SWAT: Archaeologists and heritage experts on Sunday stressed that climate change adaptation to cultural heritage was essential and indispensable for protecting the heritage monuments and sites from the global impacts of climate change.

They were speaking at a workshop titled ‘Climate Change Adaptation for Cultural Heritage’ held here.

The workshop focused on training in digital documentation under the slogan ‘Preserving the Past, Rocking the Future’. Essanoor Associates, a private entity, organised the workshop as part of the project ‘Preservation of the Late Buddhist Rock Heritage of Swat - Digitalisation of Preventive Conservation’.

This project is funded by the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund.

Essanoor Associates is implementing the project in collaboration with the Italian Archaeological Mission to Pakistan (ISMEO), the Heritage Management Organisation, and the Department of Archaeology and Museums, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The participants included archaeologists, forest department officials, students, civil society members, and journalists.

International experts Dr Maja Kominko, director of projects at the Heritage Management Organisation and Dr Peter Brimblecombe conducted the training.

Dr Kominko stated that heritage monuments and artifacts were threatened by climate change and that archaeologists and the community must undertake climate change adaptation to preserve this precious heritage for the future. “Apart from vandalism and theft, urban development, earthquakes, global warming, landslides, floods, and storms are major threats,” she said, adding the rich Buddhist rock carvings in Swat and Gandhara regions were exposed to climate change effects, including stronger sun, more dust, wind, rain, landslides and floods.

Dr Kominko also urged the participants to relate the archaeological sites to local people so they could take their ownership.

Kashif Essa, the project’s team leader, said the course aimed to build capacity among local stakeholders, including museum professionals, to address the challenges posed by climate change.

The participants said the training was much needed for archaeologists and those who worked at archaeological sites.

“We learned several climate change adaptation techniques for heritage sites and artifacts. We learned the different layers of climate change, from global to specific sites, and how to protect them through scientific means and techniques,” said Mohammad Adnan, assistant curator of the Peshawar Museum.

Salman Khan, project coordinator and documentation expert, and Syed Uzair Ahmad, digital technology and IT officer, trained the participants on photogrammetry and 3D scanning to digitalise archaeological sites.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2024