Climate-driven losses to knowledge systems and cultural heritage: A literature review exploring the impacts on Indigenous and local cultures

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change is leading to widespread losses around the world. While the focus of research over the last decade has largely been on economic or tangible losses, researchers have begun to shift their focus to understanding the non-economic or intangible dimensions of loss more deeply. Loss of life, biodiversity and social cohesion are some of the losses that are beginning to be explored, along with Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) and cultural heritage. These latter two form the basis of this systematic review of 100 studies to take stock of what we know about climate-driven losses to ILK and cultural heritage, how such losses manifest and how they are overcome, revealing gaps in our knowledge and carving a path for future research.

African heritage sites threatened as sea-level rise accelerates

“…2a,b). Under high emissions, the same values rise to 18,930 km 2 (13,652-25,545) and 2,039 km 2 (1,516-2,507), respectively.…”

“…eritage sites have important cultural, ecological, historical, social and economic value 1,2 . Yet climate change hazards such as river floods, heatwaves and wildfires threaten heritage globally [3][4][5] .…”

“…Fifty-six (20%) of the 284 identified AHS are currently exposed to a 1-in-100-year coastal extreme event. Thirty-five of the 213 natural heritage sites (16%) and 21 of the 71 cultural heritage sites (30%) are exposed to a 100-year coastal extreme event (Table 1), corresponding to 1,719 km 2 and 419 km 2 of exposed natural and cultural heritage area, respectively. On average, each site has 4.5% of its area exposed.…”

Resistance and Care in the Time of COVID‐19: Archaeology in 2020

“…In the context of climate change, the voices of Indigenous, Black, and other marginalized communities are reconsidering the meaning of resilience and vulnerability in the context of deep‐time, inherited, ecological racism that is being recovered from archaeological practices through coproduction of knowledge (Armstrong and Brown 2019 ; Armstrong et al. 2021 ; Boger, Perdikaris, and Rivera‐Collazo 2019 ; Caron‐Beaudoin and Armstrong 2019 ; Davis, Seeber, and Sanger 2020 ; Douglass 2020 ; Pearson, Jackson, and McNamara 2021 ; Rivera‐Collazo et al. 2020 ).…”

Risky business: Comparative approaches to risk and resilience in arid environments of the Holocene – An introduction to the special issue

“…There is a tendency, nonetheless, to tabulate the records of change – particularly climate and environmentally driven change – in terms of loss (Pearson et al, 2021). This is important work as we seek to protect the knowledge and resources we value against uncertain future threats.…”