Session Description
Over the past two decades, the increase in applicability of international lender standards and development bank frameworks have broadened the scope of cultural heritage assessment beyond archaeological sites and historic structures to include intangible cultural heritage (ICH), traditional knowledge, cultural practices, and living cultural landscapes. Yet despite this progress, the assessment and management of ICH remains one of the most complex areas of impact assessment practice.
Drawing on case studies from Indigenous and local communities worldwide, including Sámi reindeer herding landscapes in northern Europe and sacred cultural landscapes in West and East Africa—this session explores how impacts on living and intangible cultural heritage can be more effectively identified, assessed, and managed. These case studies demonstrate that cultural values, traditional practices, and knowledge systems cannot be solely understood through static baseline studies alone. Instead, they require adaptive approaches that recognise cultural heritage as dynamic, evolving, and intrinsically linked to identity.
The session highlights the growing role of community-led monitoring as a mechanism for addressing changing cultural baselines. Unlike conventional compliance monitoring, community-led approaches enable Indigenous Peoples and local communities to define indicators of cultural wellbeing, document the continuity of cultural practices, manage access to culturally significant places, and track the transfer of traditional knowledge across generations.
Session Summary
The session explores how impact assessment can better safeguard intangible cultural heritage through adaptive, rights-based and community-led monitoring approaches that place Indigenous Peoples and local communities at the centre of decision-making.
Session Chair
Jessica McIver
Environmental Resources Management
United Kingdom