SIEM REAP, Cambodia: As the world grapples with the impacts of climate change, there is growing concern about the threat it poses to some of the world's most precious cultural and natural heritage sites.
These sites, designated by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as World Heritage sites, are considered to have exceptional cultural and natural value to humanity.
However, rising global temperatures and extreme weather events are making many of these sites increasingly vulnerable to damage and destruction.
From melting glaciers at Peru's Machu Picchu to rising sea levels threatening Venice, Italy, the effects of climate change are already being felt at many of these locations.
The severity of the damage is even more pronounced in other areas, such as in Pakistan, where severe flooding last year nearly swept away the ruins of Mohenjo Daro, a famous 4,500-year-old archaeological site.
Even Edinburgh, the Scottish capital and a World Heritage site, is facing increasing rainfall that puts its heritage sites at risk of flooding and slope instability.
Heritage professionals worldwide are working hard to adapt to the impacts and changes caused by climate change through a systemic and global approach.
Unesco is already engaged in efforts to assist countries in evaluating and mitigating the susceptibility of World Heritage sites to climate change. Nevertheless, it emphasised that ensuring the sustainability of these sites will require a collective effort from governments, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector.
According to Unesco, as of January 2023, there are a total of 1,157 World Heritage sites located across 167 countries, of which 900 are cultural, 218 are natural and 39 are mixed properties.
PRESERVING LEGACIES
International financial services provider Manulife has taken a significant step forward by announcing a new partnership with the National Geographic Society to safeguard ten historical and culturally significant World Heritage sites from the impacts of climate change.
The project, titled 'Preserving Legacies: A Future for Our Past', also aims to protect the physical, cultural, and financial well-being of the communities that depend on those sites for their livelihood and connection to their past.
National Geographic Explorer Victoria Herrmann who heads the initiative said climate change impacts, such as flooding, heatwaves, and sea level rise, can have detrimental effects on ecosystems and infrastructure, however, these impacts differ between locations and communities.
This new project, she said is a collaborative effort between local communities, site management teams, and the International Council on Monuments and Sites, which draws upon scientific and local knowledge to find sustainable and culturally appropriate solutions to the long-term preservation of iconic cultural heritage sites.
"Preserving Legacies seeks to help communities share knowledge and create plans to safeguard their heritage sites and the values that these sites hold.
"With this new partnership between Manulife and the National Geographic Society, we will work together to increase access to climate adaptation for cultural heritage sites and transform conservation as a field to meet the challenges of a climate-changed world.
"Our ambitious approach to addressing the critical issues around climate change will lead to tangible protection of cultural heritage sites and meaningful community impact," Herrmann told the New Straits Times in an interview at the Angkor Archaeological Park here where the project was officially launched.
The project's initial scope includes ten heritage sites around the world, many of which are significant sources of economic and cultural resilience for their communities.
These ten heritage sites are: Petra, Jordan; Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, Philippines; Angkor Archaeological Park, Cambodia; Border Fields, United States and Mexico; Historic Mosque City of Bagerhat, Bangladesh; Nan Madol, Micronesia; Levuka, Fiji; Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba, Togo and Benin; Sceilg Mhichíl, Ireland; and Port, Fortress, and Group of Monuments at Cartagena, Columbia.
Herrmann, who is also a geographer and climate change communicator, said that as part of the project's downscaling and mapping effort, the team has selected these ten sites to work with for now, with plans to expand to more communities and sites in the future.
She explained that the selection was based on the existing capacity of the communities for conservation, as well as the need for greater climate literacy.
"The team prioritised building trust with their site partners, many of whom they had worked with before on previous projects.
"The selected sites face a variety of climate threats, including sea level rise, changing seasonality in rice terraces in the Philippines, and extreme heat and flash flooding in Petra.
"The team hopes to use the lessons learned from working with these communities to connect sites facing similar climate threats and grow a global community."
She said while the current project will not include any sites in Malaysia, the plan is to expand with a vision of including sites like Georgetown in Penang which is part of the Climate Heritage Network.
"There are already several Malaysian partners in the network. The goal is to ensure that the project can grow beyond the initial 10 sites and provide each community with the necessary tools to protect their sites, including those in Malaysia."
LESSONS FROM THE PAST
In light of the unprecedented climate change we're experiencing, Herrmann stressed that conserving and preserving World Heritage sites has become more crucial than ever.
These sites, she said not only represent the past but also serve as a shared inheritance for the generations to come.
Moreover, they offer valuable insights into how communities and societies can remain resilient in the face of extreme events and shocks, she said.
She noted that each of these sites has a unique and awe-inspiring history that reveals how communities, societies, and civilisations demonstrated resilience during volcanic eruptions, extreme drought, and radical temperature changes.
"How did societies change? How did they live? How did they adapt? We can learn so much from the past by learning our history and how people adapt to it through those extreme changes.
"We are often see these sites as kind of 'once removed' from who we are, that 'I can't possibly have the same experience as someone who was alive a thousand years ago.' But that's not really true.
"We are all connected because we all call planet Earth our home, and having that shared home means that we have had shared environments and shared environmental changes.
"As we confront unprecedented climate change, we can look to the past and learn from the resilience measures of other communities who have adapted to changes in water levels, temperature, and other environmental factors. By studying our history, we can gain insight into how we can better prepare and adapt to our future.
"We need to adapt. It is no longer an option," she added.
Herrmann said the goal of the project is for every community to feel empowered to make a difference in their hometown for their cultural sites.
To achieve this, she said community champions and site custodians must work together with experts on the ground who possess scientific knowledge of climate.
"This world is worth saving but so are the things that make us who we are. Our identity is our cultural sites.
"The project brings together both local and global expertise to envision what places like Angkor might look like in 2072, 50 years from now or in 2100. By doing so, the team can make better choices today to adapt to future climate impacts."
THE ROADMAP
Herrmann said the project will be guided by four core pillars, namely science, training, planning, and storytelling.
On the science pillar, she said existing global climate models can help predict what the world might look like with 1.5 or 2 degrees of warming, but these data are "too big" to translate into local action.
Using local weather data, she said downscaled climate models provide the expert teams with a way to visualise the potential impact of flooding, heatwaves, sea level rise, and changing seasonality under different warming scenarios, thus helping them assess the risks to their sites, values, and livelihoods.
"These (global) data are too broad to provide specific local insights. Global models offer a big-picture perspective but lack the granularity needed for local decision-making.
"To address this issue, we downscale the global climate models to specific sites and combine them with local data.
"This approach allows us to create a more accurate picture of the climate threats facing a particular site or area, such as an archaeological park. By focusing on square kilometres rather than the entire globe, we can provide more targeted and actionable information."
The second aspect of the project, Herrmann said, is to train site custodians and local leaders in climate literacy and how to work with downscaled climate models.
This training will enable them to understand the downscaled models and communicate with stakeholders about the potential impacts of climate change on their cultural sites, she said.
"For example, they will be able to visualise what their sites might look like in the year 2100.
"The training will also cover climate vulnerability assessments, which will bring together community stakeholders to identify what is important about the site and what is worth saving."
Finally, she said the project's partners will focus on planning and storytelling to inspire people to care about the sites and the planet.
"The site custodians will create climate adaptation plans that are community-led and community-owned, ensuring that these sites and the values they embody can survive for future generations.
"We act as facilitators, enabling communities to use their own expertise and experience to create their own plans."
Herrmann explained that the primary objective of the project is to identify the specific types of threats that are affecting these sites.
"(For example), local site custodians have observed changes such as increased flooding in certain regions of Cambodia and alterations in groundwater and drought patterns.
"However, the goal is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the threats facing these communities based on their lived experiences, rather than relying solely on scientific models that do not yet exist in a localised context.
"This information is crucial for site custodians to make informed decisions about how to manage these sites in the face of climate change," she added.
TIMEFRAME
Herrmann said the timeline for the project will be determined by the findings of each site custodian after they complete the training.
She said the speed of resource mobilisation varies among communities, and some have a different perspective on time, leading to different timelines for different sites.
"For instance, some communities may choose to have a 100-year plan with immediate action in five years because their view of the heritage site extends far beyond what a strategic plan might encompass and extends beyond a single generation."
Herrmann added that the National Geographic Society and Manulife are offering resources, such as connections, funding, and scientific tools, to support the project.
This new global effort supports Manulife's Impact Agenda, which aims to build a better business to better the world by making decisions about the future of the firm's business rooted in the belief that our collective actions drive change.
"As a health and wealth company with a 130-year history serving customers, colleagues, and communities across the globe, it's important that we work to protect our environment and drive inclusive economic opportunities to create a more even playing field for all," said Sarah Chapman, Global Chief Sustainability Officer, Manulife.
"Through our partnership with National Geographic, we have an opportunity to equip communities throughout the world with the tools to better anticipate worsening climate impacts and safeguard the sites for the future," Chapman added.