# 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.

## Key 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.