24 YEARBOOK 2023 called ‘Coastal Connections’ has been launched by English Heritage together with the World Monuments Fund. This initiative will establish a global network of coastal heritage sites for sharing best practice in meeting the challenges of climate change. Central to the project is knowledge-sharing; the creation of a series of online seminar discussions and a ‘virtual classroom’ to create digital resources for site managers and stakeholders. Through the project, those dealing first hand with these challenges, from caretakers of the striking medieval fortification of Methoni Castle in Greece to the communities around the trading posts of the Ghanaian coast, can work in partnership to develop the tools and principles to help guide future management decisions. This approach is complemented by initiatives for engaging communities that are designed to strengthen the vital role that local people play in supporting, maintaining and, over time, in recording and remembering heritage. At Hurst Castle, for example, this involves working in partnership with the site manager, whose family has maintained the site for generations, and other local stakeholders. This will promote greater understanding of the ongoing – but not geographically unique – challenges facing Hurst Castle and other coastal heritage sites. BUILDING RESILIENCE While coastal erosion may be the most visible impact of the changing climate at our sites, there are many other signs. English Heritage cares for the National Heritage Collection of over 400 buildings, monuments and places across England. Each year brings greater evidence of the impact, from an increase in heat damage to collections and a migration of pests, to erosion from driven rain and damage from water ingress. However, while the rate of change is accelerating, we are neither starting from scratch nor powerless to act. Our first Climate Action Plan, which was approved in June 2021, outlines targets to build climate resilience and sets out a pathway to raise awareness and reduce our own environmental impact. Last year English Heritage joined with seven other major heritage bodies from across the UK to form the Heritage Adaptation Partnership with the aim of sharing expertise and progressing work on climate risk and adaptation response. This group has worked together to identify and collaborate on research, build on the National Trust-originated climate hazards map, and to explore decision-making thresholds on when to change site management in response to climate change. At English Heritage we are using the climate hazards map and additional data to get an overview of risk across our sites. This involves identifying those that appear to rate highly for climate hazards, such as extreme heat, and then focusing on five sites to undertake detailed climate risk assessments, drawing in locally observed changes from staff and volunteers. This work, in partnership with the Benefact Group, will allow us to sense-check the climate data, refining our understanding of complex interrelationships on site and the different impacts being seen across buildings, collections, landscapes and operations to enable climate informed decision making and more effective adaptation. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE The future may sometimes look bleak. However, our historic sites are no strangers to change and together we can address these challenges by respecting and learning from different approaches to adaptation, mitigation and loss; sharing expertise gained by intervention in local contexts around the globe; and engaging local communities through open, honest and inclusive communication. By learning from what is done elsewhere we can share new perspectives and discover insights that lead to greater wisdom in how we manage heritage more sustainably. In addressing the impacts of climate change, a local site can have global significance, not just in terms of its heritage value but in terms of how we can learn to recognise, understand and adapt to the challenges we face. Ruth Knight is Head of Climate and Sustainability at English Heritage and Dr Alex Kent is Coastal Connections Project Lead, English Heritage and World Monuments Fund. Fort Prinzenstein at Keta, Ghana which is being undermined by coastal erosion and could benefit from international co-operation under the Coastal Connections project. The fort is one of several European trading posts in Ghana now collectively designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, not least as a monument to the scourge of the slave trade. (Photo: Gameli Adzaho, CC BY-SA 3.0) English Heritage’s policies reflect the increasing threat to the properties in its care posed by climate change, whether through heat damage to collections and a migration of pests, water ingress or erosion.
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