Presenter(s): Jess Gladis — Environmental Studies
Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey, Barbara Muraca
Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation
Examining resource conflicts shows the way land values influence stakeholder relationships to culturally significant ecosystems. The Nisqually Watershed exemplifies environmental justice disputes caused by the juxtaposition of high-density urban areas, rural farmland, and federally protected land— creating intersecting values that inform local land stewardship. My findings so far support that the analysis of values and environmental ethics—an often-underrepresented factor in formal decision-making—elucidates how material and metaphysical human-ecosystem relations form influential values that determine the outcome of resource conflicts and deliberative resolutions.
This analysis is conducted using rigorous frameworks that encompass a multiplicity of stakeholder values. This project aims to further develop a method based in environmental hermeneutics and phenomenology that engages with the IPBES conceptual framework and its defined value categories (Díaz et al. 2015). This approach is unique among similar pre-existing research because of its practical application of philosophical traditions and adoption of IPBES’ pluralist framework. Further study of regional environmental conflicts using these approaches can enlighten relatively unexplored factors in ecological decision-making. Providing precise explanation for the way conflict is ignited or mediated is incumbent for the future development of climate change resilience and mitigation strategies.