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Environment and culture

We’re exploring the intricate relationship between cultural heritage and the environment. Through creative projects and close collaboration with Indigenous peoples, our researchers are developing new understanding of how the heritage and tourism industries can adapt to the threat of climate change.

International bodies and landmark reports all recognise that climate change adaptation, water conservation and conversion to clean energy are intimately tied to Indigenous nations, their lands and their territories. International Indigenous rights, treaties and relationships with Indigenous peoples are central to the whole global energy transition.

Professor Joy Porter
Professor of Indigenous and Environmental History
  • Can Tho musicians

    Changing attitudes through music

    Featured project

    With £1.75 million in funding from a European Research Council Consolidator Grant, Dr Alexander Cannon’s five-year research programme, SoundDecisions, is investigating how music could increase Indigenous farmers’ uptake of new technologies in the Mekong Delta. The project is capturing and measuring how traditional music practice among these local farmers in southern Vietnam helps to build trust and open them up to new ideas on managing and mitigating the impacts of climate change.

    Fight climate change through music

Cultural decarbonisation

Dr Hiroki Shin is exploring whether cultural projects can be a pathway to societal decarbonisation. His research considers ways to mobilise the culture and heritage sectors to contribute to – and lead – the global decarbonisation effort through creative means. Working with diverse institutions, such as museums and heritage sites, Dr Shin aims to develop a collaborative network of researchers, scientists and heritage experts to develop novel and imaginative solutions to our world's environmental problems.

Heritage-led tourism in the former Aral Sea

This collaborative research project aims to set out a strategy for heritage-led tourism and sustainable economic development in the former Aral Sea area of Karakalpakstan. Focusing upon the former coastal fishing port of Muynak – now a desert location with problems worsened by climate change – we’re scoping potential community-led development that could build capacity for tourism based on the region’s threatened cultural and natural heritage assets.

Historic Houses, Global Crossroads

Historic properties and their environments face severe challenges from climate change and a lack of diversity due to the perception that they represent only empire and exploitation. Professor Joy Porter and the Treatied Spaces Research Group are revealing how historic sites can position themselves in a new way, as intersections of diplomatic, material and intercultural exchange. The research focuses on two of Northern Ireland’s most globally significant yet under-analysed heritage sites: the Clandeboye Estate and the National Trust’s Mount Stewart.