Worldwide human population expansion, coupled with increased awareness of drastic disparities in the standard of living experienced by people in different places, has brought environmental conflict to the attention of international institutions rang­ing from the United Nations to Amnesty International.

Human and natural systems are linked in complex ways that result in inter­dependency, and humans have irreversibly altered ecological systems on a global scale. In addition, the temporal and spatial scales at which environmental changes occur are rarely synchronized with institutional structures and political cycles (T.

In many nations, legal requirements to include the public in environmental deci­sion making render environmental conflict increasingly difficult to ignore. Yet, even when public participation is mandated, tech­nical experts continue to leave stakeholders out of the decision-making loop. This causes environmental conflicts to escalate. Because communication in environmental conflict is tied closely to public participation, we use the concept of public participation as a central organizing construct in this chapter. We first overview the mandate for public participation in environmental issues. Second, we review critical research on two models of public par­ticipation that have gained significant public currency. Here we summarize critiques of the public hearing, which is the most commonly used method of public participation. We also provide a summary of research critiquing consensus-based processes. Finally, we dis­cuss especially promising research directions, including suggestions for how they might affect practice. We found that most research on communication and environmental con­flict emphasized industrialized, nominally democratic nations. Within this framework, we also attempt to highlight research that explores global cross-cultural and domestic diversity issues.