This paper discusses the problem of non-violent conflicts and disputes as a constraint to sustainable natural resource management at the community level. Section 1 provides some background to the role of conflict in natural resource management. Section 2 presents a methodology designed to contribute to the removal of conflict as an obstacle to sustainability. The methodology was developed to guide a programme of conflict management within NGO-sponsored community-based natural resource projects in the South Pacific. Examples of the outputs of the methodology are described in Section 3, drawn from conflict management activities undertaken in the Lakekamu Basin Integrated Conservation and Development Project, Papua New Guinea. The overall benefits of conflict management in community-based natural resource projects are described in Section 4, discussed in relation to building social capital and sustaining livelihood security.