Focus on International Joint Commission Activities (ISSN 0832-6673): vol.15 iss.2

Under the 1987 Protocol revising the 1978 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the International Joint Commission (IJC) is responsible for reviewing and commenting on the adequacy of Re- medial Action Plans (RAPs) for Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River basin. In its recently released Fifth Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality, the IJC concluded that RAPS provide a unique experiment in institutional cooperation and the first opportunity, on a broad and practical scale, to implement the ecosystem approach to environmental restoration in the Great Lakes basin