SUSTAINING COOPERATION FOR COASTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Coastal-zone sustainability policies are socially constructed It follo ws that their effective implementation depends on the sustainable volu ntary co-operation of stakeholders with competing interests and priori ties. No form of integrated coastal-zone management can nurture such c o-operation as long as the objective is to determine 'best' policies, derived by expert-based rational analysis, instead of seeking to ident ify 'correct' policies, ones that can draw the maximum possible stakeh older support. The latter task requires a cc-operative coastal-zone ma nagement that incorporates the relevant public discourse into the poli cy formation process in a direct, proactive and conflict minimizing ma nner: Towards this end, four major challenges are examined for maximiz ing the stakeholders' motivation for voluntary co-operation: (I) optim ism about the level of optimism; (2) agenda setting; (3) value discour se; and (4) information and empowerment. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limit ed.