Barriers to better ecosystem management: Great Lakes Observations
- The complexity of the decision-making regime (layered across multiple jurisdictions, borders and agencies). This muddies the waters on where bucks stop (if we ever get the bucks in the first place) and leads to a lack of clarity on management roles and responsibilities;
- Erosion of the effectiveness and political will of federal enforcement agencies such as EPA, coupled with severe financial constraints and repeated budget and program cuts in state enforcement agencies, which translates into further erosion of enforcement capacity;
- Similarly, there is less capacity and less of an independent, “bi-national” voice within the International Joint Commission, reducing its credibility and effectiveness as an independent body to address the issues of U.S./Canada boundary waters;
- There is a lack of accountability by the U.S. and Canadafor failing to meet objectives under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement;
- An erosion of cutting edge research and scientific analysis capacity, including monitoring and surveillance;
- Lack of political will in Congress to address long-standing issues that require public funding and new regulation, from enforcement of the Clean Water act, to modernizing sewage infrastructure, to serious strategies for managing invasive species.
- Dated if not archaic institutional missions and approaches for agencies created to respond to the environmental crises of the 1960s and 1970s whose approach and mandate needs revisiting;
- Related to the above, a disconnect between a relatively strong public desire for Great Lakes conservation and the capacity of the institutions to invite, absorb, respond to and capitalize on that interest and passion through action.
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