Heritage Ecologies: culture, resilience and development in Island States

Project Information

ECO-HERITAGES

Grant agreement ID: 101065646

DOI

10.3030/101065646

Project closed

EC signature date 7 December 2022

Start date 13 February 2023

End date 12 February 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 161 411,52

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA TA MALTA
Malta

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECO-HERITAGES (Heritage Ecologies: culture, resilience and development in Island States)

Reporting period: 2023-02-13 to 2025-02-12

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This project investigates the role of cultural heritages in promoting local economic development and sustaining social and environmental resiliencies in the context of Small Island States (SIS), Small Island and Developing States (SIDS), and Sub-National Island Jurisdictions (SNIJs) located in Europe and in Indian Ocean Africa. The research focuses on the SIS of Malta, the SIDS of Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles and the SNIJs of the French islands territories of Reunion and Mayotte.
This research enables disciplinary bridges to address socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities in insular and archipelagic contexts in the face of climate change. Being extremely vulnerable to climate change due to their small territory and particular exposure to sea-level rise, small islands and archipelagos became crucial case studies for its consequences in a global scenario. While climate change affects cultural and natural contexts, heritage management and indigenous cultures may provide solutions through traditionally established cultural systems that integrate ecological preservation and social development.
The results of this research are aimed to inform operational programs in the context of SIS, SIDS and island SNIJs promoting the integration of heritagization processes and indigenous knowledge systems in actions for sustainable futures. Furthermore, this research addresses the pressing challenge, at a European and global level, of developing expertise to promote effective mitigation of the social, economic and ecological consequences of climate change.
Through an innovative interdisciplinary methodology this proposal aims at advancing knowledge and contribute, overall, to the role of Malta, a European Union (EU) Small Island State, and of ISSI, in the commitments pledged by the EU in the context of the United Nations Actions for Sustainable Development and its Development and Cooperation policy, as well as the mission areas related to the oceans, climate change and societal transformation of the Horizon Europe 2021-2027 Framework.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project began with the building of an encompassing bibliographical database and a systematic literature review. This has proven to be a useful tool and an important output of the research.
Several periods of ethnographic fieldwork were carried out in Malta, Mauritius, Seychelles, Reunion, Mayotte and Comoros. This was the core of the project research. One of the most relevant achievements is to have a multi-sited study of the relations between cultural heritage in the small African islands in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean state of Malta. This focused on the diverse heritage elements studied, their governance and management aspects, the public debates regarding the impact these elements have in the lives of the local populations and their access to natural resources, and their role in sustainability and climate change actions, as well as their contribution to social and sustainable development.
This allows a relevant contribution to the existing literature with the analysis of comparative case studies and to forward the importance of small islands in studies on climate change and the place culture has in contributing to adaptation measures.
Another achievement is to enhance dialogues between the contexts of small insular states and subnational island jurisdictions, opening the research focused on SIDS (Small Island Developing States) to include territories with a diversity of jurisdiction status.
Finally, establishing and enhancing connections between the stakeholders contacted in the different territories is a positive output, allowing for dialogues and future collaborative research proposals.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

One of the objectives of this project was to build a bibliographical database for each of the locations, including a regional focus. This, when made open-access, will allow for a stronger inclusion of islands in the growing body of studies on climate change and cultural heritage.
The project’s concerns, methodologies and results have been shared in several academic conferences and international meetings, confirming the initial hypothesis that the role of cultural heritage is relevant for climate change actions as well as it is a field of growing interest in forging collaborations and future initiatives. The scientific publications coming out of the project (finalised and under review) will contribute to the body of literature in the field, enlarging the importance of small islands in the study of the intersection of cultural heritage and climate change.
This research has also been shared and discussed in several events that we organized and integrated, both in academic conferences, in South Africa, Aruba and Indonesia, as well in the UN SIDS4 Conference in Antigua and Barbuda and the UN Ocean Conference in Barcelona (2024), the forthcoming Island Innovation Summit on Sustainable Islands in Saint Kitts and Nevis and the UN Oceans Conference in Nice. These activities have an impact not only in the direct dissemination of the research but also in the building of networks and collaborations for research and conference events that go beyond the geographical scope of the project.
These results express the project’s contributions at an academic level as well as at policy-making and international platforms, as UN SIDS and UNESCO.

Reunion National Park. The Cilaos Cirque. Reunion

Vallee de Mai, UNESCO Natural Heritage. Praslin Island, Seychelles

The "Parc Marin de Mayotte". The laggon, Mayotte

Mwali UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Comoros

Le Morne UNESCO Cultural Landscape and its lagoon, from the sky. Mauritius

Tarxien Megalithic Temple, Malta