RESILIENT CULTURAL HERITAGE FOR A FUTURE OF CLIMATE CHANGE PDF

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RESILIENT CULTURAL HERITAGE FOR A FUTURE OF CLIMATE CHANGE Bárbara Mínguez García Abstract: Cultural heritage is about people. About the ones who built monuments and created art hundreds of years ago, and about the ones who identified with them today. It is identity for the locals and discovery for ...

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RESILIENT CULTURAL HERITAGE FOR A FUTURE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Bárbara Mínguez García

Abstract: Cultural heritage is about people. About the ones who built monuments and created art hundreds of years ago, and about the ones who identified with them today. It is identity for the locals and discovery for the foreigners. Cultural heritage moves tourism, local and national economies, and knowledge sharing. It helps to strengthen social inclusion, and resilient recovery after a crisis. However, it is facing a future of increasing risk. The impact of climate change on cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, is a reality happening in many countries all around the world. From the effects of rising sea levels, to increasing storms and drought, a series of cultural heritage assets are under imminent threat. This paper will review the current situation of this matter, including examples of cultural heritage threatened by climate change worldwide, and will analyze potential solutions such as the integration of heritage into the disaster risk management discipline, as well as the role of culture and traditions in understanding and communicating disaster risk and climate change action, to strengthening resilience in local communities.

IntroductIon The negative impact of climate change on cultural heritage attracts significant attention today at the international level. Cultural heritage is a complex topic since it includes many different aspects, such as tangible—movable and immovable—and intangible manifestations; associated values such as historic, architectonic, aesthetic or religious; and diverse meanings for different groups of people, from the local community level, to the national and also the international level—with the creation of the World Heritage (WH) concept. The effects of climate change are impacting cultural assets and sites in different ways and countries, but the expected result is the same: loss of irreplaceable legacies from the past. The international community has been raising awareness on the need for addressing

Journal of International Affairs, 73, no. 1. © The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York

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Bárbara Mínguez García the threat of climate change to cultural heritage by establishing institutional and legal frameworks. From the culture side, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted in November 1972 the “Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage,” which recognizes the way in which people interact with nature, and the fundamental need to preserve the balance between the two.1 The Convention establishes the criteria to inscribe sites in the WH List and commits state parties to protect and preserve their national heritage. A 2005 report, “Predicting and Managing the Effects of climate change on WH,” followed by a 2006 WH Committee report, “The Strategy to Assist States Parties to the Convention to Implement Appropriate Management Responses,” first highlighted the impact of climate change on a world stage.2 One year later, the General Assembly adopted the “Policy Document on the Impacts of Climate Change on World Heritage Properties.” In 2015 the WH Committee, emphasizing the increase of climate change impacts on heritage, supported the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).3 These initiatives included the UNESCO’s advisory bodies: International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM),4 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),5 and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).6 In 2017, ICOMOS established a Working Group on Climate Change and Heritage, and launched a resolution to mobilize the cultural heritage community to help meet the challenge of climate change.7,8 The resolution stated three key important messages:

1) 2)

3)

Cultural heritage is both impacted by climate change and a source of resilience for communities; Heritage sites and local communities’ intangible heritage, knowledge and practices constitute an invaluable repository of information and strategies to address climate change; Cultural heritage-based solutions to climate change mitigation/adaptation need to be emphasized.

From the climate change side, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—established in 1987 to document and evaluate scientific information on climate change, its potential impacts, and adaptation and mitigation options— recognized in its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) that climate change will affect culturally valued buildings through extreme events and chronic damage to materials.9,10 A special report on Climate Change and Cities is planned for the AR7, and further collaboration with ICOMOS is being explored to include a potential Special Report on Climate Change & Cultural Heritage in a future IPCC cycle.11

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Resilient Cultural Heritage For A Future Of Climate Change The Paris Agreement together with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 brought a new opportunity to strengthen cultural heritage resilience. The Paris Agreement—which recognizes adaptation as global challenge and goal—aims to reduce vulnerability to climate change across sectors by supporting national efforts and international cooperation. The Agreement recognizes the importance of understanding risk and the role of sustainable development in reducing it and addressing the potential damage and loss associated with adverse impacts of climate change.12 The SDG’s target 11.4 calls for strengthening efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage directly reflecting the WH Convention,i and Goal 13 aims to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.13 From the disaster reduction side—and following its predecessor the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015—the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) aims to achieve a substantial reduction of disaster risk including cultural assets. Under Priority 1, it proposes systematic evaluation and recording for disaster losses and impacts, including cultural heritage. Likewise, under Priority 3, aims to enhance the protection of cultural and collecting institutions and other sites of historical, cultural heritage and religious interest, and therefore, enhance cultural resilience of persons and communities.14 Ian Kelman analyzes how the SFDRR mentions climate change, as well as potential implications for dealing with it within the context of disaster risk reduction.15 Relevant actors working on climate change adaptation and risk reduction for cultural heritage include the World Bank, particularly through the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).16,17 The World Bank is very active in addressing climate change, recognizing it as imminent threat to development and ending poverty and increasing resilience to climate change is one of GFDRR’s core operating principles.18 Since 2017, with initial support from Japan, resilient cultural heritage is being progressively included into programs and activities.19 Also, the World Monuments Fund (WMF), a private nonprofit organization that protects heritage worldwide, founded in 1995 the global program World Monuments Watch to identify cultural heritage sites in danger,20 progressively reflecting the increase of threats connected to climate change. And the voluntary initiative Climate Heritage Network launched in October 2019, aims to promote support and cooperation between different level of governments, institutions and organizations committed to achieve the Paris Agreement.21 There is a long list of actors at different levels, working to connect disciplines, develop studies and research, establish frameworks for action, test new initiatives and projects, and foster international cooperation. The end goal of these actions is i To review the Sustainable Development Goals, see https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

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Bárbara Mínguez García to improve the resilience of world cultural heritage to the impacts of global warming and climate change. This paper does not intend to be exhaustive but seeks to provide a general vision of the current international scene by analyzing some relevant and recent publications, academic papers and initiatives. It is articulated around three interconnected concepts: 1) Cultural heritage: in the face of increasing climate change threats; 2) Disaster risk management: developed for the specific characteristic of cultural heritage; 3) Climate change: from the perspective of understanding risk to cultural heritage.

clImate change and cultural herItage Building on UNESCO definition, cultural heritage relates to both tangible and intangible legacies, including artifacts, monuments, group of buildings and sites— archaeological and underwater—that have a diversity of values including symbolic, historic, artistic, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological, scientific and social significance, as well as practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills and instruments, and cultural spaces associated therewith that communities recognize as part of their identity.22,23 Cultural heritage is also understood as a non-renewable resource of knowledge, identity, and history, connected to economic value, livelihood and sustainable development though tourism and cultural industries.24,25,26 Countries usually establish their own and different categories of cultural heritage to provide protection and prioritize actions.ii,27 Additionally, UNESCO considers some cultural and natural heritage to have an outstanding universal value (OUV) to humanity: the World Heritage (WH) sites respect national sovereignty and legislation, but belong to all the peoples and are protected under the 1972 Convention.28 The cultural heritage international community acknowledges that climate change is currently one of the most significant and fastest growing threats to people and their heritage worldwide.29 It is also considered a threat multiplier that increases vulnerability and exacerbates other stresses such as pollution, conflict over resources, habitat fragmentation, and loss of intangible cultural heritage.30 Direct and indirect impacts of climate change on heritage sites may cause loss of integrity, authenticity, and in case of WH sites, OUV. However, climate change impact assessment is more complex when related to cultural heritage and its different forms of expression. Historic environments suffer more from climate instability. For example, changes in rainfall patterns and temperatures that do not affect modern structures may cause serious damage to buried or exposed archaeological sites, and historic buildings and museum ii For instance, Japan, through its Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, established six categories of cultural properties: tangible, intangible, folk, monuments, cultural landscapes and preservation districts for groups of traditional buildings.

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Resilient Cultural Heritage For A Future Of Climate Change collections are usually more affected by relative humidity, as old drainage systems are by increasing rainfall.31 At the same time, modern modifications may impact heritage (e.g., installation of air-conditioning and cooling systems) and require further research on the environmental behavior of traditional constructions.33 Heritage also suffers from indirect climate change-related impacts, since they might allow conditions for illicit excavations, trafficking of cultural objects or jeopardize preservation of movable art.34 The WH network has proved useful in documenting climate change impacts, sharing lessons learnt, and raising awareness using their iconic value. There are several case studies of impacts in heritage, such as the Peruvian archaeological sites of Chan Chan and Chavín, where their earthen-architecture structures have suffered several damages due to El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon.35,36,37,38 Climate change may also impact cultural heritage yet to be discovered. Archaeological evidences preserved underground—thanks to the hydrological, chemical and biological balance—may be damaged due to changes in the soil water level. For instance, the Golden Mountains of Altai in southern Siberia enclose the remains of the Scythian culture, a nomadic civilization from the first millennium BC, in a permafrost zone. Their burial mounds or kurgans contain from metal objects to mummified human bodies, currently threaten by the increase of temperature and reduction of the permafrost.39 In other contexts such as urban communities, cultural heritage has an additional dimension. Particularly in large areas of traditional patterns and history of disasters, as examples from Turkey, many vulnerable heritage buildings are inhabited, strengthening the connection between protection of human life, cultural heritage and their traditions.40 Loss of cultural heritage is not only physical, but also loss of human memory.41 Intangible Heritage Intangible culture and traditional knowledge are also a source of climate resilience, even while they are at risk from climate impacts.42 The heritage transmitted from generations reflects the interaction between communities and their environment through their own history, providing a sense of identity and continuity and promoting respect for cultural diversity and creativity.43 The case of Timbuktu is a good example of the use of traditional practices and materials, and the involvement of local craftsmen in the restoration and conservation process of cultural heritage in the face of climate change.44 Community engagement is fundamental to identify communities’ values and significance of their heritage to therefore strengthen the commitment to protect it. 45 In this regard, migrations due to climate change might lead to community fragmentation and eventual loss of rituals, traditions, cultural

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Bárbara Mínguez García memory and identity. 46 Several indigenous communities have developed knowledge based on the sustainable management of their environment and are capable of observing and interpreting climate phenomena at a scientific level. Despite such traditional knowledge being excluded from planning and administrative decisions, an increasing number of WH sites are providing new models of resilience and adaptation through local knowledge and community-based decision making. 47 For example, in Vanuatu, the cyclone preparedness and response strategy is based on traditional subsistence and construction practices, along with support networks based on kinship and exchange. The Pacific region brings solid experience in documenting traditional knowledge on weather and climate. Malsale et al. highlight the urgency to preserve this mostly oral knowledge before is lost, fundamental for forecasting, communicating, and responding to natural hazards. The authors emphasize the importance of engaging the different communities across the region, collecting, storing and sharing the traditional knowledge, while respecting legal frameworks such as the ones to protect cultural and intellectual property. 48 Adaptation Vs Mitigation It may be useful to clarify that adaptation refers to the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities, while mitigation corresponds to any human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases.49 Therefore, for the cultural heritage/risk reduction context most of the references are related to adaptation, while only a few connect with mitigation measures developed in cultural heritage sites. 50 Climate change adaptation is a relatively new challenge, particularly for cultural heritage. A very limited number of research studies have examined the barriers to adapt heritage sites to climate change.51 Fatorić and Seekamp defined the barriers as obstacles or constraints that impede climate adaptation, and divided them into institutional (e.g., limited legislative instruments or absence of policies and guidelines), technical (e.g., lack of skills to gather data or monitor cultural heritage conditions), financial (e.g., lack of funding or tax incentives for sustainable maintenance) and social barriers (e.g., limited motivation or willingness to act).52 Lack of capacity to understand climate change data, together with the lack of technical skills to develop and implement climate adaptation plans, and the concern of potential loss of integrity due to adaptation measures, are other constrains that may impede informed decision-making for heritage conservation.53 Bigio et al. analyzed the impacts of climate change in 237 WH Cities, including some of their characteristics in terms of carbon emissions and potential for climate

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Resilient Cultural Heritage For A Future Of Climate Change change mitigation, as well as sources of financing to address climate change mitigation and adaptation.54 This research includes six examples of WH cities that are investing in action plans. For example, Tunis is being affected by coastal erosion due to sea level rise. The adaptation measures include massive beach nourishment and construction of breakwaters and groins. In this sense, similar adaptation solutions may come from ancient practices, such as the earthen mounds that helped ancient Dutch settlers thrive in coastal flood zones.55 Additional case studies across continents are presented in Collete, 2007 and Markham, 2016.56,57 Extensive literature reviews on cultural heritage and climate change have been developed in recent years highlighting that the academia is increasing interest in the topic, including several research methods and diverse disciplines, although the geographic scope of research is very limited, predominantly focused on Europe, North America and Australia.58,59

cultural herItage and dIsaster rIsk management From the UNDRR definition, disaster risk management (DRM) is the application of disaster risk reduction policies and strategies to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risk, and manage residual risk, contributing to the strengthening of resilience and reduction of disaster losses. DRM actions can be distinguished between prospective, corrective, and compensatory, also called residual risk management.60,61 Other definitions refer to the phases ex-ante and ex-post to the impact of a hazardous event, including risk identification and assessment, risk reduction, emergency preparedness and response, and resilient recovery. DRM applied to cultural heritage management provides tools and methodologies to improve heritage protection and conservation through all the DRM phases. Risk identification and risk reduction are based on the calculation of risk as a function of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. In this equation, cultural heritage is the exposure and presents specific vulnerabilities due to its characteristics, and climate change would be a factor affecting the hazards. Preparedness measures such as early warning systems and evacuation routes, both for people and for heritage assets, precedes the phase of imminent action after a hazardous event happens, which includes the immediate emergency response. In the first moment the priority is always saving lives, and then as soon as possible to proceed to rescue cultural heritage that otherwise might be lost forever. The post-disaster phase includes damage assessment and implementation of risk reduction measures during the recovery process, following the principles of building back better, to ensure resilience improvement. This is particularly challenging in the case of cultural heritage, since there are other factors to be considered such as integrity and authenticity. Some initiatives applying DRM to heritage within the climate change context are described below.

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Bárbara Mínguez García The case of Bhutan is a good example of the integration of DRM and cultural heritage. The...