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Based on a Dutch case study on shellfish fishery policy making and a literature review, we expand existing guidelines for coastal zone management. We deduce constraints for handling societally contested and scientifically complex environmental issues. Our additions focus on problem structuring and handling of scientific uncertainties. Both are means to increase consensus about beliefs, ambitions, and directions for solutions. Before policy making can take place, complex environmental issues need to become more structured by reducing either scientific uncertainty or societal dissent: the "pacification strategy" and the "facilitation strategy," respectively. We show that the use of a pacification strategy, in which science is expected to pacify stakeholders, is not an answer, as uncertainties are likely to remain high due to a different pacing of scientific progress and policy-making demands. Instead, we propose a facilitation strategy in which stakeholders formulate shared ambitions and directions for solutions at an early stage, and ecological scientists extend their participation in the process by scientifically assessing policy alternatives. With an eye to giving ecological science a significant role in policy making and management, we present an improved set of guidelines, incorporating the facilitation strategy by focusing on balancing economic and ecological interests and shared policy formulation by scientific inquiry instead of political opportunity.

This paper assumes that trust is a major issue in the interaction between government, citizens and societal organizations. The central question in this paper relates to the specific determinants of public trust. A survey study is reported (n = 1019) which focuses on the role of trust in the acceptance of genetically modified (GM) food. Our expectation was that three types of trust: “trust in governance,” “trust in government,” and “trust in NGOs” would be important predictors of the public acceptance of GM food. The data were collected in the summer of 2001 in the context of the formal Dutch public debate on GM food. The results indicate that 42 percent of the respondents do not trust developments in GM food. Only a third of the sample does trust the government with respect to GM food developments. Approximately 50 percent of the respondents express a high level of trust in nongovernmental organizations for this issue. The data further show that trust in governance seems to be an important constraint for the further development of GM food in the Netherlands. With higher levels of trust in governance people have a more positive attitude toward GM food, are more likely to accept it, and are more optimistic about technological developments

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Integrated Coastal Management cannot operate effectively without reliable information and knowledge on changes in the environment and on the causes of those changes. Monitoring is essential to provide data needed for a real understanding of socioeconomic and ecological functioning in multiuser nature areas. We present a web-based and comprehensive assessment methodology to articulate, structure and prioritize information needs and ensuing monitoring needs. We applied this methodology in the Dutch Wadden Sea region, which includes a designated UNESCO World Heritage nature reserve. The methodology consisted of the following steps: i) exploring socialecological issues of concern and defining the monitoring scope; ii) articulating information needs expressed as tractable questions; iii) elaborating monitoring needs; iv) grounding in scientific models and current monitoring; v) synthesizing assessment findings into target entities, i.e. analysis variables for monitoring. In this paper we focus on the first three steps. As part of our methodology we performed two online surveys amongst a broad range of stakeholders and amongst monitoring professionals. In case of the Dutch Wadden Sea region, main monitoring questions were related to biodiversity and food web relations; effects of fisheries and its pressures on the ecosystem; channel and port dredging; spatial planning and multifunctional use; sustainable energy production; and effects of changing storm regimes due to climate change. Subsequently we elaborated these general issues into analysis variables within five themes. The presented methodology enables large scale and unbiased involvement of stakeholders in articulating information needs in a multiuser nature reserve like the Wadden Sea. In addition the methodology facilitates the input and feedback of monitoring professionals by providing a detailed elaboration of monitoring needs.