Negotiating Environmental Agreements: How to Avoid Escalating Confrontation Needless Costs and Unnecessary Litigation

When business leaders, government officials, and other stakeholders come to the table in an environmental, health, or safety dispute, acrimony often results, leading to expensive and time-consuming litigation. Not only does this waste precious resources, but rarely does the process produce the best outcome for any of the parties involved.

For the past five years, the authors of this volume have conducted semi-annual seminars at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology and at Harvard to provide business leaders and regulators with the knowledge and skills they need to more effectively handle environmental, health, and safety negotiations. Their strategy, known as the "mutual gains approach," is a proven method of producing fairer, more efficient, more stable, and wiser results. Negotiating Environmental Agreements provides the first comprehensive introduction to this widely practiced and highly effective approach to environmental regulation.

The book begins with an overview of the mutual gains approach, introducing important concepts and ideas from negotiation theory as well as the theory and practice of mediation. The authors then offer five model negotiations from their MIT-Harvard Public Disputes seminar, followed by a series of real-world negotiated environmental agreements that illustrate the kinds of outcomes possible when the mutual gains approach is employed. A collection of writings by leading experts provide valuable insights into the process, and appendixes offer both instructions for conducting model negotiation sessions and analysis of actual game results from earlier seminars.

This is the only prescriptive text available for the many regulatees and regulators involved in environmental regulatory negotiations each year. Anyone involved with environmental negotiation — including corporate and public sector managers, students of environmental policy, environmental management, and business management — will find the book an essential resource.

<p>Owning and managing forest lands is an inherently legal endeavor. From forest acquisition to deeds and boundaries, from timber sales to bequests, few things can be done without confronting laws, rules, regulations, and traditions that define acceptable and unacceptable practices. For most owners, managing forests is a learn-as-you-go proposition, and too often a crash course in law follows a disagreement.<p>Legal Aspects of Owning and Managing Woodlands is both an accessible overview of the privileges, rights, and obligations that accompany forest ownership, and a guidebook to help active forest managers use laws to their advantage and avoid the pitfalls of expensive and exhausting litigation.<p>Chapters examine all aspects of woodland ownership and management, from general issues to specific concerns, including: <ul> <li>private property and public interest </li> <li>acquiring and owning forest lands </li> <li>surveys and boundaries </li> <li>managing and using forest lands </li> <li>forest management contracts </li> <li>ethics in forestry practice </li> <li>forest taxation </li> <li>planning for woodlands in your estate </li> <li>settling disputes and shopping for a lawyer </li></ul><p>The book breaks new ground by examining legal matters in practical, everyday language. It provides clear and concise descriptions of often confusing concepts and difficult subjects, and addresses issues in a competent yet conversational tone. It is not intended to take the place of legal advice, but it will help forest owners understand an essential body of law, enabling them to ask the right questions of their attorneys, consulting foresters, and all those they encounter in the complex task of owning and managing land.

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Drawing from their semi-annual seminars at MIT and Harvard for business leaders and regulators, specialists in mediation explain techniques for cutting through rhetoric and acrimony when negotiating environmental, health, or safety matters. They explain the Mutual Gains Approach, offer five model negotiations, and present a series of real-world environmental agreements. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Lawrence Susskind is Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and president of the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is author of Dealing With an Angry Public (Free Press, 1996).

Paul Levy is Executive Dean of Harvard Medical School.

Jennifer Thomas-Larmer is with the Consensus Building Institute.