Welcome to World Ocean Radio… I’m Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory. As we look forward in terms of how we value, structure, and behave in the 21st century, we must look beyond conventional systems of pricing and finance, organizational entities, systems of governance, and community and social attitudes and actions. We begin to see today the paralysis that is caused by the collision of paradigms – the old political and economical patterns being disrupted by climate change, stultified ideological positions, outdated rules and procedures, and inexorable processes over which we have lost control. The time cries out for invention. In my book, THE ONCE AND FUTURE OCEAN, I suggest a new paradigm organized around the most valuable resource on Earth, the ocean/water continuum without which on every level and in every place we cannot survive. I propose the idea of a “new hydraulic society” that recognizes the circles and cycles of conveyance and distribution of water as the core principle for sustainable society. It is a bold idea, perhaps there are others, but it has a logic and urgency that given the conditions of drought, pollution, waste, and obsolete systems will require our attention no matter what. People ask me “How can we govern such an idea? How will our present institutions adapt to such revolutionary change?” In response, let me offer an equally provocative idea: that in order to implement the new paradigm we evolve toward the establishment of a new political arrangement that abandons traditional boundaries of towns and states and adopts a new organizational structure that recognizes the management advantage of regional inclusion and practice. What if we begin to merge and incorporate our governance around eco-regions like watersheds, waterways, coastal zones, and common deep ocean areas outside the limits of exclusive economic zones? What if we were to understand and act upon the immediate change such a shift would bring in terms of regional management, conflict resolution, new science and technology applications, the dynamic implication for livelihood inherent in the Internet and global reach, the ensuing economies of scale and other financial efficiencies, and the innovative social outcomes of revitalization, equity, justice, and social harmony? In 1998, the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy, two of the largest global non-governmental organizations (NGOs) created a new inventory of natural resources based on eco-regions defined as “ a relatively large unit of land and water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority of their species dynamics and environmental conditions. Some 867 terrestrial regions were identified plus freshwater and marine areas; the categories included temperate and boreal forests, tropical areas, grasslands, deserts, tundra, mangroves, islands, and many more. A map overlaid with the outlines of these areas shows an entirely different relationship between natural resources and the traditional boundaries of nation states. All were rated as critical or endangered, vulnerable, or relatively stable or intact. Of these 200 were selected as most important according to ratings based on geography and biodiversity; of these more than half were considered endangered. This project was meant as a planning exercise, a triage of global needs by which to focus energy, funds, and legislation to redress and protect against further loss of these critical resources. What followed was a series of conservation innovations to include the designation of marine protected areas, fisheries policies, ocean spatial planning, watershed management organizations, and integrated conservation strategies by public and private agencies to pool finances, research priorities, provide local assistance, and otherwise quietly shift toward an eco-centric approach for the future. In parallel, a value shift became evident, the understanding that humans were an integral part of this natural spectrum, a sometimes disruptive intervener now cognizant of the resultant consequence, and resolved to apply new practice, laws and regulations, education, confrontation if necessary, and progressive energy to delimit consumption, pollution, and waste in favor of the sustainable requirements of the entire bio-community. What then would be the next evolutionary step? What if we were to move toward eco-political zones, blending our old values with the new, integrating regional and inter-generational needs into a new more practical system by which to achieve new more successful response to the challenges of a new century? Such change already exists in some places: a multi-national management system for ocean resources along the west coast of Africa; an overlaid governance system among countries bordering the North Sea that provides planning assistance, oversight, and enforcement from the ocean to the coast to inland regions; coordination of policy and practice among small island states in the Pacific Ocean; and various catalytic financial investments by such extra-governmental organizations as the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility to enable such cooperation along major rivers with multiple governments alongshore. Eco-politics: management in the name of natural and human survival. Think about it. There is an opportunity here, a strategy for change. We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio. - - - WORLD OCEAN RADIO IS A PROJECT OF THE WORLD OCEAN OBSERVATORY. FIND OUR PODCAST ON ITUNES AND AT WORLD OCEAN OBSERVATORY DOT ORG.
