FAQ
Adaptation is complex and you must have questions so we break it down for you below. You can also find more information by exploring the full guided roadmap Action Journey, reviewing our Eligibility Requirements, and reading our Platform FAQs.
Heritage Adapts! is a global community of local stewards uniting behind a shared pledge to take adaptation action to protect their heritage sites and cultural practices from the impacts of climate change by 2030—and to support one another throughout the process. Our hub for adapting is the Community of Action, a collaborative online platform to connect and find guidance, including:
- The Action Journey, a self-paced program guides you through every stage of locally led adaptation—from deepening your climate and heritage understanding, to assessing risk, developing a plan, and taking action. It makes the complexities of adaptation accessible, no matter your starting point.
- The Regional Climate Data Hub, where you can download localised climate data in an accessible, interactive format to help you weave science with the knowledge your community already holds. It is supported by online training so that you can use the data on your own terms.
- The Commons, communal spaces like discussion boards and virtual events that allow you to connect with others who understand the stakes, because the best advice comes from those who live it. Shared spaces also include a Resource Library, Member Directory, and Service Provider Directory.
No matter where you are, or the type of heritage your work with—natural and cultural places, objects and collections, intangible cultural heritage and practices, and beyond— if you are a steward of a heritage, you belong here. And if you don't work directly with a site or practice but want to contribute to the Heritage Adapts! campaign, you belong here too. Together, we adapt better.
Heritage Adapts! is for anyone who wants to contribute to protecting heritage sites and cultural practices from climate change.
Stewards of heritage sites and cultural practices are at the heart of Heritage Adapts! and are encouraged to take the Heritage Adapts! pledge. This includes stewards of natural and cultural places, objects and collections, intangible cultural heritage and practices, and beyond. To take the pledge, a potential steward must self-certify that they meet the Eligibility Requirements. This is not meant to be restrictive, but to ensure those pledging have the authorization to do so.
If you are not making the Heritage Adapts! pledge but are working in or interested in heritage and climate adaptation, there is a place for you in Heritage Adapts! too! This may include professionals, researchers, government officials, individual advocates, or even colleagues working with heritage sites or cultural practices that are not ready to make a pledge. We call these colleagues Contributors and they may join Heritage Adapts! by selecting the "join without pledging" option. Anyone who is interested in culture, heritage and climate adaptation is welcome as a Contributor!
Heritage Adapts! also offers several ways that groups and organizations can partner with us, including as Leadership Partners, Supporting Partners, and Service Providers. Explore partnership options here.
Can more than one member of the same group or organization participate? Yes! We encourage multiple members of the same team to join. While there is not a shared organizational dashboard, you can each individually track progress on your dashboard, engage in discussion boards, attend virtual events, and more. Learn more in our Eligibility Requirements.
Does Heritage Adapts! verify eligibility? No, verification is self-certified and joining Heritage Adapts! does not imply endorsement of your work. Stewards making the pledge take responsibility for certifying their compliance with the Eligibility Requirements, including that the individual is authorized to do so by an existing group of stakeholders or rightsholder of the indicated heritage site or cultural practice. Any steward making a Heritage Adapts! pledge should conduct any needed assessment and obtain any needed authorization consistent with relevant governance prior to making the Pledge. Should it come to the attention of Heritage Adapts! that a steward did not meet or no longer meets the Eligibility Requirements, Heritage Adapts! reserves the right to remove them or take other applicable action.
Yes! Heritage sites and cultural practices have disparate and diverse stakeholders and rightsholders and while it is ideal for these to work in concert to tackle climate change, this is not always possible. Some heritage sites cover vast areas and even cross national borders, while many cultural practices are enjoyed by diverse groups across the world. Learn more in our Eligibility Requirements.
Can more than one member of the same group or organization participate? Yes! We encourage multiple members of the same team to join. While there is not a shared organizational dashboard, you can each individually track progress on your dashboard, engage in discussion boards, attend virtual events, and more. Learn more in our Eligibility Requirements.
Does Heritage Adapts! verify eligibility? No, verification is self-certified and joining Heritage Adapts! does not imply endorsement of your work. Stewards making the pledge take responsibility for certifying their compliance with the Eligibility Requirements, including that the individual is authorized to do so by an existing group of stakeholders or rightsholder of the indicated heritage site or cultural practice. Any steward making a Heritage Adapts! pledge should conduct any needed assessment and obtain any needed authorization consistent with relevant governance prior to making the Pledge. Should it come to the attention of Heritage Adapts! that a steward did not meet or no longer meets the Eligibility Requirements, Heritage Adapts! reserves the right to remove them or take other applicable action.
The pledge is a non-binding expression of intent for yourself or the organisation you represent to take at least one locally led climate adaptation action for your heritage site or cultural practice by 2030. The pledge takes one minute and connects you immediately to a worldwide community of stewards doing the same.
The pledge specifically states:"I/We pledge to work to implement a locally led climate adaptation action or adaptive strategy for my/our heritage site or cultural practice by 2030."
Taking an adaptation action by 2030 is what counts as a fulfilled pledge toward our goal of 3000 by 2030. Whether one rights holder or a whole stakeholder community is working toward that action, what counts is the heritage site or cultural practice being protected, not the number of people protecting it.
Who can take the pledge?
Can you define the terms being used in the pledge?
The Community of Action is your hub for taking climate adaptation action for your heritage site or cultural practice. It is an online platform that combines a personal account and dashboard with community spaces, including two core components:
The Commons - This is the community space available to anyone. It includes discussion boards, virtual events, a resource library, service provider directory, member messaging, and more.
The Action Journey - This self-paced program guides heritage stewards that take the pledge through locally led adaptation, no matter your starting point. Built on an evidence-based framework developed and refined with stewards in the field, you can use it as much or as little as you need, at your own pace. Based on questions that you answer during registration, you will start in a recommended stage, which you can change at any time:
Stage A - Learn: Enhance your climate and heritage literacy
Stage B - Assess: Create a community-led risk assessment and make an adaptation plan
Stage C - Act: Take an adaptation action, monitor and evaluate
Explore the full Action Journey here.
The Action Journey is supplemented by additional discussion boards, virtual events, resources, and our Regional Climate Data Hub that are only available to stewards who have taken the pledge.
Read our Platform FAQs here for even more details.
Anyone wishing to join Heritage Adapts! must first register by completing a short intake form. Your account will be created automatically. Once you have registered, you will be asked to describe who you are and how you would like to participate with Heritage Adapts! Select the path that's right for you — Steward (for those pledging to adapt a heritage site or cultural practice), Contributor (for individuals who want to access community resources but are not making a pledge), or Partner (for organizations supporting the mission) or Service Provider.
If you are a steward of a heritage site or culture practice and are ready to take the pledge, select “I’m here to take the pledge and become a steward.” Before doing so, check to make sure you meet the Eligibility Requirements, as you will be asked to self-certify that you do before taking the pledge. You will answer a few questions about who you are, which organisation you represent (if applicable), and your heritage site or cultural practice. Once you have taken the pledge, you will complete a short (5 question) diagnostic to see where you are in your adaptation journey. You will be recommended into a stage of the Action Journey, which you can change at any time. And then you're ready to start connecting, learning, and acting! Ready to join as a steward? Click here.
If you are not taking the Heritage Adapts! pledge but would like to contribute to the community and access resources, you can join by selecting the "join without pledging" option. Ready to join as a contributor? Click here.
Organizations wishing to endorse Heritage Adapts! or to list their services in the Service Provider directory will also find options for doing so (see below).
Connection: We can't adapt alone. We need each other for advice, discussion, inspiration, motivation, and more! When you join Heritage Adapts! you are immediately connected to a global community of stewards like yourself, as well as others working on and passionate about heritage, climate change, community resilience, and adaptation. You can engage with them through discussion boards, messaging, and virtual events from day one.
Guidance: Adaptation can be overwhelming. Heritage Adapts! provides a guided roadmap called the Action Journey that meets you where you are—whether deepening understanding, assessing risk, developing plans, or implementing and learning from actions. Built on an evidence-based, three-stage framework developed and refined with stewards in the field, you can use it as much or as little as you need, at your own pace.
Accessible Climate Data: Your community already holds deep knowledge of your place—the patterns, the changes, the signs, the embodied experience. Scientific data can add another layer of understanding to create a more full picture, both informing and strenghtening your case for action. Our Regional Climate Data Hub, created by Dr. Salma Sabour, puts localised climate and environmental data in your hands to weave with what your community already knows. Accessible downloadable formats work even on slow internet connections, and training is included so you stay in control of the data, using it on your own terms.
Accountability: Taking a pledge and joining a community of stewards working toward the same goal creates accountability—to yourself, to your community, and to the broader movement. When the work gets hard, knowing others are alongside you makes it easier to keep going. And being part of a recognized global movement gives weight to your work when making the case to colleagues, institutions, funders, or community partners—because you're not acting alone, you're acting as part of something bigger.
Recognition: Your action counts. Both for your community and globally. Heritage Adapts! is recognized as a UNFCCC Plan to Accelerate Solutions aligned with the Global Goal on Adaptation, meaning your locally led action connects to the global climate impact and contributes to the heritage sector's collective response to climate change.
This is a self-paced, three-stage program that guides stewards through locally led adaptation, helping to fulfill your pledge. Built on an evidence-based framework developed and refined with stewards in the field, you can use it as much or as little as you need, at your own pace. Based on questions that you answer during registration, you will start in a recommended stage, which you can change at any time:
Stage A - Learn: Deepen your climate and heritage understanding
Stage B - Assess: Create a community-led risk assessment and make an adaptation plan
Stage C - Act: Take an adaptation action, monitor and evaluate
Explore the full Action Journey here.
The Action Journey is supplemented by additional discussion boards, virtual events, resources, and our Regional Climate Data Hub that are only available to stewards who have taken the pledge.
How long does it take to complete the “Action Journey”?
While every heritage site and cultural practice is unique, and will be starting at a different point in their adaptation journey, we have found on average that the time commitment is as follows:
Stage A: 50 hours
Stage B: 180 hours
Stage C: 100 hours
Adaptation is an ongoing process so there is no time limit for participation. However, the pledge and goal do ask that at least one adaptive strategy is implemented by 2030.
Do I have to complete every part of the Action Journey?
No. The three-stage action journey is flexible and iterative, allowing users to dip in and out of its resources and guidance as needed. The aim is to support users to progress through all the dimensions of locally led risk assessment, adaptation planning and implementation, and monitoring, evaluation and learning.
What happens after I complete the final stage?
If you complete the final stage, Stage C: Act, that means you will have taken an action to safeguard your site or practice from climate change and you will have fulfilled your pledge! Adaptation is an ongoing process so the work is never done and while you may not use the Action Journey as regularly, the Community is still here for you and you can help others by sharing your story and insights!
What kind of support is available along the way?
The community is always there for you through discussion boards, virtual events, member messaging, and more. There will also be office hours programmed for stewards in the Action Journey as well as the option to email or message our help desk.
Find more detail in our Eligibility Requirements,
Steward - At Heritage Adapts!, we use "steward" as a word to describe anyone who cares for heritage and has taken the Heritage Adapts! pledge. The work that we each do is incredibly unique, personal, and varied and it is impossible for one word to describe who we are across professions, communities, and passions, but we had to chose a way to describe who we are collectively and thought "steward" was the best fit. For those who speak French, our colleagues expressed the sentiment as Gardien du Patrimone. If there is another word in your language that represents something similar, please share, we'd love to hear from you.
Heritage Site - For purposes of the Heritage Adapts! Pledge, it includes all tangible cultural heritage, meaning assets that have some physical embodiment of cultural values such as monuments, heritage cities, historic towns, buildings, archaeological sites, cultural landscapes, cultural objects -movable and immovable-, documents, collections, and museums (UNESCO WHC et al. 2013; ICOM 2014b). A heritage site can also include a steward of movable and documentary heritage, which include but are not limited to institutions such as archives, libraries, museums and other educational, cultural and research organizations (UNESCO. 2015). Rightsholders or stakeholders for any of these types of assets may take the Heritage Adapts! Pledge.
Cultural Practices - For purposes of the Heritage Adapts! Pledge, it includes any and all elements of intangible cultural heritage as that term is defined by UNESCO. This generally includes traditional and Indigenous living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts. Much of traditional and Indigenous and traditional knowledge is also articulated and expressed through cultural practices, as passed through generations, so should be treated as such. The wider framing of Indigenous and local knowledge systems are separate epistemological and ontological considerations larger than cultural practices.
Locally Led Adaptation - Adaptation where you, the steward, lead the way. You and your communities, custodians, Indigenous peoples, cultural practitioners, and local institutions hold the decision-making power over how adaptation actions are defined, prioritised, funded, implemented, monitored, and evaluated. This ensures the people most affected by climate change can identify what matters most, define success on their own terms, shape the allocation of resources, and guide long-term strategies. In this way, adaptation is grounded in local values, lived experience, and plural knowledge systems, strengthening accountability, equity, and the durability and sustainability of climate actions over time.
Adaptation Action or Adaptive Strategy - For purposes of the Heritage Adapts! Pledge, fulfilling your pledge means that you have taken at least one action to protect your heritage site or cultural practice from the impacts of climate change. You are welcome to take more or being implementing an entire strategy. This includes both “hard adaptation” measures like seawalls or water management systems and “soft adaptation” measures like wetland restoration, improved building codes, early warning systems, community education, enhancing social networks, or knowledge sharing. Adaptation may be reactive, responding to impacts already experienced, or proactive, anticipating future risks. It may be incremental, adjusting existing systems, or transformational, reshaping governance, livelihoods, or spatial arrangements to create new climate-resilient and sustainable development pathways. Some strategies are designed for near-term climate conditions; others aim to remain effective under higher levels of global warming and over longer time horizons. So whether you are building a flood defense or educating users on climate risks, your work can fulfill your Heritage Adapts! Pledge.
Importantly, adaptive strategies should also consider equity and justice. Who participates in decisions? Who benefits? Who bears the costs? Are Indigenous, local, and traditional knowledge systems recognised and respected? Does the strategy support cultural continuity and intergenerational wellbeing?
Your community already holds deep knowledge of your place—the patterns, the changes, the signs, the lived experience, the generational wisdom. Our Regional Climate Data Hub puts localised climate and environmental data in your hands to weave with what your community already knows. It comes in an accessible downloadable format that works even on slow internet connections, and training is included so you stay in control of the data, using it on your own terms.
No, it is free! The cost is currently being underwritten through a generous grant from the National Geographic Society as well as contributions from the Heritage Adapts! Leadership Partners. The sole exception is that after 1 July 2026 there will be a fee to be listed in the Service Provider Directory.
The Commons are the communal spaces in the Community of Action where anyone can engage and find support. It includes discussion boards, virtual events, a resource library, and service provider directory.
Heritage Adapts! is led by a coalition of partners spearheaded by Preserving Legacies and including:
- Center for Indigenous Peoples' Research and Development (CIPRED)
- Climate Heritage Network
- Heritage Management Organization
- Europa Nostra and ICLEI, respectively as Project Leader and partner of the EU-funded European Heritage Hub
- ICH NGO Forum (Working Group on Living Heritage & Climate Change)
- International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
- International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
- Julie's Bicycle
- Shadhona - A Center for Advancement of Southasian Culture
- World Monuments Fund
View more information about our partners here.
Yes, they are different! HACA, now called Heritage Adaptation Policy Initiative (HAPi), is focused on policy advocacy for heritage. While members of HAPi participate in Heritage Adapts!, they are not the same thing.
In 2023 the UN adopted the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) framework which includes a target for adapting cultural heritage. The Heritage Adapts to Climate Alliance (HACA) was formed shortly thereafter to coordinate engagement by advocates in GGA policy processes with a focus on indicator development. Ultimately over 300 colleagues joined HACA. Many of these HACA participants are among the founding partners of Heritage Adapts! butHeritage Adapts! has a much broader aim than HACA, focusing not only on international policy and indicators but on local work to plan and implement adaptive strategies and all the means of implementation needed to support that work. Yet policy is still crucial to these aims. To support that outcome, HACA has been rebranded to the Heritage Adaptation Climate Initiative (HAPi) and has moved to within the Heritage Adapts! Community of Action.
HAPi is a space for exchange and action on heritage and climate policy. Key HACA resources such as the Feed and Resource Wall have been retained and all HACA users will continue to have access to them under the HAPi banner. Increasingly, HACA users will be joined in these spaces by other Heritage Adapts! members interested in policy and advocacy. While original HACA participants will continue to have access to these rebranded HACA spaces, in order to have access to the balance of Heritage Adapts!, original HACA members who have not already done so will need to register directly for Heritage Adapts. Open registration for Heritage Adapts! will begin on 4 June.
Every organization, institution, government, and business has a role to play in protecting culture and heritage from climate change. Heritage Adapts! makes it simple to join this global movement. Choose the path that fits your mission—Leadership Partner, Supporting Partner, or Service Provider.
Supporting Partners are groups/organizations that agree to endorse the Heritage Adapts! Campaign and promote it to their network(s). Supporting Partners will gain wider visibility as a climate adaptation and heritage leader and will be well positioned to help colleagues in their respective networks access the Campaign’s rich resources for supporting local action.
Service Providers are organizations offering any type of free or for-fee adaptation-related goods and services – from climate modeling services to training opportunities. Listing in the Heritage Adapts Service Providers Directory allows these providers to offer their services directly to those who need them.
Learn more about partnerships here.
Heritage Adapts! is recognized by the UN's Climate High Level Champions as one of about 120 Plans to Accelerate Solutions (PAS). The Heritage Adapts! PAS aims to be a premier effort in the world to realize the ambitions of the new Global Goal on Adaptation cultural heritage thematic target (Target 9g) adopted at the 2023 UN Climate Summit (COP28).
If not please email help@heritageadapts.org. We hope to see you in the community!
Still have questions?
Reach out to a member of our team and we will do our best to assist you.