natural resource management is squarely situated in a political context in which stakeholders claim the right to participate in policy dialogues. awareness of the social control frames stakeholders bring to an environmental dispute can guide managers in their attempts to achieve more legitimate agreements. in many cases, views of social control are important in explaining differences among disputants' attitudes toward the legitimacy of agreements. by understanding how conflict participants make use of social control frames, managers can work with, rather than against, those participants to craft a legitimate agreement. after summarizing the characteristics of a legitimate agreement, this article suggests how natural resource managers can increase the likelihood that participants will perceive an agreement as legitimate, by understanding the social control frames disputants bring to a situation and then incorporating salient aspects of these frames into the conflict management process.