UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION. Address by Mr Federico Mayor

Transcription

1 DG/97/31 Original: English UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION Address by Mr Federico Mayor Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the Summit of the Sea Conference St. John s (Newfoundland), 5 September 1997

2 ... all at last return to the sea - Oceanus, the ocean river, like the ever-flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Throughout history, the oceans have served as gateways of human activity, providing routes for trade, communication, migration and conquest. The ocean s role in the life-cycle has carried a wealth of spiritual meanings for many of the world s cultures. Rites and rituals, song and prayer evoke the power of the ocean, of the primeval waters of Creation, of the sea as passageway between life and death. Its resonant symbolism can stir the imagination of the scientists who now study the seas. The poetic passage I have just quoted ends the book by American biologist Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us. From the earliest times, the sea has determined the destiny of countless peoples. The maritime supremacy of the Phoenicians was legendary. Ancient Greece, China and India sent out flotillas of merchant ships. The ocean was used to expand influence and to seek trading partners. Establishing new settlements on far-flung islands, Polynesian and Melanesian peoples in the Pacific spread across the seas. The oceans have functioned as a relief-valve for the pressures of population growth. The challenge of vast, uncharted waters galvanized the inventiveness of Viking shipbuilders and Arabian nautical astronomers; it exercised the ingenuity of cartographers and maritime engineers across the world and across the centuries. Triggering a new era, European nations reached out over the face of the globe in search of resources, territory and power. Throughout the ages, the oceans have formed one of the main theatres of human conflict. The desire for power, territory and control of resources has invariably been at the origin of such disputes. The oceans may no longer be a gateway for expansion to relieve the pressure of population growth, but on and near their shores today live some three-quarters of the world s population, making the pressure of population growth greater than ever. In today s world, the scarcity of unused raw materials on land and the search for new resources mean that attention is turning increasingly to the sea, whose resources, however immense, are far from inexhaustible. Pressures such as these increase the risk of friction and conflict. This risk can only be removed if a new course is steered, one that takes us towards a peaceful sharing of the ocean s resources, a peaceful sharing of responsibility for sustaining those resources and protecting ocean and coastal environments. For most of the history of humanity, the freedom of the seas was the dominant principle in maritime affairs. That freedom was merely theoretical; in practice, only a few maritime powers possessed the means to take full advantage of it. The Law of the

3 2 Sea Convention has opened a new era in the history of mankind s relationship with the sea. The Convention establishes a careful balance between the maritime rights and obligations of States and gives this arrangement the force of international law. It assigns to the care of coastal States over one third of total ocean space together with some 90% of living and non-living ocean resources, which should be conducive to their rational management and conservation. It treats in an integrated manner the various ocean issues - national security, economic interests, marine scientific research, protection of the marine environment and conservation of its resources. These provisions establish a legal basis for the implementation of the ocean-related chapters of Agenda 21. More specifically, it provides for the peaceful use of the oceans and their resources as well as for the peaceful settlement of disputes among nations. International co-operation for the peaceful use of the oceans may be seen as the leitmotif of the Convention. Its provisions range from comprehensive rights of navigation essential for international commerce to management by the International Sea-Bed Authority of the deep sea-bed resources on behalf of humanity as a whole. They establish the right of other States, particularly landlocked and geographically disadvantaged countries, to exploit the surplus fishery resources of coastal States. They oblige all States to protect the marine environment from all forms of pollution and encourage co-operation in marine scientific research, systematic observation, and development and transfer of marine technology. This internationally agreed set of measures, with its mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes, represents a very significant step towards the goal of peace in the oceans. Full attainment of this goal will obviously require the effective implementation of the Convention s interrelated provisions. This in turn will depend on how far adherence to the Convention is underpinned by a deeper commitment to international co-operation and dialogue. As observed in UNESCO s Constitution, a lasting peace cannot be based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of governments... Peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. It is the task of education, conceived in the broadest possible terms, to promote such a commitment based on knowledge and understanding. A culture of peace may be said to prevail when society at large is informed by the spirit of intellectual and moral solidarity, by the ethos of comprehension and co-operation to which UNESCO s Constitution refers. We have to make a choice: we cannot pay the price of war - hundreds of billions of dollars were spent on armament alone in and at the same time pay the price of peace. After the immense failure of violence and oppression, at the cost of

4 3 millions of lives, the transition to a new century and millennium must be a turning point from a culture of war and conflict to a culture of peace and tolerance, a culture of respect of the rights of all peoples, of recognition of diversity. If we really want to reduce the gap between the haves and have nots, to prevent conflict before it starts by tackling its sources in poverty, exclusion and marginalization, to provide all the women of the planet with water and energy, to protect the environment, the oceans, to invest in fresh water and to establish a new balance between flooding and drought, to send our children to school and not to war, to end the collective shame of the economic and sexual exploitation of children, then we must pay the price of peace, just as, for centuries, we have been paying the price of war. Knowledge is essential for achieving our goal of peace with and through justice. In particular, we need a great deal more scientific rigour in our decision-making. But knowledge - in the sense of information - is not enough by itself. As the Delors Commission emphasized in its recent report to UNESCO, our increasingly interdependent world must mean not only learning to know, learning to do and learning to be but also learning to live together. Similarly, imagination and daring are essential to the timely application of knowledge. I like to repeat that if risk without knowledge is dangerous, knowledge without risk is useless. Yes, education is much more than mere information or instruction. It means having the possibility of being guided by values and principles we have chosen. It is about autonomy, mastering one s destiny, having one s own design for learning and living. Everyday behaviour, I like to say, is the supreme expression of culture; and education is in this sense one of the most radical determinants of culture. Such a view of education, such a view of culture, make both a close ally of change. Nothing is more essential to the achievement of our ideals than a permanent, far-sighted and nonviolent rebellion against routine and against the downgrading of human dignity wherever it may occur. In this connection, we need to be particularly alive to the danger of subordinating human to merely economic values. We may perhaps say yes to the market economy, but never to the idea of the market society. Let us then safeguard our heritage, both natural and cultural. But let us, above all, resolve to safeguard the most precious heritage of all - every woman and man, all the children of this planet. To bear all this in mind continuously and to act upon it is the key to the transition to a culture of peace.

5 4 UNESCO s fundamental goal of achieving a culture of peace guides our concern to ensure that caring for our oceans and sharing their sustainable resources becomes a reality. These efforts are gaining fresh momentum. In recognition of the importance of the ocean, the marine environment and its resources for life on earth and for sustainable development, the United Nations has declared 1998 as the International Year of the Ocean. It will be an opportunity to mobilize, to inform and educate, to increase awareness that there is not just a need but a duty to protect the marine environment. What is important now is political will. We have achieved public awareness of the importance of the oceans. Now we have to move towards practical action. Here the parliaments, the media, the influence of society as a whole will be of the essence. We would hope to work in maximum synergy with UNEP to this end. UNESCO is proposing to deal with issues of this nature on a regional basis. The African continent will be the starting point, with an international pan-african meeting on integrated coastal management. This event will undoubtedly give great visibility to the efforts of the coastal states of Africa in this field. The meeting, to be called the "Pan-African Conference on Sustainable Integrated Coastal Management" or PACSICOM, will be held in Maputo, Mozambique during mid It is expected to generate a major input of African States to Expo 98 to be held in Lisbon, Portugal later in the year. PACSICOM will also be a further step in the global effort towards rationalizing coastal management which is being co-ordinated by UNESCO. Other regions could follow this initiative, which will draw on the experience of other United Nations agencies, in collaboration with the World Bank, the European Union, the UNDP and other donors. PACSICOM will, we hope, bring us a step closer to the construction of a Global Culture of Peace for Sustainable Development. International initiatives such as these come at a time when coastal countries are responding to the challenges of their heavily populated coastal areas and the intense pressure on marine resources. Most countries are now trying to elaborate rational policies of coastal zone management in order to combine environmental concerns and development goals. This aim is all too easily hampered by conflicts of interest and the lack of an integrated vision of coastal and maritime phenomena. There is no universal blueprint for solving such difficulties. Coastal problems vary greatly from on region of the world to another. In some regions, such as in the Western Pacific, the difficulties are mainly related to the rapid urban and economic development which is encountered along coastal zones. Elsewhere, as in some of the Indian Ocean countries, the problems appear to be institutional and local capacity-building is a requirement shared by all coastal developing countries.

6 5 Successful policies require the democratic participation of all those directly or indirectly involved in the process of decision-making related to coastal zone management. Most coastal zone problems are cross-sectoral and can only be solved through an interdisciplinary approach involving the local communities that are largely responsible for triggering often unwanted changes. There are many examples of conflicts arising from the impact of conflicting activities of neighbouring communities. A prime example arises where shrimp production requires clean pondfacilities in esturine locations which are polluted by upstream activities such as plantation production, mining or logging. Conflicts flare up when neighbouring countries exploit common fish stocks, particularly when one party imposes limits on the catch for conservation reasons, but the other ignores the longterm considerations and maximizes fishing returns before shifting exploitation as soon as the resource is exhausted. Opposed policy goals of this nature naturally lead to fierce conflicts and the only recourse available to modern communities is negotiation on the basis of ecological necessity and environmental security. Attempts to deal with such issues must take into account the immediate problem faced by the local communities. They, in turn, must be encouraged to acknowledge responsibility for the impact of their activities. A gap often arises between the available scientific knowledge and the willingness of the stake-holders to consider the evidence. That gap can become a gulf when fears arise that the cost of the cures suggested could be higher than the costs arising from pursuit of the conflict. The principle of sustainable development has to be applied in conflicts of this nature. It is clear that the communities concerned are often highly motivated to deal with the issue in a fundamental manner. The formulation of scientifically-based plans for the management of the coastal environment, taking into account social, cultural and economic interests, appears as a mandatory step towards the resolution of conflicts and the development of peaceful utilization of coastal areas. Effective approaches in this area could provide the first clear model, on the global scale, of sustainability as the driving-force for development. The work to date by UNESCO in such matters has made very real progress in this direction and has already led communities concerned to accept sacrifices and adjustments for the sake of long-term benefits. UNESCO is committed to promoting the objective of peace in the oceans and sustainable development in coastal zones through the work of its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and through the wide range of its educational and other activities. Let me mention, if I may, just one more important initiative. UNESCO is preparing proposals for an instrument for the protection of the underwater cultural heritage, which could take

7 6 the form of an international Convention. Nations in many regions of the world are keenly awaiting provisions for the protection of vulnerable heritage on the sea-bed. A draft Convention is now being drawn up jointly by UNESCO, the Law of the Sea unit at the United Nations Legal Division and the International Maritime Organization. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to warmly commend the Summit of the Sea Conference initiative, which will contribute significantly to further reflection on the Law of the Sea in the context of the United Nations Agenda for Peace. Newfoundland is a good place to have a new-found ocean! It is a good place to establish, from now on, new-found guidance for a brighter future. UNESCO will continue to support this endeavour which is complementary to its own efforts to nurture a culture of peace through international co-operation in education, science, culture and communication. Together, let us forge a new future for the oceans, the cradle of life.