ALEX CARAVEO COMM 1080 FINAL BLUE FOREST LOGGING CONFLICT: THE REVIEW

Summery

I will review the case of From conflict to co-management: the case of the Blue Forest, by Prins, Castillio and Almendares. The trio of authors, Prins, Castillio and Almendares conducted this case study for Tropical Agriculture And Higher Education Center (CATIE). This case revolves around three logging communities whose conflict, according to the trio of authors is the illegal logging and profits with the threats to completely destroy the Blue Forest in ten. I will reviews and offer three strategies that may correct the conflict between these three communities.

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATION

COHDEFOR (National Honduran Corporation for Forestry Development) COATLAH (Regional Agroforestry Cooperative of Atlantic Honduras) CATIE (Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center) OLAFO ( CATIE project) BDN (Brisas del Norte) NG (Nueva Granada) SR (San Ramon) PA (Piedras Amarillas)

INTRODUCTION

My goal is to find what happened and why? By asking who benefited & who didnt, who are stakeholders or interested parties and what was the conflict about? This review will offer the answers to these questions, Ways to correct power imbalance? Ways to neutralize the effects of aggressive communication behavior? Ways to improve the process of principled negotiation? This introduction we will learn about the groups. We will find out what happened and find reasons why. We will get to know who benefited and who didnt. We will look at who are the stakeholders or the interested parties. We will try to discover how these situations arise to a conflict?

Key Points

The groups SN (San Ramon), NG (Nueva Granada) and BDN (Brisas del Norte) are the groups who are in conflict logging the Blue Forest. SN is the furthest and richest group, NG economy is in the middle, and one and a halve hours from the Blue Forest. Brisas del Norte BDN the poorest of the three groups is a community where their back yard is the forest. Honduras national policy on forest clearance was initiated by tenancy and agricultural growth, but in 1994 policy drastically changed. NG and BDN now have illegal logging practices due to their exportation of lumber, but no incentive to promote the legal logging in Honduras. In the name of forest conservation, forestry groups now could own the rights to exploit these resources with a contract issued by the (National Honduras Corporation For Forestry Development) COHDEFOR. Then COHDEFOR gives the right entitlement to other existing loggers, with no oversight of the community as whole, COHDEFOR said communities lack any interest. COATLAH (Regional Agroforestry Cooperative of Atlantic Honduras) is a cooperative timber service that acts as an intermediary between COHDEFOR and groups looking to acquire forest rights. On 1994, the same year the government initiated COHDEFOR, it also gave logging right to PA (Piedras Amarillas) this forest group consisted of the groups SN (San Ramon), NG (Nueva Granada) and BDN (Brisas del Norte) but soon NG and BDN left due to not being fair, leaving behind the rights to SN (furthest & richest city). The logging did not stop, both NG and BDN kept logging illegally with higher profits. CATIE began projects of social service like water, land use of both income generating and conservation type with RN, this project OLAFO created a strong

relationship with this group. Then OLAFO began to approach both the NG and BDN group to gain acceptance by offering services and building a school for BDN, this was gaining trust within the group. OLAFO continued to push its interest in resolving the conflict, eventually seeking support from COHDEFOR. In 1999 OLAFOs groundwork paid-off, and the three groups agreed to settle their conflict, but OLAFO who was really close with SN and who initiated all the work for this, did not become a member of the committee, while COHDEFOR took the role of chairperson. OLAFO, not a member of the committee still attended the meetings in the role of initiator and facilitator.

What Happened?

I feel manipulation is what could have happened, COHDEFOR (National Honduran Corporation for Forestry Development) seemed like it was just a puppet, OLAFO, all by CATIE (Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center) motivated by money. BDN (Brisas del Norte), the poorest was the most reluctant, but just pacified the advances of OLAFO, the city of SR (San Ramon) owning the rights still needed the cooperation of NG (Nueva Granada) and BDN (Brisas del Norte), yet they didnt need SR. The interested parties CATIE could have promoted the conservative forest concept. When you have mules lugging you lumber through tough terrain, the forest should be more worried from the large organization, and overall the people who are from those communities, these people are the biggest effected, they lose control of their own resources, dont get ahead, while their resources potentially could dry up. The rules and laws that are initiated by political agendas and are at times motivated by motivated individuals or organizations that see the bigger picture. Ways to correct power imbalance? The three groups could have just done things independently with the community involved to advise and oversee the well being of the community as a whole Ways to neutralize the effects of aggressive communication behavior? The meetings that took place could take place in a setting where ideas are brought to the table, and building or repairing small sections at a time. Offering solutions, taking the position of taking the problem from the person.

Ways to improve the process of principled negotiation? Be aware of power imbalances, be open and pay attention to the differences of each others imbalances. In order to resolve conflict its important to understand one another, be prepared to work together.

Conclusion

What is it when, self-interests are the driven factor, and focus turns to the outcomes? From the readings of Cahn & Abigail outcomes mean the result that people are seeking to achieve when they engage in conflict. Another book, Negotiating For Mutual Gains by Wilmot & Hockers point out Fisher and Urys four practical principals; people, interests, options, and criteria, labeled negotiation on merits. These four principles are great collaborative aids that I will offer to create a dialogue (link) between these three communities. In combination with negotiation on merits I will be using Wilmot & Hockers approach to fully analyze the mechanics of the Blue Forest conflict. I will conclude this case by implementing Stuarts conflict containment model, where each community bring to the table their needs and ideas, this will be my continuation of dialogue and promoting each group equal power, and separation of problem from groups. This methods will allow these groups the opportunity to move forward and have dialogue, and to see solutions and ideas, with each of these small steps, the goal here is to see the continuation of the negotiation process evolve by the simple promotion of dialogue, and the realization that each groups has something to offer and each group has something to gain.

Reflection

Our land needs us to treat her with love, respect and we all have a moral obligation, and an ethical responsibility in keeping all aspects of our community (including the air, water, soil, animals) stable, this duty should make for a healthy and strong replenished mother earth for further generations of human sustainability. Our selfish-interest is damaging earth, we humans are a part of a chain that depends from the next link. We belong to a pyramid, and our existence heavily relies on the stability of this land pyramid, a pyramid that we are a part of. We must strive to make our actions from a perspective of total ecosystem harmony with earth, if we dont fail to blindly pursue our selfish-interests and our no ethical obligation attitude, one day we may find ourselves fighting a population with no trees, a depleted earth not being able to be sustained. We need to stop treating our land as our slave, and share the responsibility to respect earth.

CASE STUDY AUTHORS BIOGRAPHIES

Rosa Almendares Studied social work and is experience in community organization and rural development. She had years as community organizer in the OLAFO project, parent organization CATIE.

Oscar Castillo An agronomist, who specializes in horticulture, had 15 years of experience in development projects. Knowledge: agriculture, forestry, hillsides, community strengthening, institutional cooperation and conflict management. With recent project work as leader of the OLAFO project, parent organization CATIE.

Cornelis Prins Experience in Latin America, was field director of Dutch Technical Cooperation SNV in Peru. He studied law and sociology in the Netherlands. Postgraduate work was lecturing on environmental sociology, rural development, extension, technological research and institutional innovation of rural areas. Also involved with CATIE projects, his involvements lasted close to five years.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cahn & Abigail, Dysfunctional vs. Functional Conflict Wilmot & Hocker, Negotiating For Mutual Gains Wilmot & Hocker, Power-The Structure of Conflict Some information was retrieved from Power Points & lectures