Victoria Herrmann is head of an organisation leading Heritage Adapts!, a new global campaign to unite the heritage sector on plans for locally-led climate adaptation.
Gates Cambridge Scholar Victoria Herrmann is one of the driving forces behind Heritage Adapts!, the first global campaign uniting the heritage sector behind a shared mission: to bring together at least 3,000 sites and practices taking locally-led climate adaptation action by 2030.
Victoria is Director of Preserving Legacies: A Future for Our Past, a National Geographic project that empowers communities worldwide with the scientific knowledge and technical training to implement climate adaptation plans to safeguard their cultural heritage.
The Heritage Adapts! campaign is spearheaded by a coalition led by Preserving Legacies. It launched last week and mobilises local stewards behind a collective pledge, equipping them with the technical guidance, localised data access and global connections they need to succeed. Recognised under the UN’s Global Climate Action Agenda as one of 120 promising climate delivery plans, Heritage Adapts! is about strengthening community resilience through protecting heritage.
The launch of Heritage Adapts! comes as climate risks to heritage continue to grow. Climate-related hazards across UNESCO-designated sites have increased 40% in a decade, and more than one in four could hit potentially irreversible tipping points by 2050, according to a recent UNESCO report. But Heritage Adapts! says this data covers only a fraction of the world’s heritage and that most sites and practices that communities value remain untracked by international frameworks.
In a press release about the launch, the organisation says: “That gap is itself part of the problem. Heritage adaptation also still remains largely absent from climate finance and policy, leaving many stewards with limited funding and support. Yet heritage is not just at risk – it is part of the solution, a source of community resilience and time-tested solutions relevant today.”
Heritage Adapts!, with its founding coalition of more than 100 organisations and stewards globally, aims to fill that gap and accelerate climate adaptation for all types of heritage.
Andrew Potts, Policy Director of the Preserving Legacies programme, says: “As the world hurtles toward 2 degrees Celsius of warming, we are in a race to help communities – and the culture and heritage that sustain them – adapt while there is still time. The UN’s new Global Goal on adapting cultural heritage can be transformative, but only if it fuels real support for every site and cultural practice. Around the world, partners are uniting to urgently seize this moment. That shared resolve is the driving force behind Heritage Adapts!”
At its core is an online community of action platform built around a self-paced programme through every stage of adaptation, making the process accessible no matter the starting point.
Dan Ioschpe, COP 30 Climate High-Level Champion, says: “This initiative is critical because culture and heritage connect communities to their identity, land, history and future. They shape how people understand risk, respond to change, and build resilience. As emphasised during COP30, climate action begins and ends with people, and culture is one of the most powerful tools for lasting change. This initiative demonstrates the strengths of the climate action agenda and its alignment with the global goal on adaptation as a platform for multi-stakeholder collaboration and implementation.”
Victoria [2014], who is also a National Geographic Explorer, Assistant Research Professor at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at The Arctic Institute, has spent the past decade leading research initiatives and directing capacity building programmes to support communities adapt on the front lines of the climate crisis and safeguard their cultural heritage.
For more information, go to www.heritageadapts.org.
