Justice as a framework for the solution of environmental conflicts

Abstract

Debates in environmental conflicts are very often considered as driven by self-interests of the stakeholders and activist groups involved. While they do actually play an important role, there is little convergence as to what can be understood as a self-interests. Moreover, their importance for motivating behavior in the course of conflict resolution is largely over-estimated by respondents. It is argued that behavior in ecological conflicts is driven by feelings of justice and injustice. Those feelings can differ largely depending on individual scopes of justice, values, needs, and feelings of attachment to nature and the environment. Research from justice psychology provides important insights in how these differences in justice perceptions occur and how they influence behavioral decisions and commitment. A justice framework is proposed as a tool to analyze and solve ecological conflicts.