The Role of an Environmental Ngo in the Landmark Florida Everglades Restoration: An Ethnography of Environmental Conflict Resolution with Many Twists

. in a region unlike any other place on Earth. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the American conflict between economic development and environmental conservation has been epitomized by the struggles between those who seek to develop and those who seek to protect the Everglades. In recent years the region has embraced the daunting challenge of protecting nearly 70 endangered or threatened species and restoring an ecosystem which has been profoundly altered, while still trying to meet growing human needs for space and natural resources. This environmental conflict centers around the successful implementation of an unprecedented, 38-year, $7.8 billion federal-state Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). Dr. Pryor demonstrates that most of the ecological benefits for the Everglades promised in the historic CERP are riddled with conflict over many uncertainties and decades of delays which must still be resolved in order to restore this fragile River of Grass to the highest possible level. The Role of an Environmental NGO in the Landmark Florida Everglades Restoration sheds a beacon of light on this daunting challenge, providing much needed, fresh insight into the largest and most expensive environmental restoration effort in history. Dr. Pryor clearly illuminates the critical role that an environmental NGO can play as it seeks to influence the process of resolving multiparty environmental conflict such as the historic crusade to resurrect our fragile River of Grass. Dr. Pryor offers a unique ethnography for those working with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academicians and other tireless researchers, conflict facilitators, environmentalists, ethnographers, policymakers, scientists, students and countless other stakeholders. The Everglades is a test. If we pass, we may get to keep the planet. -Marjorie Douglass