To celebrate the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, a conference was held on the evolution of the Ecosystem Approach during the past half-century to learn how to enhance successful implementation of ecosystem-based approaches for resource management, conservation, and societal problems worldwide. Among several conference workshops, one focused on the origins and history of ecosystem approaches, which was attended by 14 researchers with global expertise in conservation biology, ecology, economics, ecosystem modeling, limnology, resource and ecosystem management, policymaking, political science, and social science. This paper presents insights gleaned from this workshop on key needs for and challenges to effective implementation of these approaches. We identified six categories of needs and challenges, spanning from the initial phases of Ecosystem Approach development (e.g. setting clear goals; fostering stakeholder buy-in) to the final ones (e.g. adapting to change; maintaining program support). Setting clear goals aligned with a shared vision was identified as most critical to successful implementation and offered the fewest barriers. By contrast, 1) accounting for poorly understood governance structures and navigating administrative constraints, 2) sustaining support, and 3) gaining stakeholder buy-in were viewed as the biggest three challenges. Overcoming these challenges was viewed as critical to success, thus helping us understand why effective implementation of ecosystem approaches has remained difficult globally. Sound science (and overcoming associated hurdles; e.g. breaking down disciplinary silos) and effective communication were also mentioned by some. Using these findings, we assess the state of ecosystem approaches in the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin, concluding with recommendations on how to promote their successful implementation inside and outside of the Basin.

Science is fundamental to sound policies, particularly when it comes to implementing an Ecosystem Approach. Science can and should inform nearly all facets of an Ecosystem Approach, yet challenges remain to realizing this goal.. To help identify and better understand these challenges we used a qualitative comparative case study approach to identify and characterize the challenges and successes of implementing a science-driven Ecosystem Approach in the Laurentian Great Lakes. These case studies include delisting of Areas of Concern, improving coastal resilience, and addressing declining offshore lake productivity. These case studies were selected because they provide a set of very different, yet complementary, cases for assessing implementation, as well as the factors influencing the science-policy exchange. Through this comparative study, we identified a diverse set of challenges and successes, that were both systemic and case specific. Emerging from this comparative assessment were principles and enabling conditions (e.g. scale, governance, shared goals) we believe are critical to consider when establishing or improving a science-driven Ecosystem Approach.

An ecosystem-based approach requires an integration of knowledge systems and collaborative practices. The purpose of outreach, education, and knowledge mobilization is to (1) enhance the environmental literacy of people about the critical ecological and social functions of their ambient ecosystems; and (2) to enhance the production of information, the availability of information across the greatest range of stakeholders, and the transformation of information into experiential knowledge. We focus on these two purposes in the Laurentian Great Lakes of North America, where an ecosystem approach has been a guiding framework for policy and programming for decades. A literature review of outreach, education, and knowledge mobilization is presented with several supporting exemplar case studies and a concluding discussion of interconnected characteristics of outreach, education and knowledge mobilization that include intersectionality, place-based engagement, systems perspective, collaboration, and governance network learning capacity. Recommendations for practice focus on the importance of community engagement, community science, communities of practice, bridging organizations, watershed councils, governmental and other partnerships, financial supports and incentives, access to data, professional development, and policy development.

Indigenous knowledge systems, ways of knowing and being have long been ignored or erased in the science, policy, and management of ecosystems. Through the 2022 Ecosystem Approach Conference and Synthesis Workshop focusing on Indigenous relationships, we facilitated discussions which raised key concerns from Indigenous led environmental teams: funding, collaborations, work/life balance, Indigeneity/Western/colonial balance, and racism. We discuss how conceptions of the Ecosystem Approach are synonymous with Indigenous management by definition and practice. Drawing on specific examples raised in workshop discussions and from the literature, we highlight how holistic approaches to the caring for and science of ecosystems have long been the way of Indigenous communities locally, globally, and across generations. To elevate these approaches and support this holistic vision of having relationship with ecosystems, we collectively call for better avenues of funding and responsive structures to support Indigenous-led initiatives. This requires that first we recognize Indigenous sovereignty and as settler and non-Indigenous scientists we invest in and maintain real relationships by listening to and standing with Indigenous Peoples in an effort to better support care for their Lands, Waters, and Kiin.

Inland fisheries often receive little to no attention in global discussions about sustainable development. The consequences of overlooking inland fisheries in sustainability dialogues are increasingly problematic as fisheries stressors (e.g. overharvest, species invasion, climate change, habitat modification) intensify. Elevating the global profile of inland fisheries requires an approach for quantifying and clearly conveying the ecological, economic, and societal values of these systems. One such approach involves the Blue Economy, a multifaceted concept initially used to describe the intersection of marine conservation and sustainable use of marine resources for economic growth. Although conceptually powerful, the Blue Economy has rarely been applied to inland waters and fisheries. To address this knowledge gap, we conceptualized Laurentian Great Lakes fisheries from a Blue Economy perspective. In particular, we evaluated the utility of the coupled human and natural systems framework for characterizing the ecological, economic, and societal values of Laurentian Great Lakes fisheries and associated contributions to the Blue Economy (e.g. human livelihoods, food security, recreation, conservation, economic prosperity). There are numerous opportunities to leverage Coupled Human and Natural Systems methods (e.g. metacoupling, telecoupling) and associated mathematical models to advance fisheries science, inform fisheries management, and ultimately move toward a Blue Economy in the Laurentian Great Lakes. To that end, we demonstrated applications of these methods, discussed strategies for communicating with stakeholders, and provided insights for navigating challenges to developing a Blue Economy in the Laurentian Great Lakes—a model that could be used in the African Great Lakes and other large ecosystems in the world.

The three Great African Lakes (Victoria, Tanganyika, and Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa) are important for the Blue Economy growth of their riparian nations, providing, fisheries and aquaculture products, drinking water, microclimatic buffering, relatively cheap transport means, tourism, biodiversity, employment, and sources of energy (hydropower and oil). Economic growth comes with a cost in the form of pollution (municipal waste, industrial waste, sedimentation, agricultural run-off, land-use issues, etc.). Investments are required to augment benefits from improved regional collaboration to manage fisheries and aquaculture, restocking of certain fish species, strengthen transport, further develop tourism, and conserve biodiversity. Investments are also required to reduce the negative effects of climate change, invasive species, eutrophication, overfishing, waste disposal, polluting materials, oil spills in case of exploitation, and other threats to the well-being of the riparian populations, the profitability of economic activities and ecology of the lakes and their basins. The present paper reviews the various activities to advance the concept of the Blue Economy and highlights the utility and importance of lake management. There are excellent Blue Economy growth options for the three African Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes and connecting waters encompass a vast and diverse ecosystem that presents scale challenges for management similar to those of the coastal ocean. Technological approaches to overcome the scale challenges have primarily been adapted from oceanographic applications and technologies, and from upscaling inland lake methods designed for shallower and calmer water bodies. Many standard methods for studying Great Lakes habitat and biota have long lag times between field collection and data availability. Many also miss much of the dynamics, three-dimensional complexity, and spatial variability needed to manage the system effectively. Even baseline conditions are not well characterized for many parts of the Great Lakes ecosystem (e.g. bathymetry and critical habitat, life cycles and food webs, night and winter movement and activity of organisms). Emerging technologies are beginning to address these needs but require coordination, consistent investment, training, and governance linkages. Here we survey recent technological advances and show how they are contributing to improved adaptive management of the Great Lakes ecosystem by reducing uncertainty and increasing understanding of physical, biological, and chemical processes, and the human dimensions of resource management and restoration.