AMDGJB's proposal strength of three (3) Declarations for UNESCO Geoparks Sustainable Territories

With OBSERVATIONS FROM

THE *SUSTAINABLE TERRITORY OF GEOPARK JBEL BANI TATA (TSGJB)
Project aspiring to be Geopark – South Morocco

*Managed by

the Moroccan Association for the Development of Geopark Jbel Bani (AMDGJB)
Est. 1954-36 – April 10, 2015

« INTERNATIONAL DECLARATION OF EARTH’S MEMORY RIGHTS »
Marrakech – September 2022

Patrick SIMON *1 – Abdelmajid OUCHIKH *2 – Fatiha AIT YAKKOUN *
Patrick SIMON: President of AMDGJB – Abdelmajid OUCHIKH Deputy Secretary General – Fatiha AIT YAKKOUB Coordinator of AMDGJB

Declaration of Marrakech – September 2023, based on:
the Digne Declaration of June 13, 1991 – France.

—- Terms of the 1991 Digne Declaration ————————— Terms of the 2023 Marrakech Declaration

1/EVERY HUMAN IS UNIQUELY RECOGNIZED. ISN’T IT TIME TO AFFIRM THE PRESENCE AND UNIQUENESS OF THE EARTH?
1/ISN’T IT TIME TO CONSIDER THAT WITH INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION IN THIS CONTEXT, WE CAN STATE THAT ALTHOUGH HUMANS SHARE MANY SIMILARITIES, THE ISSUES THEY FACE ACCORDING TO THE CONTINENTS THEY LIVE ON CAN VARY CONSIDERABLY DUE TO A WIDE RANGE OF FACTORS SUCH AS THEIR CULTURE, HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS THAT MAKE THEM DIFFERENT!
2/THE EARTH SUSTAINS US. WE ARE CONNECTED TO THE EARTH, AND THE EARTH IS A LINK AMONG EACH OF US.
2/WE CANNOT SIMPLY DEFINE THAT ALL HUMANS FROM DIFFERENT CONTINENTS ARE IDENTICAL, AND THEREFORE, THE EARTH CAN BE CONSIDERED AS A LINK AMONG EVERY HUMAN BEING. HOWEVER, WE MUST RECOGNIZE AND CELEBRATE THE DIVERSITY OF HUMAN EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES ACROSS THE WORLD THAT MAKE HUMANS DETERMINE THE BOND THEY HAVE WITH PRIDE TO THEIR TERRITORIES.
3/THE EARTH, FOUR AND A HALF BILLION YEARS OLD, IS THE CRADLE OF LIFE, RENEWAL, AND METAMORPHOSIS OF THE LIVING. ITS LONG EVOLUTION, SLOW MATURATION, HAVE SHAPED THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH WE LIVE.
3/DIFFERENT CONTINENTS HAVE NOT EVOLVED AND SHAPED THEIR ENVIRONMENTS IN THE SAME WAY. HUMAN EVOLUTION HAS THUS BEEN SHAPED BY A COMPLEX INTERACTION OF GENETIC, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND CULTURAL FACTORS THAT HAVE RESULTED IN RICH DIVERSITIES OF HUMAN POPULATIONS THAT WE SEE MANIFESTING DISTINCTLY AT CONTINENTAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS IN THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY!
4/OUR HISTORY AND THE EARTH’S HISTORY ARE INTIMATELY LINKED. ITS ORIGINS ARE OUR ORIGINS. ITS HISTORY IS OUR HISTORY, AND ITS FUTURE WILL BE OUR FUTURE.
4/BIS HUMANS MUST RECOGNIZE THEIR ROLE IN THE EARTH’S FUTURE AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS. THIS WILL INVOLVE ADOPTING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES AND WORKING TO PROTECT EVERY NATURAL SYSTEM ON THE PLANET, ENABLING HUMANS TO CONTRIBUTE TO ENSURING A HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS FUTURE FOR BOTH THE EARTH AND HUMANITY.
5/THE FACE OF THE EARTH, ITS FORM, IS THE ENVIRONMENT OF HUMANKIND. THIS ENVIRONMENT DIFFERS FROM THAT OF TOMORROW. HUMANS ARE MOMENTS OF THE EARTH, NOT ITS FINAL DESTINATION; THEY ARE TRANSIENT.
5/IT IS UP TO HUMANKIND TO STRIVE TO LIVE IN HARMONY WITH THE PLANET AND ITS NATURAL SYSTEMS. THEY MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS BY WORKING TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. THEY ARE TASKED WITH CONTRIBUTING TO AND ENSURING THAT THE EARTH REMAINS A FAVORABLE HABITAT FOR HUMANKIND FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.
6/LIKE AN OLD TREE RETAINS THE MEMORY OF ITS GROWTH AND LIFE IN ITS TRUNK, THE EARTH PRESERVES THE MEMORY OF THE PAST… A MEMORY INSCRIBED IN ITS DEPTHS AND ON ITS SURFACE, IN ROCKS, FOSSILS, AND LANDSCAPES, A MEMORY THAT CAN BE READ AND INTERPRETED.
6/BIS HUMANITY LEAVES BEHIND A COMPLEX AND MULTIFACETED MEMORY INSCRIBED ON THE EARTH. ITS IMPACT ON THE PLANET WILL BE STUDIED BY FUTURE GENERATIONS, WHO WILL LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR HISTORY AND OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NATURAL WORLD, JUST AS THE MEMORY OF THE EARTH IS INSCRIBED IN ITS DEPTHS AND ON ITS SURFACE, IN ROCKS, FOSSILS, AND LANDSCAPES, A MEMORY THAT CAN BE READ AND INTERPRETED.
7/TODAY, HUMANS KNOW HOW TO PROTECT THEIR MEMORY: THEIR CULTURAL HERITAGE. BARELY BEGINNING TO PROTECT THE IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT, OUR NATURAL HERITAGE.
7/IN THE 21ST CENTURY, THERE IS A GROWING AWARENESS OF THE NEED TO PROTECT CULTURAL HERITAGE, MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND TO NOW RECOGNIZE THE NEED TO ACT TO REDUCE OUR IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND PROTECT THE PLANET FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS. WHILE PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE IN THESE TWO AREAS, THERE IS STILL MUCH TO BE DONE, WITH INDIVIDUALS, COMMUNITIES, AND GOVERNMENTS CONTINUING TO WORK TO PROTECT BOTH OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE AND THE NATURAL WORLD.
8/THE EARTH’S PAST IS NO LESS IMPORTANT THAN THE PAST OF HUMANKIND. IT IS TIME FOR HUMANS TO LEARN TO PROTECT AND, THROUGH PROTECTION, LEARN ABOUT THE EARTH’S PAST, THIS MEMORY BEFORE HUMAN MEMORY, WHICH IS A NEW HERITAGE: GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE.
8/HUMANKIND MUST UNDERSTAND THE GEOLOGICAL PAST OF THE EARTH AND ITS PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE IN ORDER TO GAIN A DEEPER APPRECIATION FOR THE NATURAL WORLD AND ITS ROLE IN PROTECTION. THIS CAN AND MUST MOTIVATE HUMANS TO ADDRESS ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES AND WORK FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR HUMANITY AND THE PLANET.
9/GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE IS THE COMMON GOOD OF HUMANKIND AND THE EARTH. EACH HUMAN, EACH GOVERNMENT, IS ONLY A TRUSTEE OF THIS HERITAGE. EACH MUST UNDERSTAND THAT THE SLIGHTEST DEGRADATION IS MUTILATION, DESTRUCTION, IRREVERSIBLE LOSS. ANY DEVELOPMENT EFFORT MUST CONSIDER THE VALUE AND UNIQUENESS OF THIS HERITAGE.
9/THE PRESERVATION OF GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE REQUIRES THE COOPERATION AND COMMITMENT OF ALL MEMBERS OF SOCIETY. BY BRINGING TOGETHER ALL STAKEHOLDERS OF SUSTAINABLE TERRITORIES, WE CAN CONTRIBUTE TO ENSURING THAT FUTURE GENERATIONS CAN BENEFIT FROM AND LEARN FROM THE RICH GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF OUR PLANET.
10/PARTICIPANTS OF THE 1ST INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE PROTECTION OF GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE, COMPRISING OVER A HUNDRED EXPERTS FROM THIRTY DIFFERENT NATIONS, URGENTLY REQUEST ALL NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITIES TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT AND PROTECT GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE THROUGH ALL LEGAL, FINANCIAL, AND ORGANIZATIONAL MEASURES.
10/GOVERNMENTS, INSTITUTIONS, LOCAL AUTHORITIES, AND CIVIL SOCIETY MUST EMBRACE THEIR IMPORTANT ROLE IN PRESERVING THE VERNACULAR CULTURAL AND GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE OF SUSTAINABLE TERRITORIES WHILE ACCEPTING THAT THIS CANNOT BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT GIVING PRIMARY CONSIDERATION TO THE INCLUSION AND INTEGRATION OF POPULATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS, YOUTH, AND WOMEN WHO ANIMATE THEM, WHO ARE OFTEN MORE ATTACHED TO BEING THAN HAVING. ALLOWING THESE ELEMENTS TO BE INTEGRATED AND INCLUSIVE WILL:

PROMOTE PLANETARY SUSTAINABILITY ENCOMPASSING ITS THREE PILLARS OF EMPLOYMENT, SOCIOECONOMIC ECONOMIES, AND SUSTAINABLE TERRITORIAL GROWTH,
CONTRIBUTE TO THE PRESERVATION OF COMMON GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE.

DIGNÉ DECLARATION – June 13, 1991, Digné, France.
MARRAKECH DECLARATION – August 8, 2023
OBSERVATIONS OF August 8, 2023

FORMULATED BY THE

SUSTAINABLE TERRITORY OF GEOPARK JBEL BANI TATA (TSGJB)

Managed by

the Moroccan Association for the Development of Geopark Jbel Bani (AMDGJB)
Est. 1954-36 – April 10, 2015

Established by

The Sustainable Territory Of Jbel Bani Tata Geopark (STJB)

Managed by

The Moroccan Association for the Development of Jbel Bani Geopark (MADJB)

Reg: 1954-36 – April 10, 2015 –

on the occasion of

the 10th UNESCO International Conference in Marrakech September 2023

Proposal for the

« CHARTER OF SUSTAINABLE TERRITORIES OF GEOPARKS »

September 2023 – Marrakech

Patrick SIMON *1 – Abdelmajid OUCHIKH *2 – Fatiha AIT YAKOUB*

Patrick SIMON: President of AMDGJB – Abdelmajid OUCHIKH Deputy Secretary General – Fatiha AIT YAKKOUB Coordinator of AMDGJB

• Considering that the objectives of UNESCO Global Geoparks are to explore, develop, and celebrate the connections between geological heritage and all other aspects of natural, cultural, material, and immaterial heritage of regions,
• Considering that « Sustainable Territories of Geoparks » represent a reliable, inclusive, integrated, and sustainable solution for development, job creation, driven by vernacular desires for inclusive, integrated, and shared geo-agro-eco-societal tourism economies,

« As a Sustainable Territory, we are committed to making every effort to confirm our Geo-Agro-Eco-Touristic will to promote Sustainable Territories in order to promote the development of attractions, attractiveness, and images of territories, which can both enhance the interests of governments and their populations, considering material and immaterial cultural heritages intimately linked with the scientific and geological particularities of their Sustainable Territories through the connections they establish with Earth sciences, humanities, and especially to define better understandings in the defense of their environments, cultures, landscapes, and geomorphosites, as fundamental elements for ensuring the well-being of populations, » and primarily by:

• Respecting international agreements that countries must commit to (UNCED 92), UNESCO conventions, the 17 SDGs, and particularly in these disrupted times for environmental defense, biodiversity, the global code of ethics, that of the World Tourism Organization as well as the principles of the International Cultural Tourism Charter, and other commitments,
• Valuing intangible heritage as an essential element of cultural diversity and sustainable development, as it encompasses living expressions and traditions that are passed down from generation to generation and testify to the identity and creativity of communities,
• Promoting sharing between regional and local decision-makers with the participation of holders and practitioners of intangible heritage in enhancing their territory through all appropriate measures for economic, touristic, and distinctive cultural enhancement of material and immaterial cultural heritages that cannot exist without graduated and controlled valorizations,
• Marketing these tools through promotion to particularly respectful and environmentally conscious investors, and seeking tourists and travelers who offer the best cost-to-benefit ratios and are eager to engage in sustainable exchanges!
• Seeking to diversify investment offers integrated into these territories and geo-agro-eco-touristic developments, shaping adapted vernacular architectural tools that allow investors, populations, and cooperative and associative environments to fully integrate into these forms of inclusive and integrated developments!
• Defining investment offers for territories and geo-agro-eco-touristic developments perfectly suited to market demands,
• Making integrated, sustainable, and inclusive actions so that associative and cooperative environments, as well as local populations, participate to the fullest in these structuring national and regional exchanges, fully meeting the action plans for geo-agro-eco-societal developments, in perfect synergy with regional decision-makers, in the definitions of encounters and experiences seen nowhere else,
• Supporting the creation of coherent, integrated, and sustainable networks of architectural and accommodation solutions tailored to the practices of local SMEs with targeted and shared action plans to support this process through developmental imagery and support towards the creation of approved and labeled vernacular sites,
• Valuing, as much as possible, agreeing on an aesthetic and architectural and cultural achievements that are perfectly integrated and sustainable, aligning with the environments and respecting the vernacular visions of local populations, striving to find a form of inter-regional and national development balance!
• Advising and sharing with governments, institutions, and local authorities the development plans and actions that favor a shared, balanced, and sustainable societal economy!
• Secondarily promoting the integration of projects that allow shareable attractions and animations by populations and civil societies, from a sustainable development perspective. Recognizing the importance of promoting projects that enhance the attractiveness and animation of territories. These projects should be designed in consultation with populations and civil societies, to create spaces for sharing and conviviality based on shared principles:
• Sustainable Development: by integrating attractive and animated projects for territories!
• Consultation: by involving populations and civil societies in project design,
• Sharing and Conviviality: by creating spaces for meetings and exchanges!
• Implementing signage and communication forms using ICT to share, from the inception of the « Sustainable Territory » concept, territorial information developed by local populations and civil society through « Voice Over » processes on screens at Tourist Information Points (T.I.P.), Eco-Museums, Astronomy Centers, using adapted MOOCs and E-Learning,
• Providing training for selected « In Situ » human resources as « Scientific Mediators » and « Cultural and Tourist Mediators » both upstream and downstream, capable of supervising these developmental phases,
• Preserving and conserving water and energy resources by advocating energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies, including for local populations, with sustainable commitments to ensure appropriate forms of development, rejecting the use of environmentally harmful products. The « Sustainable Territory » promotes environmental defense, paying particular attention to waste treatment, respecting geo-sites, geomorphosites, geological sites, archaeological sites, landscape developments, and valorizing the restructuring and rehabilitation of built, historical, and religious heritage,
• Communicating through all means developed the intention to create attraction and attractiveness as images for these « Sustainable Territories, » attracting investors suited to the current situation, a receptive population, and primarily environmentally conscious markets,
• Planning action plans adapted to regional characteristics, allowing geo-eco-societal impacts as quickly as possible, while taking care not to damage the image, sustainability characteristics, and potentials of sustainable territorial destinations,
• Developing a strategy for development between governments, institutions, local authorities, populations, civil societies, youth, and women, to ensure mitigation of development practices that could harm climate change and the environment,
• Ensuring the establishment of shared regional pride by local, provincial, and regional actors, and the population, to promote their natural, artisanal, folkloric, cultural heritages themselves, thus finding genuine sharing experiences with tourists and visitors within the framework of unforgettable tourism experiences,
• Establishing reliable and measurable evaluation processes that ensure genuine development in line with the definitions of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in alignment with inclusive and sustainable geo-agro-eco development, using procedures that allow for the duplication of these « Sustainable Territories » projects at regional, national, and international levels.

The undersigned parties, recognizing the veracity of these objectives for « Sustainable Territories » as sustainable vernacular action plans! Have affixed their signatures hereto defined as the « MARRAKECH DECLARATION OF UNESCO SUSTAINABLE TERRITORIES »

Done at Marrakech – September 2023:

The present proposed Marrakech Charter defines that for the Sustainable Territory:

Material and immaterial heritage constitute an essential element of vernacular cultural diversity and sustainable development, encompassing living expressions and traditions that are passed down from generation to generation, bearing witness to the identity and creativity of communities.

Oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, and festive events, as well as knowledge and practices related to nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills required for traditional craftsmanship, characterize the Territory.

Sustainability is based on the three pillars of employment, societal economy, and territorial growth, and requires adapted measures between regional and local authorities in the execution of their sovereign duties, alongside populations, civil society, and youth, to ensure that it is built, shared, and implemented as a fundamental element of vernacular recognition of territories that link humanity, earth sciences, humanities, institutions, and administrations!

Done in Marrakech – September 2023:

Signature pages