Fragile heritage ecologies: vernacular cultures and the at-risk landscapes of the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya mountain region

兴都库什-喜马拉雅山脉（HKH）沿着巴基斯坦北部延伸，在文化、遗产、生物多样性、环境和多样化地形方面是独特社会的家园，这些社会随着气候的变化而不断变化。它们还拥有极地地区以外最大的冰盖，有近7000个冰川被绘制出来。这些冰川为整个国家提供水，并作为山区社区的生命线，提供灌溉用水，山谷底部每年的降雨量可能只有200毫米。它们也是一个主要的威胁，因为全球变暖导致它们融化，并不总是以稳定的速度消退，而是在冰川留下的沉积物后面形成融化的水湖；大坝可能会突然垮塌，导致冰川湖溃决洪水（GLOF），据估计，当洪水涌入山谷时，将对多达700万人构成威胁，甚至影响到该国南部的人口中心。这种结构是巴基斯坦在2019年全球气候风险指数中排名第八的原因之一，但令人震惊的是，巴基斯坦在未来气候变化影响最脆弱的国家中排名第四。北部山区的居民早已适应了严酷和脆弱的环境。这片向农业开放的地区，已经包含了由融水灌溉的传统灌溉渠维持的小绿洲，现在正面临多重威胁。冰川的退缩会减少灌溉用水，山洪暴发会威胁到基础设施，更猛烈的季节性水流会侵蚀可耕地。山区社区的文化遗产往往被忽视，而人们更关注其引人注目的自然景观和动植物。他们有着与大多数巴基斯坦人不同的文化遗产，与其他国家的文化遗产有着跨越山脉的联系，他们被边缘化了。该项目旨在记录他们的乡土遗产及其所体现的农业生态实践。该项目使用视觉叙事作为叙述“冰川大融化”的一种方法，以吸引公众和政策制定者，并在巴基斯坦和南亚煽动对气候变化的行动。通过视觉人种学、口述历史绘图和讲故事，该项目将把科学数据（如地质数据和地形建模）与居民的文化、社会经济实践结合起来，绘制山区社区采用的适应过程。它侧重于社区如何将遗产概念化——他们如何解释遗产在不断变化的景观中的作用，以及他们如何参与和利用文化遗产实践作为准备和应对灾害的手段。产出包括由当地社区制作的视听故事，这些故事将被数字化，此外还有一个参与性框架，用于保存濒危遗产文件，以便更好地为该地区的可持续发展政策提供信息。它将培训当地遗产从业者与社区接触，以及他们如何向社区学习，以加强地方、区域和国家层面的遗产管理，以应对气候变化对偏远山区社区的影响。

The Hindu-Kush-Himalayas (HKH) mountains stretch along northern Pakistan and are home to unique societies in terms of culture, heritage, biodiversity, environment and diverse terrain that is continuously transforming with the changing climate. They also hold the largest ice-cap outside the polar regions with >7000 glaciers mapped. These glaciers provide water for the entire country and serve as a lifeline for mountain communities providing irrigation water where rainfall in the valley floors can be as little as 200mm a year. They are also a major threat as Global Warming leads to their melting, not always in a steady retreat but creating lakes of meltwater dammed behind deposits the glaciers leave; dams that can suddenly give way leading to Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) which have been estimated to pose a threat to up to 7 million people as they pour down the valleys, even affecting centres of population in the south of the country. This configuration is one reason why Pakistan ranks 8th in the Global Climate Risk Index for 2019 but the alarmingly 4th most vulnerable for future climate change impacts. The peoples of the Northern mountains have long adapted to the harshness and fragility of their environment. The area open to agriculture, already comprising small oases sustained by traditional irrigation canals fed from meltwater is now under multiple threats. The retreat of glaciers can reduce the water for irrigation, flash floods threaten infrastructure and more violent seasonal flows erode the cultivable land. The cultural heritage of the mountain communities is often ignored in favour of attention on the remarkable natural landscape and flora and fauna. With a different cultural heritage from most Pakistanis, with links across the mountains to those in other countries, they are marginalised. This project looks to record their vernacular heritage and the agro-ecological practices that it embodies. This project uses visual story-telling as a method of narrating the 'great glacial melt' in order to engage the public and policy makers and instigate action on climate change within Pakistan and South Asia. Through visual ethnography, oral history mapping and storytelling, this project will couple scientific data (such as geological data and terrain modelling) with cultural, socio-economic practices of inhabitants to map the adaptation processes employed by mountain communities. It focuses on how heritage is conceptualised by the community - how do they explain its role in the changing landscape and how they engage and employ cultural heritage practices as means to prepare for and respond to disasters. Outputs include audio-visual stories produced by local communities that will be digitised in addition to a participatory framework for at-risk heritage documentation to better inform regional policy on sustainable development within the region. It will train local heritage practitioners to engage with communities and how they might learn from themto enhance heritage stewardship on local, regional and national level in the face of climate change impacts on remote mountain communities.