Mobilising cultural heritage for locally owned adaptation

TL;DR

The paper suggests using cultural heritage to create more sustainable and locally suitable climate change adaptations.

Contribution

The novelty lies in integrating cultural heritage into climate adaptation strategies to enhance local relevance and sustainability.

Findings

Engaging with cultural heritage helps create adaptive strategies that reflect local knowledge and values.

Using cultural heritage can lead to more scalable and sustainable climate adaptation solutions.

Risk narratives informed by heritage provide a multi-generational perspective on adaptation.

Abstract

Climate change adaptation planning and implementation has been criticised for following linear steps that can limit local suitability, scalability and sustainability. We argue that meaningful climate change adaptations incorporate a diversity of voices using cultural heritage for situated and multi-generational interventions. Here, we present examples of risk narratives and adaptive strategies developed through engagement with cultural heritage, balancing knowledge of environment with local livelihoods, histories, values and meaning.

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