Climate Pressures on Intangible Heritage

Intangible heritage comprises a wealth of knowledge, crafts, and skills that are passed down through the generations, embodied in our cultural practices. Many of these intertwine with landscape and environment; so, they are sensitive to climate change. While there have been studies of the impact of climate change on intangible heritage, these typically use heritage as a lens to examine climate impacts. There are few assessments of specific climate processes that threaten heritage. A climate-based approach allows researchers to identify mechanisms of change and quantify past impacts and project these into the future to give a sense of management options. We explore the threats to UNESCO domains of intangible heritage using weather and climate data from a range of sources to assess threats demonstrating the importance of data-informed approaches and show that timing of season and frequency of extreme events are important in climate-based assessments. These play out over different spatial and temporal scales that reveal elements of sensitivity to environmental change. The management response to the climate threat seems in need of a rights-based approach to empower those who own, safeguard, or practice the heritage. Research to enhance conservation should be translated into a form that speaks to local values and social structures.