Designing participatory processes under conditions of conflict and participatory fatigue: A phased methodology for rural environmental governance

Participatory approaches are widely promoted in environmental and rural governance to enhance legitimacy and improve decision-making. However, in conflictive rural contexts characterised by participatory fatigue, low trust and fragmented governance, such processes often fail to generate meaningful influence on policy outcomes and may reinforce disengagement. This paper proposes and empirically tests a phased participatory process explicitly designed to operate under these adverse conditions. The methods combine exploratory actor mapping, individual elicitation of perspectives, structured discussion and prioritisation, and feedback-oriented engagement with decision-makers. Rather than assuming favourable conditions for participation, the approach prioritises adaptive design, gradual engagement and the separation of learning-oriented phases from decision-oriented moments. The methods are applied to a rural environmental governance case marked by longstanding tensions between public authorities and local actors. The results show that methodological adaptation played a key role in fostering participation and enhancing procedural legitimacy. By broadening the initial focus and sequencing participation through differentiated phases, the process enabled the inclusion of diverse actor profiles and reduced initial disengagement associated with participatory fatigue. While the approach did not resolve structural conflicts or guarantee policy implementation, it contributed to improved mutual understanding, clearer articulation of priorities and greater realism regarding institutional constraints. The paper concludes that participatory processes in conflictive rural contexts can function as governance-support tools by serving diagnostic and learning-oriented functions.