An Ecolabel for the World Heritage Brand? Developing a Climate Communication Recognition Scheme for Heritage Sites

Abstract

This study develops a climate communication recognition scheme (CCRS) for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites (WHS), in order to explore the communicative power of heritage to mobilize stakeholders around climate change. We present this scheme with the aim to influence site management and tourist decision-making by increasing climate awareness at heritage sites and among visitors and encouraging the incorporation of carbon management into heritage site management. Given the deficits and dysfunction in international governance for climate mitigation and inspired by transnational environmental governance tools such as ecolabels and environmental product information schemes, we offer “climate communication recognition schemes” as a corollary tool for transnational climate governance and communication. We assess and develop four dimensions for the CCRS, featuring 50 WHS: carbon footprint analysis, narrative potential, sustainability practices, and the impacts of climate change on heritage resources. In our development of a CCRS, this study builds on the “branding” value and recognition of UNESCO World Heritage, set against the backdrop of increasing tourism—including the projected doubling of international air travel in the next 15–20 years—and the implications of this growth for climate change. The CCRS, titled Climate Footprints of Heritage Tourism, is available online as an ArcGIS StoryMap.

Climate Change and UNESCO World Heritage-Listed Cultural Properties: A Systematic Review, 2008–2021

“…Articles using quantitative methods (n = 21, 36.2%) incorporated surveys and sampling (n = 8, 13.8%), modelling (n = 7, 12.8%), GIS and remote sensing (n = 6, 10.3%) and, with far less representation, questionnaires (n = 4) and simulations (n = 2). Less common were mixed method approaches (n = 7, 12.8%), which involved a combination of interviews and questionnaire surveys e.g., [6,47], surveys, modelling and secondary data [48], archaeological sampling and secondary data [49], and modelling and secondary data [37].…”

“…The focus on adaptation measures also incorporates studies that emphasise the importance of past knowledge (n = 7) e.g., [37,39,56] as well as the necessity of a more integrated approach (n = 8) e.g., [3,21,47]. Other articles (n = 5) point to the critical role of local communities in addressing the climate crisis and the need to draw on their wisdom in heritage management and conservation e.g., [6,32,33,48]. A focus on plans, policies and regulations is also present (n = 9), with an emphasis on comprehensive, integrated, and timely policies to tackle climate change impacts in a constantly changing context e.g., [57][58][59].…”

Adaptive Heritage: Is This Creative Thinking or Abandoning Our Values?

“…That requires much more than objective measures of biodiversity, including aspects of composition, complexity, and abundance, particularly of species upon which OUV is based. This can be costly, and surrogates that can be remotely sensed will be useful [42]. Natural heritage sites are SESs, so monitoring must include the greater landscape.…”

“…Tourism revenue sustains many heritage management practices. Global tourism was valued at $2.9 Trillion (USD) in 2019 [43], and heritage tourism accounts for approximately half of that value [42]. An economic force of that magnitude drives many decisions, including the risk that tourism becomes so financially attractive it destroys the site.…”

“…There are opportunities to influence those decisions. At the scale of the individual traveler, tools such as the Climate Footprints of Heritage Tourism are available online (in that case, as a publicly available ArcGIS StoryMap) [42]. In contrast, at the scale of the individual heritage site, there is a positive opportunity for management in support of tourism values, but counter-pressure to ensure that the site is managed for an inclusive range of stakeholders.…”