We are proud to welcome the custodians of seven extraordinary heritage places and practices to the Preserving Legacies climate adaptation cohort program. From coastal settlements and parks racing against rising seas, to agricultural and pastoral landscapes enduring prolonged drought, this group reflects the diversity and depth of heritage on the frontlines of climate change. 

A big welcome to the 2026 Preserving Legacies Cohort:‍

🌋 Engaresero GIAHS Site — Ngorongoro District, Tanzania
A natural and cultural landscape deeply connected to Maasai pastoralist traditions and home to the largest collection of human fossil footprints in Africa, now facing prolonged drought and shifting rainfall that threaten both the land and the cultural knowledge it sustains.

🌊 Kci-peskiyak — Sipayik (Pleasant Point), ME
A Passamaquoddy coastal homeland where an extraordinary tidal pulse sustains rare eelgrass meadows and sweetgrass of deep cultural and spiritual significance, now facing a rapidly warming Gulf of Maine and rising seas.

🌲 Lahemaa National Park — Estonia
A living landscape along the Baltic Sea coast where forests, wetlands, and historic villages reflect centuries of human-nature connection, increasingly threatened by more changing seasonality which brings more frequent storms and coastal erosion.

🏝️ Lamu Old Town — Lamu Island, Kenya
The oldest continuously inhabited town in Kenya and the best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa, its coral stone architecture, carved wooden doors, and narrow streets reflect centuries of African, Arab, Asian, and European cultural exchange, now vulnerable to rising seas, coastal flooding, and saltwater intrusion accelerating the decay of its historic fabric.

🏯 Mount Wutai — Shanxi, China
A sacred Buddhist site with over 1,600 years of history and some of China's oldest wooden structures, identified as one of the country's most climate-exposed World Heritage Sites due to extreme precipitation and freeze-thaw cycles threatening its ancient timber buildings.

🌈 Mosi-Oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls — Livingstone, Zambia
Home to the widest continuous curtain of falling water in the world, this World Heritage Site sustains a unique spray-fed rainforest and abundant biodiversity, now threatened by prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall diminishing the Zambezi River's flow and the spray that sustains its rare ecosystem.

🌿 Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines – Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem – Battir — Battir – Bethlehem – Palestine
A 4,000-year-old agricultural landscape in Palestine where natural springs feed an ancient irrigation system still managed by local families today, increasingly stressed by extreme heat, prolonged drought, and intense rainfall events that threaten both the physical landscape and the practices that sustain it.

This group is also proof of a narrative that more people need to hear—one of local stewards collaborating across countries and cultures, each bringing their own distinct histories, perspectives, skills, and relationships to create a well of knowledge and experience that strengthens not only their own communities but communities across the entire program.

They are joining 30 heritage places and practices who are in different phases of our flagship 3-year climate adaptation cohort program, which supports local custodians with the tools, training, and networks needed to design and implement values-based climate adaptation strategies. Grounded in principles that are community-led, values-driven, science-informed, and open-access, the program supports communities to protect what they value most.

As Foundation Sites, this cohort will spend their first year strengthening climate and cultural literacy, preparing for values-based risk assessments, and building the groundwork for long-term adaptation action.

We are honored to begin this journey alongside them.