Working with Nature in the Conservation of Stone Heritage: Towards Resilience and Sustainability

There have been many recent discussions about how to link nature conservation more effectively with heritage conservation (including the conservation of stone heritage). These discussions have many historical antecedents and are also a product of today’s cultural, economic, social and environmental climate. Building on ecological approaches, this paper develops an adaptive systems framework with which to conceptualise the multiple links between natural and cultural heritage conservation with a focus on stone heritage sites. In particular, this paper addresses the question of how stone conservation can take on board ideas of ecology, adaptive systems, sustainability and resilience to improve the conservation not only of the stone objects themselves but of the people and environments that surround them. Four categories of interactions are identified to account for the ways in which nature growing on and around stone heritage sites interacts (both positively and negatively) with the stone, as well as the ways in which the stone heritage site influences nature on and around the site (positively and negatively). A number of empirical, theoretical, policy and practical challenges to adopting such an approach are explored, and some priorities for the future identified. Working with nature in the conservation of stone heritage necessitates an interdisciplinary and holistic approach and requires the acceptance of a more dynamic future for stone heritage and the nature which surrounds it.