An Ecosystem Approach: Strengthening the Interface of Science, Policy, Practice, and Management

An ecosystem approach is a framework for collaborative research, governance, and management that focuses on protecting ecosystem health with resilience (i.e., the capacity to respond to disturbance or perturbation by resisting damage and subsequently recovering) and fostering resource conservation and sustainable use. In celebration of this 50^th anniversary of the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the “United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration” (2021-2030), the Healthy Headwaters Lab of the University of Windsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management Society, and many partners: convened a 2022 international conference on the ecosystem approach that included six synthesis working groups, arranged 16 public workshops throughout the Great Lakes basin to get stakeholder feedback on ways and means of advancing an ecosystem approach in the 21^st century, and performed a follow-up participant survey and literature review. Collectively, these four project elements provided an opportunity to learn from past and current experiences with ecosystem approaches and look to the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead to improve efforts in implementing ecosystem-based management across the Great Lakes and beyond, and to reap its many social, economic, and environmental benefits.