Speaker
Description
Climate disruption is already affecting cultural heritage sites and anticipated climate change stressors will increasingly intensify the vulnerability of cultural landscapes (Sesana et al., 2021). This includes the impact of extreme weather events, including flooding, landslides, wildfire risks and drought, alongside longer term impacts relating to loss of landscape character due to shifting climatic conditions (e.g. loss of indigenous vegetation, new invasive species).
The relationship between climate change and heritage conservation is often discussed in terms of its physical impacts. However, the vulnerability and adaptation of intangible heritage, such as cultural practices, traditions, place attachment and community knowledge, remain largely overlooked, creating a significant research gap. In this paper, we explore the heritage-climate change nexus in relation to social values and cultural practices in the context of heritage-rich landscapes. Drawing on Harvey and Perry (2015), we contend that while heritage management is present-centred, it also involves a future-orientated processing of tangible and intangible sense of the past i.e. judgments concerning what is to be protected for future generations. This approach rejects the traditional view that heritage conservation carries a treasured past into a well-understood future. Instead, due to the climate emergency, heritage management should embrace loss, alternative forms of knowledge and uncertain futures.
Drawing on preliminary fieldwork in the Wicklow Mountains National Park (Ireland), we explore this relationship between tangible and intangible heritage within the context of climate change, arguing for a shift towards adaptive conservation and responsible heritage loss management through a values-based framework, which in turn requires alternative planning approaches to cultural heritage management. This includes greater use of participatory planning and stakeholder engagement as a means of understanding multiple socio-cultural values relating to heritage landscapes, capturing the interconnection between cultural practices and landscape management, and exploring heritage value through people’s experiences and not simply professional (and technical) measurement. Moreover, a heritage lens provides a critical framing device to shift landscape management from a ‘preserve and protect’ approach towards a more dynamic exploration of loss and change, fostering adaptive conservation within a climate emergency.
References
Harvey, D. C., & Perry, J. (2015). Heritage and climate change: The future is not the past. In D. Harvey & J. Perry (eds) The Future of Heritage as Climates Change (pp. 23-42). Routledge.
Sesana, E., Gagnon, A. S., Ciantelli, C., Cassar, J., & Hughes, J. J. (2021). Climate change impacts on cultural heritage: A literature review. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 12(4), e710.
| Keywords | Climate change; Cultural heritage; Vulnerability; Adaptive conservation; Values-based framework |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
