‍"We are standing at a crossroads regarding cultural heritage and climate change - we still have time to act, but we have to do so fast in order to safeguard our valuable heritages.” - Tale Selstad Gjervan, Preserving Legacies Climate Custodian, Sjøgata Preservation Area, Norway

Tale cares for Sjøgata, the longest continuous wooden house street in Northern Norway, featuring a unique mix of fishing huts, boathouses, sea houses, and residential structures. Rising sea levels, increased river flooding, and avalanches all threaten its future. Knowing she needed to act soon, Tale applied to our Climate Heritage Cohort Program and was selected for the 2025 Cohort with her colleague Arunas Palionis from the Helgeland Museum, where they both work.

“I jumped at the chance to be a part of Preserving Legacies,” Tale shared. “Such an opportunity only comes around once in a lifetime!”

She joined custodians caring for places ranging from the Civil Rights-era Historic Hampton House in Miami, FL to the biodiverse, cultural landscape of Tahuna-Glenorchy in Aotearoa / New Zealand. Alongside them, she's enhanced her climate literacy through our intensive training and traveled to Bahia, Brazil to experience a locally led climate risk assessment workshop firsthand. Drawing on that knowledge and experience, she has been engaging her own community around heritage values an climate risk to understand what is valued most and what is most at stake. Now, she is turning that work into a climate risk assessment that will shape adaptation action in the year ahead.

Tale is on the path every custodian in our program walks: learn, assess, act. We're looking for the custodians of the next ten heritage places to begin their own adaptation journey. Will it be you? Learn more and Apply.

How it works

Applications are open now for our 2027 Cohort, running nearly four years from March 2027 - December 2030. The deadline to apply is January 8, 2027 at 11:59pm EST (UTC-5).

Those selected will receive hands-on support — including training, tools, networking, and funding — through all stages of locally led adaptation. Here’s the framework:

• Year 1, Learn: Begin a free virtual training program to enhance your skills in climate science, risk assessment, and adaptation, and attend a fully funded trip to an international workshop for in-person learning and exchange.
• Year 2, Assess: Engage your community and local stakeholders to co-create a climate risk assessment, weaving localized climate data with lived experience to understand what is valued most and what is most at risk. 
• Year 3, Adapt: Design and implement an adaptation action tailored to your community’s needs and culture, supported by a seed grant, targeted training, and access to partner networks to help bring your vision to life.

We can select only ten heritage places, and each application must name two custodians who would take part if selected. Start preparing now so your application is thoughtfully completed. 

A different kind of program

As Tale said, this truly is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for anyone caring for heritage. Here’s what makes it stand out:

• Built for action: Each year builds on the last, so that you finish with an implemented adaptation action, not just an assessment or plan.
• Locally led: Your community and stakeholders shape the risk assessment and the response.
• Meaningful relationships: You learn alongside, and support, custodians from around the world.

"The greatest thing that they do, and I'm not sure they realize it, is their ability to connect people. It's so empowering and I feel like I can go out and change the world because I'm with a team." - Preserving Legacies Climate Custodian Darren Rewi, Tāhuna Glenorchy - Aotearoa / New Zealand

A candid word about the commitment

We want to be upfront: this is a substantial program. Participation is a nearly four year commitment, running from March 2027 through December 2030, with alumni programming after. We designed it to be intensive because we invest deeply in every custodian and place. Here’s the time commitment we’ve seen on average:

• Year 1: about 18 days of online training spread across the year, regular networking sessions, additional reading, and an in-person international workshop of roughly 10 days.
• Year 2: monthly training and peer-learning sessions, plus leading the assessment itself. Past participants report spending 150–250 hours over this phase, or about 3–5 hours a week.
• Year 3: ongoing learning and cohort sessions while implementing your adaptation action.

Before applying, consider honestly whether you and a second custodian can sustain this alongside your existing responsibilities. If the answer is yes, we'd love to hear from you! If the answer is no, there is still a home for you in Heritage Adapts! - our "community of action" including a self-paced, online version of the program.

Ready to apply to the 2027 Cohort?  Learn more and apply here!