Featured News
Latest News
Latest News
Showing 1-5 of 100
Press Release
Preserving Legacies Program Adds New Global Heritage Sites to Scale Reach Amidst Rising Climate Threats
Heritage sites from six continents join the program with support from the National Geographic Society to develop community led climate adaptation solutions to protect these cultural and natural heritage sites from pressing climate threats
Bath&NorthEast SomersetCouncil
Washington, DC, April 10, 2025 — Preserving Legacies is proud to announce the addition of 12 cultural heritage sites to its climate adaptation program, which empowers communities worldwide to safeguard their heritage from the impacts of climate change. This year’s expansion marks a significant step forward, as the program scales its reach to address the accelerating threats climate change poses to global heritage.
Led by National Geographic Explorer Victoria Herrmann, this project is funded by the National Geographic Society and aims to visualize how climate change may affect natural and cultural heritage sites around the world. The program focuses on empowering local communities and community leaders to collaborate and develop climate action skills, tools and solutions to protect their sites, creating a future for our past.
The full 2025 cohort includes:
- Flower Path Pollinator Initiative (Northern New Mexico, USA)
- The Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site (Europe)
- Historic Hampton House (Brownsville, Florida, USA)
- Ileret Footprint Project Site (Marsabit County, Kenya)
- Kangchenjunga Conservation Area (Taplejung, Nepal)
- La Floresta (Quito, Ecuador)
- Kavango / Okavango River Basin (Namibia & Botswana)
- Sjøgata Preservation Area (Mosjøen, Norway)
- Tāhuna Glenorchy (Aotearoa / New Zealand)
- Tawaki, Gauve, Wakapi and Popa Coconut Megaliths (West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea)
- Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (Aotearoa / New Zealand)
- Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai (Mumbai, India)
The additional heritage places joining the Preserving Legacies cohort program build on previous years efforts to prioritize a diversity of heritage site types, regions, and climate-related challenges in order to create an expansive initial knowledge base that can apply to a broad range of sites outside of the program. Importantly, local communities will be active participants in the process in order to help equip them with tools to anticipate climate impacts and empower them to safeguard heritage sites, support community adaptation and plan for unavoidable loss and damage.
Each year, hundreds of cultural places and practices apply to join this cohort-based program, but only 12 are selected. This year, for the first time, a collective of heritage sites—The Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site—will get a seat. The four participating custodians from these historic towns, famous for their natural mineral springs, will amplify the insights they gain to their counterparts across Europe, offering a model for future collaborations on a regional and global scale.
"The Preserving Legacies programme represents a pivotal opportunity for The Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site to address our most pressing shared challenge - climate change. As a transnational World Heritage property spanning eleven historic spa towns across seven countries, we're uniquely positioned to implement climate adaptation strategies at scale. Preserving Legacies will enable us to embed climate resilience directly into our 2027 Property Management Plan, ensuring that our extraordinary cultural landscapes and thermal water sources are protected for future generations." – Chiara Ronchini, Secretary General of The Great Spa Towns of Europe.
“Reading daily headlines on dire climate disasters, it is easy to feel helpless and hopeless, to feel that as just one person you cannot implement climate solutions that protect the places, practices, and landscapes that make up our shared human legacy. But Preserving Legacies proves that you are never alone,” said Victoria Herrmann, National Geographic Explorer and Executive Director of Preserving Legacies. “These twelve sites in our 2025 cohort show that there are community champions on every continent leading climate adaptation, safeguarding heritage, and redefining resilience to build a more just and thriving future. And through our global community of action later this year, we’ll give every local change maker the training, tools, and connections to equitably adapt their community’s heritage places and practices from the impacts of climate change.”
"It is exciting to see the sheer diversity of sites in the 2025 Preserving Legacies cohort ranging from natural to cultural heritage. The participation of these teams at these sites helps bring the project one step closer to building a global community of practice,” said Ian Miller, National Geographic Society Chief Science and Innovation Officer. “National Geographic Explorer Victoria Herrmann is leading this ambitious effort to advance and share knowledge in order to protect our cultural heritage and embodies our mission to use the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.
Additionally, in response to the high demand and to help take forward the Paris Agreement’s Target 9(g) of the UNFCCC UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, Preserving Legacies launched a pilot “Community of Action” platform for sites that were not selected. This first step in the development of a public-facing, open-access platform is critical for scaling the training, tools, and connections needed to adapt.
As the Preserving Legacies program continues to grow, it remains focused on their community-led, values-based approach to generate solutions that are not only equitable but just and sustainable.
Media Contact
General Media Contact
If you are a member of the media with an inquiry or interview request, please call during regular business hours or email
pressroom@ngs.org
pressroom@ngs.org
(202) 857 7027
Emily Kelly
Senior Manager, Strategic Communications
ekelly@ngs.org
ekelly@ngs.org
Preserving Legacies
Preserving Legacies is a global organization dedicated to safeguarding humanity’s cultural and natural places from the impacts of climate change. By supporting local change makers with training, tools, and connections to equitably adapt what their communities cherish most, they are redefining resilience to build a more just and thriving future. Their three-stage framework – capacity-building, risk assessment, and adaptation action – scales to support hundreds of sites worldwide, from iconic places like Petra in Jordan to locally-renowned treasures like Sceilg Mhichíll in Ireland. Their partners include National Geographic Society, International Council on Monuments and Sites, and the Climate Heritage Network. Learn more at heritageadapts.org.
About The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is a non-governmental, not for profit international organisation, committed to furthering the conservation, protection, use and enhancement of the world’s cultural heritage. With over 11,000 members, 110+ National Committees, 31 International Scientific Committees and several Working Groups, ICOMOS has built a solid philosophical, doctrinal and managerial framework for the sustainable conservation of heritage around the world. As an official Advisory Body to the World Heritage Committee for the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, ICOMOS evaluates nominations and advises on the state of conservation of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Climate Heritage Network
The Climate Heritage Network (CHN) is a voluntary, mutual support network of government agencies, NGOs, universities, businesses, and other organizations committed to tackling climate change and achieving the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. Mobilized in 2018 during the Global Climate Action Summit and launched in 2019, the Climate Heritage Network works to re-orient climate policy, planning, and action at all levels to account for dimensions of culture - from arts to heritage.
About The National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit organization that uses the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Since 1888, National Geographic has pushed the boundaries of exploration, investing in bold people and transformative ideas, providing more than 15,000 grants for work across all seven continents, reaching 3 million students each year through education offerings, and engaging audiences around the globe through signature experiences, stories and content.
To learn more, visit www.nationalgeographic.org or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Back to Top