Explore our cultural and natural heritage sites across the globe
Preserving Legacies is partnered with 10 cultural and natural heritage sites in 2023. These places of cultural significance, explored below, represent different heritage typologies, like archeological sites and living agricultural landscapes, and different climate threats, like sea level rise and extreme heat. While this diverse first cohort spans continents, cultures, and climate impacts, they all share a deep commitment to learn, connect, and build something new together.
Primary Sites
In the first year of Preserving Legacies, our two primary sites will go through a more robust program to link climate science and site conservation by enabling access to locally downscaled climate change models and organize a community-led workshop of the sites’ climate vulnerability as well as impacts on local communities.
Cadet Sites
In the first year of Preserving Legacies, eight cadet sites have been chosen to fully engage in climate heritage training and a peer-to-peer learning experience. Site custodians from these sites will shadow the full process at Petra and the Rice Terraces, including attending their workshops, to better prepare for their own assessments in 2024.
Angkor Wat
Angkor is a living Word Heritage site in Cambodia’s northern province of Siem Reap. It extends over a large area, contains 112 villages and is famous for its spectacular remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. It is also known for its incredible hydraulic structures including reservoirs, canals, dykes and drainage basins built, not only for daily life and agriculture purposes, but also to assure the stability of the temples. Angkor is a truly unique collection of archaeological sites, monuments, landscapes and natural environments where communities continue to live and farm. During the last few decades, it has become a major international tourist destination welcoming people from all over the world yet is threatened by changing weather patterns which, combined with population growth, and putting strain on existing water management systems.