THE INTERNATIONAL-JOINT-COMMISSION AND PUBLIC-PARTICIPATION - PAST EXPERIENCES, PRESENT CHALLENGES, FUTURE TASKS

Strategies to improve 'ecosystem quality' of the Great Lakes Basin can not succeed without widespread public understanding and acceptance of whatever goals the strategies are meant to achieve.... [T]he liberal d emocratic traditions of the United States and Canada make public under standing and support a pre-requisite for implementing governmental pol icy. Reliance on Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement preventive measur es to direct changes in land use practices, industrial production proc esses and infrastructure development is the direct concern of private corporations, municipal governments, private landowners and federal, s tate and provincial agencies ....[T]he challenge is to find effective ways of creating widespread awareness and commitment to ecosystem qual ity goals.