Environmental problems may be understood as conflicts between different actors. This represents an alternative approach related to the conceptualy poorer opposition between nature and anthropic actions,which generalize to whole society predatory patterns of relationship with environment. Dealing with the concept of environmental conflicts, we may recognize different forms of society-nature relation, and diverse concrete interests, associated to the various uses of environmental resources. This opens, besides, the possibility to understand the conflicts dynamics as something that may contribute building sustainability. This text intends to describe and discuss an environmental conflict episode, the public debate, and negotiation and votation of Master Plan of São Sebastião, a city in São Paulo northern coast. The objective is to discuss the gains in terms of conflict mediation utilyzing consensus building techniques, establishing relations between this process and the local political dynamic , with special attention to Executive and Legislative power roles as participative mechanisms. The main question related to the sustainability building agenda is the competition between a global tourism policy and summer holidays demand for the use of territory and its resources.
environmental conflicts; sustainability and consensus building; tourism and environmental conflicts