SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the Orange Order must move towards meeting with both the Parades Commission and host communities in areas where contentious marches take place.
Mr Durkan was speaking after a meeting with representatives of the Protestant Loyal Orders in Belfast today.
"Today's meeting was positive and constructive. It was the first meeting of its type and we want to see other meetings to follow it up.
"The SDLP is quite clear that the Parades Commission and the legislation that established it has served a very good purpose in helping to contain a problem that was getting more and more out of control and convulsing this community every single year," he said.
Orangemen are refusing to meet the commission, which rules on controversial parades, claiming it has treated them unfairly.
However, the SDLP's Alex Attwood said: "It would be essential in order to resolve marching disputes and create a better environment that the Orange Order would end its boycott of the Parades Commission.
"If everybody works together, talks together and demonstrates respectful relations and works to recognise each other cultures and traditions, the SDLP believes that good progress can be made this year to resolve marching disputes."
The Order is under pressure to get through this season peacefully after ferocious rioting erupted during one of its major parades in Belfast last year. Although it has always attracted criticism from outsiders, it is also now facing condemnation from within its own ranks.