Human observations of late Quaternary coastal change: examples from Australia, Europe and the Pacific Islands

In the aftermath of the last ice age, when sea level rose along most of the world's coastline, the activities of coastal peoples were impacted by coastal submergence, land loss and sometimes isolation as offshore islands formed. In some parts of the world, there is clear evidence that people encoded their observations of postglacial sea-level rise into oral traditions that were communicated across hundreds of generations to reach us today in an intelligible form. In other contexts, people's observations of rising sea level are likely to have formed the foundations of ‘legends’ about undersea places and the peoples inhabiting them. For a selection of coastal sites in Australia and northwest Europe, this study discusses a range of contrasting situations in which culturally-grounded stories about coastal submergence, land loss and isolation plausibly recollect the nature and effects of postglacial sea-level rise. Using science-based histories of postglacial sea-level change, minimum ages are determined for each group of site-specific stories; in the case of Australia, these range from 7000–11,500 BP, for northwest Europe from 5500 to 9500 BP. For selected sites in the Pacific Islands, where human settlement about 3000 years BP post-dated the end of postglacial sea-level rise, localized submergence is recalled in traditional stories of local people. It is argued that studies of late Quaternary coastal evolution can often be filled out by adding details from stories preserved in local cultures, something which leads to a clearer picture of the human-societal impacts of coastal submergence and land loss than can be obtained from palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and geological evidence alone

Building capacity for climate adaptation planning in protected area management: Options and challenges for World Heritage

"Response and adaptation to the impacts of climate change is a vital and increasing requirement for protected area management. On the ground managers of cultural and natural values in protected places have requested practical guidance on how to undertake climate change impact analysis, vulnerability assessment, and adaptation plan- ning together with enhanced capacity for planning with partners, rightsholders and stakeholders. In this paper we explore how co-development and subsequent testing among World Heritage site managers, Indigenous ex- perts and researchers, produced guidance for assessing, responding to and planning for the impacts of climate change on the diverse values of World Heritage sites in Australia. We draw on the diversity of cultural and natural heritage values associated with the terrestrial, coastal and marine environments in Australian World Heritage sites, and the broad range of institutional contexts in these sites, to highlight considerations of relevance to other protected areas (including other World Heritage sites around the world, Ramsar wetlands and marine protected areas). Our paper highlights that, for climate adaptation planning to become a normal part of man- agement, there is a need for ongoing capacity building, including around the use of climate information to inform adaptation planning and implementation, as well as integrating Indigenous perspectives. Building capacity mayinvolve trial and error, negotiation, sharing, sourcing and interpreting new information, and changes in""expectations. It will require novel and more dynamic relationships between partners and stakeholders. Managers should include capacity building for climate adaptation planning and implementation as a specific climate"adaptation task in their planning.