Transcript “Environmental Law and the Threats of Global Climate Change to

“Environmental Law and the Threats of
Global Climate Change to Cultural
Heritage Sites”
Stefan Gruber
Faculty of Law, University of Sydney
Cultural heritage sites
• Culture plays a significant role in the survival of all
individual parts of populations as distinguishable
elements of humankind
• Heritage sites remind people of their cultural
identities, pasts and traditions
• Reminders of the human need to adapt to the
environment
• What is considered as valuable and as worthy of
being preserved for future generations?
Early impacts of climate
change
• First human settlements in the early
stages of the Holocene interglacial,
8,000 BC
• Warm period before Little Ice Age (ca.
1550-1850)
• Impacts on viniculture and agriculture
Deterioration of permafrost
• Hastened soil erosion
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Ground starts to slump
Land slides
Coastal erosion
No protection by sea ice
Deterioration of permafrost 2
• Hastened decay of organic material
– No protection by ice
– BUT: the melting of ice sheets sometimes reveals
archaeological treasures
– Sites are exposed to humidity
• Douglas Mawson’s hut at Cape Denison in the
Antarctic Commonwealth Bay, 1911 and 1914
• Scott’s hut, Cape Evans, Antarctica; 1 kilometre away
from the Barne Glacier and its fifty metres high
terminal wall of ice
Desertification
• UNCCD, Art. 1(a): “land degradation in
arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas
resulting from various factors, including
climatic variations and human activities”
• Removal of a protective cover from fertile
soil in dry zones
• Sand dunes stabilised by vegetation
• Increasing number of windstorms
• Irreversible process
Desertification 2
• Sand encroachments
• Grinding effects of sandstorms
• Sites are deserted by local population
Ocean rise and floods
• 85 % of Earth’s freshwater is frozen at the
polar caps
• 70% of the world population live in coastal
areas
• Coastal erosion
• Floods in river deltas
• Threat to groundwater, e.g. island
communities in Southern Pacific region
• Increasing number of heavy storms
Cultural landscapes
• Often very fragile ecosystems
• Loss of local population
– secure ecological stability
– prevent soil erosion
• Loss of cultural landscapes
– Landscapes shaped by humans
– Regional architecture
– Ecosystems
• Loss of intangible heritage
UNFCCC
• Prevention or adaptation?
• Or both?
• Mitigation and adaptation are no
antipodes, but closely interlinked
World Heritage Convention
• The duty to identify a nation’s heritage and
to maintain the integrity of its outstanding
universal value
• World Heritage and climate change
• “[The State Party] will do all it can to this
end, to the utmost of its own resources ...”
• The Precautionary Principle
• List of World Heritage in Danger
– Monitoring through IUCN and ICOMOS
– States Parties report on a regular basis
Cultural heritage in arctic
and alpine regions
• Protocol on Environmental Protection
to the Antarctic Treaty (Annex V)
• Increased monitoring
• Salvage operations
Combating desertification
• UNCCD
• More guidance of local communities
• Threats to dry areas
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Short-term economic aims
Unsustainable land use
Unsustainable water use
Development pressure
Combating desertification 2
• Efficient regulation only through a
combined application of water law,
land use law and construction law
• Specific actions regarding heritage
sites
– Buffer zones
– Existing sand encroachment must be
removed continuously
– Increased monitoring of remote sites
Preventive measures against
flooding
• Embankments
• Compulsory protection plans
– UNESCO: Overtopping of Thames barrier
would cause damage of GBP 30 billion
and flood three World Heritage Sites
– Hurricane Katrina caused damage of over
USD 80 billion. The implementation of
the protection plan would have cost USD
14 billion
Protecting rural cultural
landscapes
• Land use regulations
• prevention of further soil degradation
• protection of water supplies
• sustainable access to resources
• minimising development pressure
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Establishment of buffer zones
Adaptation of agriculture to climate change
Support for rural communities
Protection of minorities
Prevention of further urbanisation
Conclusion
• Law must be used in a holistic way to
create a comprehensive system of legal
instruments and enforcement
mechanisms
• Possible precautionary measures to
potential threats must be examined as
early as possible
• Cultural heritage is a non-renewable
resource!