Competing Claims

Where do Competing claims take us....

It is a complex, complicated and confusing scenario.

All conflicts have claims on them. A good one or a bad one. Conflicts exist everywhere, they may be good or bad, but they exist.

The claims various stakeholders place on the resource is what makes it interesting to understand the various competing claims on these resources.

I am confused about how does one analyse the various competing claims. But nevertheless, the theory of competing claims is a better way to look at conflicts than traditional conflict management models.

Imagine a scenario - a forest is to be opened for exploitation where indigenous people live. They want to cut timber, someone else wants to mine coal, the community wants to harvest NTFPs, the oldies want to continue worshiping to the spirits, newer generation wants to open a little land for agriculture. So many claims on a piece of land.

What does one do....Bring them all together and draw a rich picture of the scenario.

Analyse who are the stakeholders. See how much stake they have.
See the power they exercise....

Take a look at the various rights of each of the stakeholders as well as the duties of each of them. Make a matrix crossing each others rights with respect to the duties they have to perform.

See what the institutions can do and how can they be developed.

Make an economic valuation of the various resources at stake....

Develop scenarios of future events and try to develop a strategy for dealing with favorable as well as unfavorable scenario and then move on to develop assumptions that defines our final strategy....

Maybe, then one day the claims will be met or atleast partly met of each of the stakeholders. Some will lose out, some will benefit....

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