WOR 741 – The JENA Declaration
I’m Peter Neill, Founder of the World Ocean Observatory.
We are fraught with best intentions, frustrated by failed objectives. A generation of scientists, policy and government officials, academic institutions and UN agencies have spent almost three decades attempting to forge a plan, through transformational treaties and governmental actions, to respond to the challenge of climate change. From Rio to Stockholm, from Paris to Baku, conferences have been held as a means to define, coordinate, and implement strategies that must make a difference. Every meeting has concluded with a final “declaration, the results of most have been prolonged or unrealized; indeed, the UN Secretary General has characterized the endeavor as a “complete failure,” “too little, too late.”
Recently, I came across such an attempt that I had not heard of before: a UNESCO Chair project for Sustanability and in this case as well for the Ocean, summed up in a statement: The Jena Declaration (TJD), officially described as “built on the premise that information is not reaching the people that need it most: those who are directly affected by climate change, shifting ocean patterns, an increasingly unpredictable systems response.” In essence, the Declaration states “that a top-down strategy to inform and communicate the change required is not working.” The Declaration calls for a new strategy to achieve living sustainably everywhere, through integration of the arts and sciences” and new partnerships to further amplify information, communication, and engagement
The Jena Declaration was first published in 2021 and offers this founding context: “Our connection with nature, changes in the way we live. Our slow progress toward rebuilding are not sustainable practices. We rely upon government to take action. But government’s approach to sustainability policy requires too much time. The goals set forth by the United Nations —the Sustainable Development Goals, the “SDGs”—will fail if we do not become involved as individuals. Each of us must take action. The Jena Declaration is now a consortium of partners. It includes many UNESCO Chairs, relevant international organizations and academies of sciences, arts organizations and networks, business companies, civil society movements, and individuals” worldwide.
The Jena Declaration includes ten foundation principles. For example
• We are part of nature, every minute, every day. But the way we are part depends on our cul¬tur¬al back¬ground. There are many ways to live in peace with nature.
• Mean¬ing¬ful, sus¬tain¬able change can only be achieved if every per¬son on the plan¬et changes their every¬day rou¬tines, prac¬tices, and mind¬set. This must be true in busi¬ness, gov¬ern¬ment, school, and at home.
• Solu¬tions must grow strong from the bot¬tom up – cre¬at¬ed and act¬ed upon by indi¬vid¬u¬als and com¬mu¬ni¬ties. The col¬lec¬tive pow¬er of many local solu¬tions brings pos¬i¬tive glob¬al change.
• To change ways of life for sus¬tain¬able futures requires cre¬ative solu¬tions. It calls for inno¬va¬tion from the arts, the human¬i¬ties and the creative minds of civ¬il society.
• We must active¬ly design this future for the ben¬e¬fit of all.
• The future demands learn¬ing from one anoth¬er. Infor¬ma¬tion and train¬ing to learn, and to define our own indi¬vid¬ual roles in design¬ing the future is essential. Young peo¬ple must have a strong voice; it is their future that is at stake.
When I read this, my first thought was that it was yet another idealistic assertion, another way of declaring solution lies with more of the ‘what we have done” that has already failed. My argument is that we must look now to “what we have NOT done,” and The Jena Declaration differs from the others by understanding the failure of “top-down” expectation and replacing that orientation with a new strategy for action: first, inclusive collaboration among all disciplines, inclusion of the social sciences, humanities, and arts in a transdicipinary way as a vital “bottom -up” collective that, second, is implemented on the ground in the places where people are living with climate not as theory, but as daily, upsetting reality, and, third, implementation through the interaction, collaboration, and financial support for organizations in-place that are already working in the towns and villages where the hard work of community development and sustainability in urgent circumstance must be done.
We have been arguing for this perspective on World Ocean Radio for over 740 editions. I was taken aback that this concept had found an opening in the impenetrable wall of policy and expertise. I reached out and found welcome and eager exchange of ideas how the Jena organization and World Ocean Observatory might work together to exchange resources, programs, educational services, and synergistic communication platforms by which to share our work and experience with an international network of local, community-based organizations and individuals that are at the heart of this new approach. As a result, we have concluded in January 2025, a memorandum of understanding to identify and implement next steps.
We must work toward “complete” success measured by “more than enough, in time,” in the places, everywhere, for and by the people for whom this outcome means survival.
We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio.
