Community in a “Conflict System”: A Case Study of Facilitating Conflict in Nature Conservation

Forest conservation has long faced conflicts between traditionally-living indigenous peoples and other more modern stakeholders. Often such conflicts are rooted in differences between the perceived interests of indigenous peoples and other stakeholders, or in ineffective negotiations due to a power-disparity between involved stakeholders. Thus far conservationists have tried to overcome such conflicts by creating different types of collaborative management systems with indigenous peoples. Although co-management appears a good solution to guide all stakeholders towards a conservation target, in practice few such arrangements have proven successful. The co-management model offers a greater potential for success when it is approached as a conflict-prone system. This paper presents a methodology for aligning the interests of different stakeholders during the creation of a co-management system in Suriname. Using the Model for the Analysis of Potential Conflict in Development (MAPCID), we demonstrate that timely identification of conflict and balancing of power made the system preemptive and adaptive, two factors essential to the successful creation of the South Suriname Conservation Corridor.