Climate Heritage Network CHN) reports on an initiative that helps people become key players in the global movement to protect local heritage place from climate change, open to 3 January 2025.
Climate Heritage Network writes:
We’re thrilled to announce the 2025 application period for the Preserving Legacies Leadership Cohort Program! From November 1, 2024, to January 3, 2025, you can nominate custodian individuals or organizations for a place of cultural significance to join a passionate cohort of individuals determined to protect cultural heritage against climate change.
In partnership with the Climate Heritage Network, the International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and the National Geographic Society, Preserving Legacies is a global initiative that equips heritage custodians with climate heritage training, professional connections, and resources to implement climate adaptation actions that protect heritage places. In 2024, Preserving Legacies partnered with 20 remarkable heritage places worldwide, each a testament to resilience. With each cohort, we grow a dedicated community of practice committed to securing a sustainable future for heritage in every corner of the world.
This program spans three years, designed to create lasting impact:
- Year 1: custodians from each community, individuals that care for heritage places, complete a one-year of comprehensive climate training. Through online learning modules, discussion sessions, and in-person workshops, custodians strengthen their climate knowledge, capacity, and professional connections.
- Year 2: custodians apply that training to lead a climate risk assessment for their community. Risk assessments help communities map what they value most about their heritage, visualize the current and projected climate hazards they might face, and evaluate which of their community’s heritage values are most at risk to those climate hazards.
- Year 3: custodians use their risk assessment as a guide to design, implement, and test climate adaptation solutions that are specifically tailored to their communities and cultures. These climate solutions strengthen community resilience, break ground on adaptation efforts to protect sites, and mainstream culture and heritage into regional, national, and international climate policy.
Why Apply?
Preserving Legacies offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity for heritage custodians and local leaders to become champions of climate resilience at their sites. Here’s what you can expect from this transformative program:
- Professional Training: Receive a free-of-charge, 12-month training program specially tailored for heritage professionals led by leaders in the CHN community. Through this program, you’ll master the essentials of climate science, risk assessment, and adaptation strategies focused on safeguarding cultural heritage. Our modules are designed using a plural knowledge system, inclusive of local and Indigenous Knowledge systems, ensuring that the solutions you develop reflect the specific needs and values of your community.
- Experiential Workshop: Enjoy a paid trip to an in-person experiential learning workshop, where you’ll connect with peers, experts, and leaders in the field. This immersive experience is designed to expand your hands-on skills in climate adaptation, engage in cross-cultural knowledge exchange, and strengthen your resilience toolkit.
- Risk Assessment Resources & Support: In the second year, you’ll receive team support, financial resources, and scientific advising to lead a climate risk assessment for your heritage place. You’ll have access to data and scientific expertise that makes complex climate information accessible and actionable, enabling you to plan for the future with clarity and confidence.
- Storytelling Support: Amplify the hopeful and impactful story of your heritage place. Through storytelling guidance and support, we’ll help you elevate your site’s narrative to a global stage, inspiring others with your work and the significance of your community’s heritage.
- Engage Meaningfully in Climate Policy: You’ll have the chance to share your insights in our global community of practice and connect to policy processes to mainstream heritage into climate action. Represent your heritage place and community as a voice for resilience, with opportunities to present at climate and heritage forums worldwide.
If you’re ready to become a key player in the global movement to protect your heritage place from climate change, this is your moment. Join us to lead with knowledge, inspire with story, and act with purpose—ensuring that the places and traditions we hold dear continue to thrive for generations to come. Interested in learning more about Preserving Legacies? Sign up for our live Information Session about the program and application process on Zoom.
- Register for our Climate Heritage Network Zoom Information Session on Wednesday December 4, 2024 at 09:00 AM ET here.
- Register for our Climate Heritage Network Zoom Information Session on wednesday December 4, 2024 at 21:00 PM CET here.
- Ready to apply? Submit a Nomination Now at: https://forms.gle/g4uDe4g6rQ1k1Wuz9
- For more about the application process, criteria, and to explore the stories from our 2024 cohort, visit our website at heritageadapts.org.
