Abstract
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.
