Values-based Climate Change Risk Assessment: Piloting the Climate Vulnerability Index for Cultural Heritage in Africa [Highlight Notice]

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Climate change poses an existential threat to all humanity. Understanding this change and adapting to it has become the greatest challenge of our time. From rising sea-levels, more extreme weather events and aridification, the extensive impacts of climate are evident at heritage sites globally and the pace of this change is startling. In most parts of the world the rate of loss is exceeding adaptive capacity and this deficit is only getting worse, especially in the global south. Decisions on conservation and preservation begin with a detailed understanding of a place's vulnerability. The choices made will directly impact that ability to effectively integrate the goals of safeguarding cultural heritage, adapting and mitigating climate change, and driving sustainable development. Previous assessment methodologies must be revised to accurately evaluate the vulnerability of cultural heritage sites and their associated communities in the face of a changing climate. There is an urgent need to develop community-based, quick (and yet effective) new techniques and methodologies, and these must be scalable globally. The CVI Africa Project seeks to address this need.The proposed research project centres on training heritage professionals through piloting a new, protype heritage management methodology known as the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) in Africa. CVI provides an assessment of the physical and ecological impacts of current and projected climate change on the heritage values of sites and also provides a high-level assessment of the economic, social and cultural consequences of climate change for the site and the associated community. The Project is designed both to adapt existing methodology to the African cultural context and also draw on African expertise to inform refinements in the general CVI methodology.The CVI Africa project will provide foundational training in vulnerability assessment using the CVI method to train six heritage professionals from low and middle income African countries. It will utilise UK and international expertise to develop and deliver online, transferrable and scalable training resources to training participants. The project will culminate in two workshops in Nigeria (Sukur Cultural Landscape) and Tanzania (The Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara) which are impacted by climate change. These workshops will include the training participants, local and national experts and stakeholders, and international partners and will culminate in a publicly available and locally published report.The project will also foster new relationships and encourage knowledge exchange by bringing together collaborators from many organisations and working with new and existing members of the Climate Heritage Network (CHN), a network of arts, culture and heritage organisations committed to aiding their communities in tackling climate change and achieving the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. These include lead investigators from Queen's University Belfast, Historic Environment Scotland, the University of Highlands and Islands and the African World Heritage Fund. Local partner organisations include the Tanzanian Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments. Other international partner organisations include the International Committee on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Historic England, the International National Trust Organisation (INTO) and the Union of Concerned Scientists who will all play roles in project training and/ or workshop participation.Finally, the project will work with the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and other similar projects to develop a longer term and sustainable Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) funded workstream, to respond effectively to climate change impacts on cultural heritage focused on developing countries.