About Preserving Legacies
A global organization advancing locally led adaptation to safeguard heritage places and practices from the impacts of climate change, strengthening community resilience.
Our Mission
To support communities with training, tools, and connections to adapt their heritage places and practices from the impacts of climate change.
Our Vision
A world where communities lead climate adaptation, safeguarding heritage and redefining resilience to build a more just, equitable, and sustainable future where all may thrive.
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Our Values
These guiding principles are woven into all that we do.
Resilient communities are ones that own their adaptation process, data, and solutions.
Rooting adaptation action in values ensures that solutions are aligned with community priorities.
Democratizing access to climate adaptation is critical for scaling climate solutions, especially for frontline communities.
Integrating cutting edge science into our processes keeps us on the forefront of what's possible.
Why it Matters
Heritage defines, connects, and inspires us. It also holds answers to our resilience—the wisdom, skills, and practices that have helped communities adapt and thrive for generations are vital tools for navigating our future. And just as biodiverse ecosystems are more resilient, so too are culturally diverse ones.
Climate change is the fastest-growing threat to heritage worldwide, and its impacts are intensifying each year. Fires, floods, and storms not only erode the physical integrity of cultural places, but also the social fabric of the communities tied to them. When heritage is lost, so too is a part of our resilience. That’s why we need to act now to protect what matters most and strengthen our ability to meet the future.
Natural heritage sites are threatened by climate change
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Cultural heritage sites are threatened by climate change
Our Programs
Whether you’re a heritage professional or community organizer, climate scientist or storyteller, there is a home for you at Preserving Legacies.
Climate Custodian Cohort Program
A 3-year program that guides an annual cohort of 10 heritage places on a climate adaptation journey, from education to action.
Heritage Adapts!
A platform for self-guided learning, insights sharing, and relationship building to support anyone looking to take action to safeguard their site.
Climate Literacy Training
A curated collection of resources, insights, and tools - including our custom Regional Data Hub to help you localize climate data!
Do you represent an organization? Learn about custom collaborations here.
Our Framework
Our values-driven, locally led framework centers underrepresented voices and weaves scientific, Indigenous, and local knowledge together to ensures solutions are effective—culturally relevant, equitable, and locally sustainable.
Enhance capacity through climate literacy training and understanding of plural knowledge system approaches.
Develop climate risk assessments and adaptation plans rooted in localized climate data and community values.
Pilot a locally-led climate adaptation action for testing, monitoring, and evaluating.
Scale successful solutions and share insights with a global community of action.
Our Methodology
Our framework is powered by a feedback loop of connections, insights, and storytelling—local heritage stewards that we support develop and share learnings from their unique experiences on the frontlines of climate adaptation with one another, and we re-integrate those insights into our programming to impact the next climate heritage heroes.
Our Impact
120
Places & practices engaged in climate adaptation
803
Local leaders taking action
47
Countries where the work is happening
Our Team
Meet the full team →
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Our partners
The climate crisis is too big to go at it alone and we are honored to work with partners who share our vision.
