures
and the emergence of different opinions and diverse
thoughts from the students and researchers alike. We aim
to provide you with an account of what we discussed in
the course in general, but particularly about the case of
San Pedro El Alto. We hope that this could be a first
stepping-stone that you could use for building a path of
reconciliation and justice in your community. Different
analyses can bring diverse results, depending on the tools,
methods and theories used. We are aware that this is only
one of many approaches that could be done, and we hope
it will be useful to you.
In the current intensification of violence in the country, it
is necessary to create pathways of reconciliation and
collaboration between communities that permit them to
decide their present and their future.
The city of Joensuu (translated into Spanish as “Boca del Río”) is host to various institutions important to forestry
in Finland and Europe, including one of the campuses of the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and the
headquarters of the European Forest Institute (EFI). Furthermore, the region of North Karelia, where Joensuu is
located, has a long history and deep connection with the forestry sector. Sometimes Joensuu is even referred to as
the forestry capital of Europe. But where is it? Joensuu is 437 km northeast of Helsinki, the Finnish capital. This is
almost the same road distance as between the city of Oaxaca and Mexico City.
By the way: Why in Joensuu and
where is Joensuu?

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Presentation of San Pedro El Alto
Because the community members could not join us for
the course and express their own positions, feelings and
observations, Violeta Gutiérrez Zamora and Diego
García Osorio presented the case of San Pedro El Alto
based on their research work. Diego and Violeta have
been in the community at different times. The interviews,
conversations, and other documents they have collected
have given them insight into the community and into the
relationships inside and outside the community.
From their positions as social researchers, they presented
an overview of the community social organization, a
description of the struggles this community has
confronted for managing their forests, and their
observations about the achievements and challenges the
community has in social and environmental issues. Diego
also offered an interesting summary of his archival
research where he had found that the historical
documentation of many of the conflicts in region trace
back from the colonial times. From these accounts, we
started to explore the conflicts between San Pedro El Alto
and other communities.
These presentations allowed the students to reflect about
the current and future social and environmental
consequences brought by the conflicts not only to San
Pedro El Alto community members (children, young and
seniors women, and men) but also to regional
development in this area of Oaxaca State.
Why is it important to analyze and
address conflicts?
Disagreements and conflicts are normal in any human
relationship and are part of our lives. They emerge from
an ongoing opposition between different people’s
interests, needs, desires or values. However, the ways we
respond to them can bring about diverse beneficial
(constructive) and/or damaging (destructive) outcomes.
During the course, we discussed how one of the first steps
to transform conflicts, avoid escalation of violence and
look for justice is to acknowledge that there are peaceful
and fair ways to address them. We are convinced that
peace and justice are interconnected, and that any violent
or unfair answer will bring more undesirable
consequences to the members of the community in the
short or long term. But it is also important to
acknowledge that conflicts can also be starting points for
thinking, acting and envisaging the kind of relations we
want to establish with others, inside and outside our
communities.
The analysis of conflicts can bring awareness of what
events in the past and the present encouraged them and,
in the best case scenario, enable a recognition of what
members of the communities want in the future for
themselves and for their community. Most importantly,
conflict analysis can provide communities with alternative
perspectives that can help develop contextualized tools of
conflict management and transformation.
During the course we learn
that there are different ways
and methods to address
conflicts. On the one hand
we have conflict
management and resolution
perspectives that consider
conflicts can reach an end
through different
processes:
Negotiation, Mediation,
Arbitration and Litigation.
On the other hand, there is
a perspective called conflict
transformation that
considers that these
measures are not enough and
that modification of the social
relations that give place to conflict
is needed, particularly when there is
violence. For both perspectives, it is important to look at
what are the roots of the conflict and be aware that
different strategies will bring different outcomes.
Course class
in progress

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Conflicts and their roots
We recognize that behind any social conflict we find a
complex range of causes that may make it difficult to trace
them or distinguish between them. Therefore a way to
start our reflections and analysis is to look back in history.
The key question to ask here is:
What has happened in
the past in our society/community that triggered
these current conflicts?
And this was precisely one of the first exercises we did
with Dr. Lasse Peltonen: to agree on a time-line for the
conflicts of San Pedro El Alto with other communities
(see picture below). Using the historical documents and
other data from interviews we had available, it was
possible to made a time-line and to look deeper into the
historical roots of the current conflicts in the region.
When doing a time-line, it was possible to recognize the
different and numerous causes that have produced these
conflicts and the diverse degrees of violence each of them
has reached. The time-line gave us a panorama of what
has happened in the past that has an impact on the
present. This means that conflicts can be understood in
terms of their socio-historical context, and not only as
isolated “events” that can be resolved promptly.
Transforming conflicts from the roots
As we have already stated above, arbitration, mediation,
negotiation and litigation are conflict resolution processes
that can give good results for the people involved in a
social conflict. However, in many cases, these processes
are insufficient for constructing long-lasting fair and
peaceful relationships between actors.
Among the critical discussions we had was
considering how to proceed when many of the
“causes” of the social conflict cannot be “resolved”
through resolution processes, or when these
processes even make the situation worse. For
instance, individuals or groups of people can be
brought before a judge and receive a sentence, or they
could arrive at an agreement together with a mediator.
But on some occasions the sentence is not followed
or the agreement is broken, and the conflict re-
emerges or is exacerbated. The conflict
transformation approach also stresses the fact that
many environmental conflicts result from extreme
power imbalances. Here are three important issues to
point out about the conflict transformation
approach:
A. Power imbalances often lead to: unilateral
decision-making by the powerful parties; lack of
interest in dialogue or participatory approaches
to "resolving conflict"; non-compliance with
agreements or judicial resolutions. Intra-
community power imbalances may also lead to
negotiations behind closed doors or deals that
entail some form of corruption, so that the
legitimate interest of the key parties are not
properly represented. In such instances,
communities, environmentalists or other
disenfranchised groups might need to engage in
organizing, coalition building, protest, civil
disobedience and even violence action, before
the powerful parties are even willing to listen.
Time line of conflicts in San Pedro El Alto

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The problem is always that such strategies might
lead to more open and even violent conflict, but
this is seen as a necessary phase of the process
from this perspective. Peace-building here means
working hand in hand with communities in
search of a more equal foundation, always
advocating for the use of peaceful means. It also
means considering the possibility of saying NO
to dialogue if issues of power imbalances and
distrust have not been properly addressed.
B. A conflict transformation approach seeks to
transform relationships but also the structural
causes of conflict. From this perspective, the
advocacy efforts of social movements to
promote policy changes are seen as central to
addressing conflict in more structural ways. An
agenda for legal reform and other policy changes
may be central to addressing power imbalances in
the long run.
C. Negotiation, mediation and litigation should
be considered as possible strategies at all stages.
But with it is important to keep an eye on
whether these processes are indeed helping to
address root causes of power imbalances and
structural injustice at any given point. Questions
to ask: Under what conditions would a dialogue
help build trust among all key parties involved?
Who are the key parties that would need to be
involved in the negotiations to ensure legitimate
agreements? What mechanisms will be used to
inform all affected parties of progress in
dialogue/negotiations? What are the alternatives
to dialogue? How will the situation evolve
without dialogue?
So how can we start this conflict
transformation?
In the course, we got to know some basic
tools that could help groups and
communities in conflict. Such tools aim
to explore our internal perceptions, our
strengths and weaknesses, and the
threats and opportunities we face in the
future.
And something important to keep in
mind:
Throughout in the examples of socio-
environmental conflicts provided by the
students, we observed that often we forget or
do not recognize the historical roots of
conflicts; this can lead to short-term
agreements that do not necessarily initiate
serious dialogue or reflections about the kind
of relations created historically and
reproduced over the years.
In such cases, we consider that it is necessary
for communities involved to start deeper
processes of social transformation where
they can develop peaceful and fair
relationships within and outside their
communities.
In this way, we could see that in processes of
reconciliation, negotiation and resolution it is
necessary to pay attention to the legal and
technical aspects but also to the socio-
historical aspects of the conflict.
These are long term transformation
processes that require time, the
recognition of the conflict roots, and
dialogue to respectfully restructure the
“events” and “facts” that initiated and
increased the dispute.

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What are your perceptions?
During the course, we discussed how it was also
important to recognize the different points of view people
have about reality. In conflicts the people involved are
particularly likely to have diverse perspectives, and even
these distinct perceptions can be the origin of some
disputes. In many cases the origins of conflict can be
related to the manner in which we see reality from our
own position without considering how others see, feel or
think about the same situation or event.
We consider that it is important to recognize and respect
that we have different opinions and points of view that
were formulated based on our own beliefs, cultural values,
and personal experiences. Therefore a key aspect for
starting communication between people is to reflect and
analyze what is being expressed by the other people
through their words and actions, and how we interpret
them.
To develop this skill during the course, Dr. Mara
Hernández and Dr. Lasse Peltonen designed some
exercises based on basic analysis tools, such as SWOT and
the Iceberg of culture, which you can see in the next
pictures.
We got to know about other environmental conflict cases
between various actors in Finland. Although these
conflicts have not reached high levels of physical violence,
they have affected local peoples’ lives. Therefore Dr.
Antti Erkkilä organized a field trip to the Enocell pulp
mill in Uimaharju and the Jukajoki River restoration
project in Selkie Village, which are both about one hour
from Joensuu.
Students were given the task of identifying what where
the different perspectives and ways of thinking of the
people we talked with, based on their job or community
position. People in Enocell and Selkie village expressed
how they had dealt with conflicts inside the enterprise (in
Enocell) and other groups external to the community (in
Selkie).
Questions for reflection
 What perspectives do you have about conflicts in your community? How do you see and understand
them?
 Have you reflected about the points of view of the people of other communities with whom you have
conflicts?
 Do you think that knowing their points of view can help to understand and probably to develop a
transformation or resolution process?
SWOT Analysis model
Iceberg of Culture model

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What Strength, Weaknesses, Threats, and
Opportunities does San Pedro El Alto have?
As mentioned above, one tool that we learned during the
course was the FODA analysis. This tool helps us evaluate
future decision-making processes concerning conflicts in
enterprises and communities because it facilitates thinking
about what are the current internal Strengths and
Weaknesses, and what are the future external Threats and
Opportunities.
Using information given by Diego and Violeta about the
community, we asked students what were the
opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses they
could identify and assess in the case of San Pedro El Alto.
In the next picture you can see the resumé of the students’
points of view.
Interdependence and collaboration towards
the transformation of conflicts
When we have a disagreement or an open conflict we
often forget that we are not totally independent from the
people we are disagreeing with. Nevertheless, as persons,
communities, regions and countries, it is important to
remember that we depend on others for a large variety of
services and goods, to the extent that we have a
relationship of necessity with them that make us
interdependent
. This interdependency can be visible if
you think about the direct or indirect services other
peoples are providing to us and we are providing to them
As any relationship, interdependence can lead us towards
beneficial or unfavorable outcomes depending on the
kind of values and interest on which our relationship is
based. If the core values or interests in an interdependent
relationship are based only on competition, self-
fulfillment purposes and crushing the goals of others, it is
highly probable that injustice, insecurity and violence will
be encouraged.
Summary of students SWOT Analysis

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On the other hand, in a collaborative relation of
interdependence, communities work towards mutual
benefits, cultivate trust and respect, and furthermore they
enhance dialogue and tolerance. Through acknowledging
our interdependency and developing collaborative
relationships we can start to transform our conflicts into
having a more peaceful and fairer direction. Collaborative
interdependency can help us visualize the common
interests of people and communities, and thus work
towards achieving those common goals. It does not mean
that conflicts are “resolved” magically and forever, but
rather that we start to consider conflicts as possibilities
for dialogue and social change.
Participation
During the course we also discussed how creativity is an
important element of developing new strategies for
conflict transformation, and the necessity of enhancing
the participation of women and men, youngsters and
seniors. Permitting the participation of different
members of the community and respecting their
knowledge, experiences and points of view are required in
order to create spaces for collaboration. In this way all the
voices of the community members have the opportunity
to be respectfully heard.
The participation of the different members of the
community allows all them to be involved in the process
and could contribute ideas and skills. Everyone has
different kinds of the capacities and knowledge that could
provide innovative and creative strategies to address
conflicts.
During the course, we noticed that each of us came from
diverse countries, disciplines, cultures and classes.
Because we have different skills and knowledge, our
participation is important for developing innovative and
multifaceted approaches for conflict resolution in our
countries while also promoting equity and social justice.
Questions for personal reflection
 In your community: In which events
do you enhance dialogue and respect
between each other? What damages
trust and tolerance?
 Do you depend on other communities
in order to do something? What do you
depend on?
 Do you have common interests and
values with the communities in the
region? Which ones?
 What are the areas in which you could
collaborate with other communities in
the region?

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Community promoters
for conflict transformation
In Silkie Village, where we went to learn
about the Jukajoki River Restauration
project, we met Dr. Tero and Kaisu
Mustonen, both members of the local
community. Tero is a professional biologist,
fisherman, and active member of the hunters’
association. Kaisu is a housewife and Tero’s
wife. They talked to us about the conflict
their community has with a state company
that was exploiting the local wetlands near
the Jukajoki River to extracting peat for
“bioenergy” generation. Their story about
the conflict was an inspiring account of how
the high degree of contamination of the river
was discovered by the fishermen who found
dead fish killed by water acidification, and
how fishermen’s knowledge helped to
confirm the poor state of the water. Through
dialogue and collaboration between
community members, the people of this
village were able to organize themselves and
find out that the source of pollution was
leakage from peat extraction activities.
Tero and many other fishermen in the village
started a campaign and instigated legal
actions so that the state company would
repair the damage caused to the river, the
wetlands and the fish. After some time of
struggle, the community was able to have the
company removed and arrange for a new
project to regenerate life in the wetlands and
the river. However, after some months, new
disagreements emerged between hunters,
birdwatchers and other members of the
community. Therefore one of main questions
that Tero and Kaisu asked themselves was:
How can all these groups of people use the
forest and the wetlands without increasing
the conflicts and while respecting each
group’s interests?
Through their different experiences, Tero
and Kaisu were able to communicate with the
different groups and understand the
positions they had, and thus it was possible
for them to find points of agreement. Tero
and Kaisu mentioned that through the
dialogues with all the people involved they
were able to begin a process of collaboration
in which all people’s rights to access the
forest, river and wetlands could be respected.
Tero pointed out that here it was really
important to hear about how the villagers
(women, fishermen, and hunters) used
traditional knowledge in making decisions on
use of natural resources. Since then Tero and
Kaisu have been active promoters of their
rights as community members. Through
these activities they have learned how
dialogue, respect and trust can be improved
for transforming not only their community
but their relationship with people outside the
community also.
Questions for personal reflection
 Do you think that there are people in San
Pedro El Alto who could promote in a
collaborative manner the rights of the
members of the community and the rights of
the communities? Who?
 What skills and organizational arrangements
do you have in your community to resolve
conflicts? How can these skills and
arrangements be developed and spread?
 What kind of similarities and differences do
you find between the case of Silkie village and
the case of San Pedro El Alto’s struggle with
the Forestry Company of Oaxaca? How do
you resolve/transform such conflicts?

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We hope that our reflections which are shared in this
report will be useful for the people of San Pedro el
Alto. These reflections are the result of a collective
effort with the same aim as was the case in a
community like yours.
We have learned that transformation of conflicts can
only be reached in the same way: collectively and
collaboratively. We hope that these exercises can
contribute to the development of the skills and
capabilities of the community members, the
promotion of positive changes in the community,
and the peaceful resolution of disputes with other
actors and communities. We acknowledge your hard
work and the strong will you have shown, and
continue to exercise, to achieve this.
All of us who have participated in this course are
grateful that you have given us the opportunity of
using your case for analysis and reflection. And
therefore we hope that from the many different
perspectives, studies, nationalities and experiences,
we can contribute to your work for a peaceful
transformation.
We hope that all the actors concerned in the case of
Oaxaca in Mexico can achieve dialogue, for the
benefit of all the communities in their region, their
forests, waters and lands, and for the coming
generations. If you allow it, we are willing to have
another chance to keep walking with you in this
noble process.
THANK YOU!
And you all are welcome to our coming Environmental collaboration and
conflict resolution courses funded by NOVA University Network:
https://www.nmbu.no/en/students/nova/students/phd-courses/phd-2017
You can also follow us in Facebook and via Researchgate.

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Course organizer and their contacts:
Dra. Irmeli Mustalahti
University of Eastern Finland
Correo electrónico: irmeli.mustalahti@uef.fi
Dr. Antti Erkkilä
University of Eastern Finland
Correo electrónico: antti.erkkila@uef.fi
Dr. Lasse Peltonen
University of Eastern Finland
Correo electrónico: lasse.peltonen@uef.fi
MSSC. Violeta Gutiérrez Zamora
University of Eastern Finland
Correo electrónico:
violeta.gutierrez.zamora@uef.fi
Lic. Diego García Osorio
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
(UNAM)
Correo electrónico:
garciaosoriodiego@hotmail.com
Dra. Mara Hernández Estrada
Centro de Investigaciones y Docencia
Económica (CIDE)
Correo electrónico: maraher75@gmail.com