Heritage Studies

We are excited to share the final publication of "Young Climate Action for World Heritage"! The publication presents and honours the impressive engagement of students who committed themselves to World Heritage and climate protection. It showcases the project's results, provides guidance on student-centred, transformative and action-oriented World Heritage education, and offers a practical toolkit for exploring World Heritage.

In his Words of Welcome, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, Director of the World Heritage Centre, expresses that this publication "will inspire educators and practitioners to undertake similar approaches to empowering youth to protect and promote World Heritage in times of climate change."

The project and the publication were made possible through the collaboration of the and the , with funding and support from the .

Download the publication here:https://heritagestudies.eu/youngclimateaction/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/YCA_Abschlusspublikation_EN_Web_final.pdf

Do not miss the chance to see the students' arts exhibition developed in the project "Young Climate Action for World Heritage" at the Oberharzer Bergwerksmuseum!

An impressive and moving exhibition featuring students' diverse artworks on climate change in their home region at the World Heritage Site “Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System”.

The works of arts address the massive tree death in the Harz and its impact on the World Heritage Site. The exhibition encompasses among others a student's forest diary, a collage of trees, sounds from the tree cutting, dying plants and a plastic soup-cup, ironically advertising “Harz-Seeds” like an instant soup.

How young people can become active in World Heritage and climate protection was shown last Thursday at the final conference of the project took place at the World Heritage Site "Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin".
The highlights of the program included a marketplace, where young people presented their projects, engaging participants in various activities. The guests played escape games, watched short films, listened to podcasts, discussed the art pieces and much more.
Other highlights of the event included a simulation game and the filming of their own videos🎞🎥, in which the young people addressed questions about the impact of climate change on World Heritage sites.

We would like to thank everyone involved for the exciting final event 👏 and look forward to presenting various ideas from the schools here in the coming days.

Young Climate Action for World Heritage is a project of the Institute Heritage Studies and the German Commission for UNESCO, which is funded by DBU (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt). The project and the closing event are also supported by the participating World Heritage Sites and the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing.



Photos: German Commission for UNESCO, Laurent Hoffmann

Young Climate Action for World Heritage - Youth Summit begins!

We are thrilled to finally welcome students and teachers of UNESCO Associated Schools and beyond at the World Heritage Site “Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin”.

The young people are preparing the presentation of their projects on World Heritage and climate protection - from Escape Games and podcasts to short films and an art exhibition. Tomorrow they will present them to the public in an interactive tour starting at 11 a.m.:

More about Youth Summit and project www.heritagestudies.eu/youngclimateaction/invitation-to-youth-summit-from-1-3-11-2023-berlin/

Join us at the Youth Summit in Berlin!

Once again, “Young Climate Action for World Heritage” gives the stage to young people who engaged with World Heritage and climate protection during the project. On the 2nd November 2023, students of the participating UNESCO Associated Schools and beyond come together to share their work and perspectives on the urgent climate actions with the six World Heritage Sites, all project partners, experts on World Heritage from Berlin – and you!

We invite you to experience the young peoples’ perspectives and engage in a fruitful exchange.

Further information: www.heritagestudies.eu/youngclimateaction/en
Registration by 25 October: [email protected]

Schüler:innen haben in Herrnhut gezeigt, wie man Welterbe, Klimawandel und Nachhaltigkeit kreativ verbinden kann und ihre künstlerischen Projekte, ihr Wissen und ihr Engagement präsentiert. Mehr zu den Ergebnisse der Schüler:innen hier: www.heritagestudies.eu/youngclimateaction

Auf dem Tag der Offenen Tür der Bundesregierung präsentierten wir im Auswärtigen Amt unser innovatives Projekt "Young Climate Action for World Heritage" zusammen mit unserem Kooperationspartner, der Deutschen UNESCO-Kommission. Interessante Gespräche mit vielen insbesondere jungen Besuchenden zeigten uns wieder, wie wichtig es ist, auf die Herausforderungen und Potentiale des Welterbes in Zeiten des Klimawandels aufmerksam zu machen. Mehr Informationen zum Projekt: heritagestudies.eu/youngclimateaction

It was great to take part in the symposium "CultureHeritageAppropriation" in Weimar and to present the project "Young Climate Action for World Heritage". Thanks for the fruitful exchange and shared passion on how to engage people for heritage.

The creative artwork of students from the UNESCO Associated School Adolf-Grimme-Gesamtschule as part of the Young Climate Action for World Heritage Project gives insights into how young people experience climate change in the Harz World Heritage Region. The students use different artistic forms to express their concerns, their shock and their care for the region they live in. We are looking forward to the exhibition!

Climate crisis, dying forests, energy shortage. Will a courageuos groups of students succeed in reconstructing the old historical water wheel at the mines of Rammelsberg in order to produce climate-friendly energy? Students of the UNESCO Associated Schools Tilman-Riemenschneider-Gymnasium Osterode am Harz and Adolf-Grimme-Gesamtschule Goslar met to develop the story and quizzes for an educational underground Escape Game at the World Heritage Site. ! Special thanks to Gesine Reimold of Visitor Mine Rammelsberg, the teachers and students and Nadine Herholt, expert for Escape Games at younity.

Dr. Birgitta Ringbeck (former Head of World Heritage Coordinating Body, Federal Foreign Office) hands over the publication "50 Years World Heritage Convention: Shared Responsibility, Conflict & Reconciliation" to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azouley in presence of Dr. Mechtild Rössler (former Director of UNESCO World Heritage Centre) at the event of handing over the certificate to the SchUM sites. The book is part of the series Heritage Studies and involves 61 authors from 28 countries, reflecting a wide range of perspectives on key conflict areas within the World Heritage field.

Further information: https://heritagestudies.eu/en/category/publications/books/heritage-studies-series/

The project and publication was in cooperation with and funded by the Federal Foreign Office.

Your contribution is wanted! In preparation for the conference "World.Heritage.Climate - World Heritage Education for a climate-conscious sustainable development" we would like to share a survey about World Heritage, Climate and Education with you. The results will be presented at the conference. It would be greatly appreciated if you could answer the 10 questions and help us understand, what the status quo of the topic is:

https://app.sli.do/event/6n9syMpeZjfe5C3oU844cz/embed/polls/ee29a1cd-58b7-4496-914a-6e7a64d2c16a

Not yet registered for the conference? You can register until the 20th of November here: https://buergerbeteiligung.sachsen.de/portal/smr/beteiligung/themen/1031794

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