The Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy helps people come together to address critical natural resource and environmental challenges for which there are no simple answers – issues like water resource planning, wildfire resilience, and grizzly bear management to name a few.
There aren’t simple answers to these challenges for several reasons: (1) the issues themselves are complex and often require adaptive solutions rather than a one-time fix; (2) there are diverse, interdependent interests in play; (3) there are gaps in knowledge; and (4) existing institutions often lack the ability or authority to solve the problem on their own.
Our interdisciplinary team helps navigate these challenges by designing and facilitating processes that bring relevant interests and perspectives into a purpose-driven conversation. While the work is issue and context-specific, we take care to focus on the following common principles:
- We serve the public good and look for multi-benefit outcomes that enhance our communities and landscapes.
- We take time to understand issues and their full context, including how they impact livelihoods and community well-being.
- We focus on building effective relationships and working through differences and conflicts toward common ground and shared purpose.
- We integrate different sources of knowledge, expertise, and lived experience to inform discussions.
- We look for approaches that are implementable and adaptive so that they serve our needs now and into the future.
- We explore ways to link and leverage the strengths and abilities of the public, private, non-profit, and philanthropic sectors.
- We ground ourselves in our connection to Montana and the Mountain West, informed by the lessons we’ve learned with our partners from around the world.
To carry this work forward, the Center is organized into three program areas that leverage our role as a university-based institution and its connections to students, faculty, and partner organizations in Montana, across the West, and beyond.
- Education: We teach facilitation and collaborative approaches to conflict resolution and problem solving through trainings, workshops, mentoring, peer-to-peer network support, curriculum development, and the University’s distinctive Natural Resources Conflict Resolution Graduate Certificate Program.
- Applied Research: We help advance research and serve as a bridge between theory and practice on natural resources policy and collaborative governance.
- Consultation and Facilitation Services: We provide a suite of services aimed at supporting and advancing solutions that serve the needs of people and nature, including facilitation, process design, workshop and conference planning, public engagement, tribal engagement and consultation, partnership and network development, situation assessments, strategic planning, and more.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Center or working with us, please contact Shawn Johnson.