Institute to put mediator resources online
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The federal government is sponsoring the development of a World Wide Web site that will help find common ground for people who disagree over what should - or should not - be done with natural resources. The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, an executive branch agency created by the 1998 Environmental Policy and Conflict Resolution Act, plans to put online a roster of up to 500 practitioners of alternative dispute resolution nationwide who specialize in mediating divisive environmental conflicts. Doug Thompson, program manager for the roster project and a mediator with the institute, said the site, which should be running by year’s end, will contain profiles of alternative dispute resolution practitioners, who will apply to be included. Their applications will be reviewed by institute staff members before being placed on the roster, he said. Using mediators is a way for people on opposite sides of a dispute to reach an agreement, such as a dispute between a cattle rancher leasing federal land for grazing and an environmental organization that claims the rancher’s herd is destroying a stream on the land and threatening an endangered fish. More : fcw.com |