MEDIATION AS A TOOL OF RESOLVING DISPUTES IN THE SPHERE OF STATE FORESTRY MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Conflict is integral to human interaction with the surrounding natural environment. In modern society, the decisive role belongs to the state administration as a regulator of political, social, economic, and other spheres of public life, which also affects people's social activities. Human influence on the natural environment has global dimensions, there are a number of issues related not only to the protection of natural resources and the prevention of environmental pollution but also to the careful and rational use and consumption of natural resources. The basis of human interaction and the use of such a type of natural resource as forests is the implementation of needs and interests, which are often mutually exclusive: on the one hand, the satisfaction of the economic needs of users of the forest industry, and on the other hand, ecological needs aimed at ensuring the integrity of this ecosystem, its protection and reproduction of forest natural resources. The relevance of the topic of the research is due to the fact that the nature of conflicts in the field of public administration in general, and in the field of forestry management in particular, is complicated by the presence of power in the management bodies, therefore communication and dialogue with public officials is extremely difficult, sometimes impossible. Alternative means of conflict resolution, in particular mediation as a tool for dialogue and communication, can prevent the emergence or resolution of already existing conflicts in the field of forestry management. The purpose of the study is to review the features of state management of forestry and to clarify the possibilities of mediation as an alternative method of resolving disputes that arise during the implementation of this type of management. The methodological basis of the research was the methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as complex, functional methods, and a analysis of the scientific literature on the subject of the article. The obtained scientific results consist in elucidating the causes of conflict situations during the interaction of authorized enterprises for the sale of forest products with intermediaries and buyers, substantiating the feasibility and effectiveness of using methods of conflict resolution alternative to court proceedings, in particular mediation, recommendations for the promotion of alternative methods of conflict resolution in the field of state management of the forest industry, their popularization, and stimulation of the participants of these relations to the wide use of such tools. Prospects for further research are the popularization of non-traditional or alternative to court decision tools for resolving conflict issues in various spheres of state administration, namely: clarification of the nature of state administration, the status of subjects of state administration in its various spheres, criteria for the predictability of dispute resolution, where one of the parties an entity endowed with powerful powers in one or another sphere of state administration acts.