Platform Klimaat en Erfgoed (The Climate and Heritage platform) brings together various people, projects and companies within the heritage sector. The platform is for everyone who, professionally or as an interested party in their work, deals with the consequences of climate change on heritage. Jacomine Hendrikse, apart from being a board member of this platform is also an adviser at DutchCulture, a network and knowledge organisation for international cultural cooperation.
What motivated you to start this group and to work at the crossroads of environmental sustainability and heritage preservation?
Platform Climate and Heritage was founded rather spontaneously. Two of our board members, Gertjan de Boer and Sander van Alphen, knew each other since they both work in the heritage sector in the Netherlands. Being equally worried about the climate crisis and its (potential) impact on cultural heritage, they started sharing ideas on how to raise awareness about the topic.
In October 2022, the Platform was officially founded with Gertjan as head of the board and Sander as one of the board members, joined by 5 (young) heritage professionals with various backgrounds: Susanne Bergwerff-Verburg, Annabel Dijkema, Olaf Satijn, Jelle Hettema, and Vera Kuijpers. I joined the board one year later. Together, we cover all disciplines of cultural heritage: intangible cultural heritage, museum collections, international cultural relations, monuments and sites, archaeology, and urban planning.
Heritage management has always been about preservation. We are raising the question whether we can still preserve all heritage. What if climate change will make this impossible and we will have to let go of part of it? How will we, as heritage professionals, deal with loss?
What are the most urgent climate threats which heritage sites are facing today?
The most urgent climate threats which heritage are facing vary depending on the location and nature of heritage. Generally, we can state more extreme weather conditions will and already do occur everywhere. In the Netherlands, where we are based, water has always been seen as the major issue. A big part of our country is located below sea level, so for the majority of people climate change is immediately linked to rising sea levels and the danger of floods. This is an existential threat, although sea level rise happens slowly and relatively steadily so we can and should adapt. At the same time, drought and fluctuating water levels pose a current and pressing threat on heritage. The latter causes rotting of wood in the foundations of Amsterdam’s canal houses, while drought and the resulting subsiding soil causes cracks in the walls of monuments.
On 27 May, we organise our next event as Platform Climate and Heritage about archaeology and the challenges this sector faces related to drought. Archaeological remains in situ, meaning in the soil, are being exposed to oxygen due to low groundwater levels, causing dehydration and eventual loss. Other problems are salination, floods and erosion. Is preservation in situ still possible, or should we excavate as much as we can and as soon as possible? These are questions we will discuss with various speakers and the audience.
Are current EU or international frameworks doing enough to protect climate-vulnerable heritage?
Knowledge about the worrying and even disastrous impact of human activities on the climate, especially emission of fossil fuels, has been known for many years (take for example the Club of Rome and their 1972 publication The Limits to Growth). Yet, climate change is still happening and we are approaching the 1,5 degree temperature rise. In this respect, our different levels of governmental bodies have been and are definitely not doing enough. At the same time, we acknowledge the increasing awareness and steps the EU and international framework are undertaking. In September 2022, the OMC expert group on cultural heritage and climate changed published its final report commissioned by the European Commission, titled ‘Strengthening Cultural Heritage Resilience for Climate Change’. It includes ten recommendations as well as 83 examples of best practice outlining research, techniques and work programmes relating to the fight against climate change. The EU’s Culture moves Europe-mobility schemes have quite strict regulations for sustainable travelling, which we fully support and has served as an inspiration for international cultural collaborations. And of course, the European Green Deal and its ambitions has had a stimulating effect on national policies of EU member states and their (cultural) sectors.
On a different level, great initiatives of NGOs are plenty and we fully support these. Within the Intangible Cultural Heritage NGO Forum (consisting of NGOs accredited by UNESCO) the working group ‘Living Heritage, Climate Change and the Environment’ was established. ICOMOS has selected climate change and heritage several times as topic for their conferences. Likewise, Unesco is active in awareness-raising about the threats for world heritage site, since there are many that might lose their status as world heritage and even eventually be destroyed due to climate change-related causes. As a Platform, we are a member of the worldwide Climate Heritage Network. Being a platform, we share national and international practices, policy developments and activities that come to our attention and we find insightful. At this moment, we are working on a continuation of the interview series with European heritage professionals – or ‘’colleagues’’ as we like to call them – working in the field of climate and heritage. All in all, there are plenty of great initiatives, but policies and funding requirements could be much stricter in favour of climate positivity. Right now, sustainable ‘alternatives’ often come from intrinsic motivation of cultural professionals themselves. Governments and policy makers should realise that funding is power and demand sustainable practices, with financial consequences if the criteria are not met.
What role can cultural heritage play in climate adaptation or mitigation policies?
In 2023, we’ve started a series of interviews with prominent heritage professionals from the Dutch and European cultural field. The interviewed heritage professionals share their view from their own discipline: intangible heritage, archaeology, museums, natural heritage etc. The interviews have been published on our website and on the Dutch website De Erfgoedstem. Also, we’ve turned the collected interview into a Dutch and English publication Heritage in a changing climate that can be read and downloaded on our website.
In several interviews, heritage experts acknowledge heritage as a source of inspiration for climate adaptation and mitigation. Buildings used to be constructed in a more climate adaptive manner than nowadays. Parts of historical houses weren’t used, for example the attic. These spaces functioned as a buffer zone, keeping temperatures inside much more balanced.
From the intangible cultural heritage discipline, there is lots of potential for local knowledge and skills. Traditional Ecological Knowledge generally entails respect for forests, trees and certain animals. At the same time, it includes very practical knowledge about for instance animal behaviour, hunting and fishing, and about the effects of the seasons on water systems and soil fertility.
How can we bring closer the connection of climate and heritage to the general population, and especially young people?
Actually, heritage is part of our world and all parts of our world are impacted by climate change.
The interesting thing about heritage is that we value it – sometimes without even knowing or noticing it. Heritage is all around us. Everyone engages in heritage on a daily basis: whether it’s the listed buildings you pass on your daily commute to school or work, the traditions of public holidays, or the dances you perform with your friends. We experience damage or loss of our heritage as painful and unsettling, for heritage is part of our identity. The impact of our actions may not be visible in our environment to the same extent as it is in other countries and for other people. This is called climate injustice. There is a huge imbalance between the emissions of the global north and effects of climate change in the global south, generally speaking. To understand the causes and effects, education is incredibly important – for people of all ages. I support life-long learning!
I also believe the local level places a hugely important role here. If people zoom in on the heritage in their own neighbourhood, city or region, heritage becomes more tangible, as well as the impacts of climate change.