For over a century, governments on both sides of the Canada-US border have employed diverse policy instruments and management tools to protect the Great Lakes. This crucial freshwater resource continues to show signs of degradation. We explore how the International Organization for Standardization Risk Management Standard (ISO 31000) can be used by governments to reduce the risk of failing to achieve the policy objectives of the Great Lakes. ISO 31000 facilitates the analysis of human activities that drive the causal pathways of ecosystem pressures-effects-impacts and analyzes the links between these causal pathways and the performance of management measures operating within the Great Lakes. ISO 31000 allows governments to shed light on why, despite best intentions, management measures are not working and enables governments to continually improve the management system until the risks of policy failures are reduced to acceptable levels, bringing new hope to the future of the Great Lakes.

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