By Makoma Lekalakala
September in South Africa is themed Heritage Month to annually build up to our National Heritage Day on the 24th. The link with climate change is relevant for understanding the vulnerabilities that threaten the values of cultural heritage, but also for the development of adaptation and mitigation strategies powered by the knowledge, experiences, and skills inherited from the past and remain part of our daily lives.
In its Sixth Assessment Report published in August 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) painted a dire image of the future by pointing out that “recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid, and intensifying, and unprecedented in thousands of years”. Climate change is having an increasing and lasting impact on our environment and society, and cultural heritage is in no way spared.
From the wildfires in Phalaborwa to the flooding and the recent high tide in the Western Cape and the droughts in Kgalagadi in the Northern Cape, our heritage estate is being impacted by climate-induced disaster in every corner of our beautiful and culturally endowed country.
Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and climate change
The integration of cultural heritage into the discussion of the causes and effects of climate change and of the solutions to address it had not been a priority for managers and policymakers, something that was evident at different levels, from IPCC reports to local, regional, and national policies, and that raised criticism from the sector during the past decade.
These disasters should be understood and often be prepared for communities to always be in a safer place if they happen, hence the revisiting of indigenous knowledge systems in mitigating such effects of environmental and climatic disasters.
Recent research and literature have also highlighted the need to address socio-ecological contexts in future management responses, particularly for traditional ways of living underpinned by opportunities for cultural heritage to enhance resilience. The value of indigenous knowledge in climate change should be seen as a mechanism to develop knowledge on prevention of disasters, mitigation and climate adaptation so that communities recover.
Cultural and natural heritage can make communities more resilient in the face of climate change. These cultural practices have proven to be highly effective tools for helping communities prepare for, respond to and recover from climate change-related disasters, and they should be more systematically used in climate risk management strategies at national levels.
Climate change adaptation can be employed to reduce damage to cultural heritage or to exploit opportunities associated with climate change impacts (IPCC 2014) and is vital for safeguarding cultural heritage. Despite the need for climate adaptation solutions for cultural heritage, these have not been widely initiated and few examples of completed climate adaptation plans or policies that address various cultural heritage types exist at the national level.
A wealth of indigenous knowledge
Rural communities continue to appreciate that adaptation and mitigation strategies rely on this existing knowledge, and they continue to use this wealth to predict climate hazards, assisting them to address climate change challenges and make subsequent decisions regarding adaptation. Through tried and tested experiences, rural communities have since time immemorial developed to deal with unstable environments, and in some cases, are already actively adapting to early climate change impacts.
Many opportunities have arisen from research, science and big data, and many are still to be discovered. But through this we must further explore how to make cultural heritage a readily available resource for climate mitigation and sustainable development.
All said, we ashamedly admit that there remains marginalisation of indigenous peoples from the climate change policy in the mainstream of global climate change discourse to the existing traditional knowledge on climate science.
Such international discourse has often failed to benefit from valuable insights on direct and indirect impacts, as well as mitigation and adaptation approaches held by indigenous people worldwide. South Africa is no different and therefore there is a strong case for bringing the cultural heritage sector into the climate debate and our transition to a just society.
South Africa has a rich history of indigenous knowledge systems grounded in a strong tradition. For example, agricultural indigenous knowledge is one of the foundations for rural livelihoods, preserving biodiversity and ensuring sustainable food production.
As we bring in everyone on board, one can only concur that rural concerns and needs afford us a concrete case for the development and promotion of climate change adaptation strategies, informed by local knowledge systems.
For now, I remain hopeful that my views will resuscitate the debate around climate change and indigenous knowledge, and make sure that we leave no one behind.
Makoma Lekalakala is PCC Commissioner and Chairperson of PCC Working Group on Adaptation. She is the executive director of Earthlife Africa.
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