The central aim of citizen participation within a process of sustainable development focuses on building and nurturing types of social relationships that include all social agents. It is, therefore, crucial to create shared spaces in which processes may be developed which lead to the implementation of agreed actions and to the solution of conflicts. In this article I explore some obstacles to participation in Colombia which convert the latter into a structure of political opportunities on the road to conflict. This leads us to the following question: should a difference be drawn between the ideas of Environmental Conflict Management and Negociation of Environmental Conflict? In the first case, conflict is a time possible phenomenon which can be prevented through a set of actions. In the second, it is the acting as confrontation of interests of the actors which defines the conflict.