English summary (CVI)

Climate change has been identified as the fastest-growing threat to World Heritage (WH) and many WH properties are already experiencing negative impacts. This report describes the outcomes from an application of the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) for the Vega Archipelago. Temperature Trend, Sea Level Rise and Precipitation Trend were identified as the three greatest climate threats. The CVI workshop for Vega Archipelago determined the OUV Vulnerability for the property and the Community Vulnerability each as Moderate (on a three-point scale, Low/Moderate/High). A broad range of potential management actions were identified during the workshop.

CLIMATE VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS

Climate change is now the fastest growing threat to World Heritage and many World Heritage sites are already being negatively affected by the changes. Degradation of World Heritage values also has consequences for the local communities associated with World Heritage sites. As the climate crisis intensifies, it is therefore important to know how vulnerable the world's natural and cultural heritage is to climate change.

Vegaøyan World Heritage Site is the first cultural landscape area in Norway to have a Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI).

Assessing vulnerability

CVI is a methodology used to assess the vulnerability of natural[1] and/or cultural heritage sites on the World Heritage List. The method assesses the existing and potential effects of climate change on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the site, and the impact on the economic, social and cultural conditions of the local community associated with the World Heritage site. The CVI[1] process was carried out in the form of workshops in which representatives from management, research, municipalities, NGOs, local communities and others participated. The other seven Norwegian World Heritage Sites were also represented to learn more about climate change and to share knowledge and experience about cultural and natural environment management.

The method was facilitated by James Cook University in Australia, which was also assisted by a researcher associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Norwegian initiator of the climate vulnerability assessment was the Directorate for Cultural Heritage, with the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation as partners.    

Moderate vulnerability

The Vegaøyan CVI workshop concluded that the OUV vulnerability of the area is moderate on a three-point scale, Low/Moderate/High, indicating that climate change could potentially impair or negatively impact many of the values that make up the OUV. The vulnerability of the local community was also assessed to be moderate. Both assessments took into account the adaptive capacity of the local community, management and World Heritage values. Participants chose 2050 as the reference point for the vulnerability assessments. A high emissions scenario (RCP8.5) was used as the basis for the assessments, while noting that mid-century climate projections would be similar under a medium emissions scenario (RCP4.5). The workshop participants identified the three impact factors that pose the greatest threat to Vegaøyan within this timeframe; temperature trend, sea level rise and precipitation trend. The potential impact on the World Heritage Site was assessed based on the exposure and vulnerability of the World Heritage Site to each factor. The impact of temperature trend and sea level rise was assessed as extreme (on a four-point scale, Low/Moderate/High/Extreme). For precipitation trend, the effect was considered to be high. The three key impact factors are likely to reinforce each other and also interact with other impact factors that further increase vulnerability.

"FUGLAN VEIT"

The project runs over 4 years (2020 - 2024) and is funded by the Research Council of Norway. UiT The Arctic University of Norway is responsible for the project. Partners are the Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation with the sub-project "Sound of Silence", Vardø with Vardø Business Association and Biotope, as well as Mearrasiida, the Sea Sami center in Porsanger. The main purpose of FUGLAN VEIT is: To generate new knowledge and public awareness of seabirds as part of our coastal history and to improve and secure breeding conditions for red-listed and endangered seabirds, through collaboration between researchers and local knowledge carriers on seabird traditions based on a more than human approach.

In addition to this main objective, there will be a parallel process of dissemination. One part will be via Tromsø Museum, which has a seabird archive from the 1970s with interviews with people along the coast of Northern Norway, which will be the starting point for local workshops and subsequently disseminated via film.

Read more: Homepage of the project

The Vegaøyan World Heritage Foundation has initiated the project "Sound of Silence" with workshops on the decline in seabird populations. "Sound of Silence" will take place in collaboration with Bodø as European City of Culture 2024 and to mark the anniversary of the inscription of Vegaøyan as a World Heritage Site in 2004.

Read more: Homepage for SoS

"SHAPING VEGA'S FUTURE NOW" (2008 - 2010)

The project ran for five years and was funded by the Research Council of Norway. The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) was responsible for the project. Most of the other institutes in the Environmental Alliance (NIKU, NIBR, NILU and Cicero) also participated in the program. One of the aims of the institute program was to increase the Environmental Alliance's capacity to develop scenarios, develop scenario methodology and carry out specific scenario processes in selected Norwegian landscapes. A key part of the research has been to engage the local population in the scenario work, by gathering resource persons at working seminars and together developing future images of their own local communities. The project focused on three main aspects of the ecosystem: Use, protection and recreation/outdoor life/tourism. Against this backdrop, the local population will assess what different futures might look like for their own areas.

"CULTURAL HERITAGE AND VALUE CREATION IN A COASTAL/INLAND PERSPECTIVE" (2008 - 2011)

Project based on the research program Environment 2015. Collaboration between Bygdeforskning, NIKU and Skog og Landskap. Project period 2008 - 2011. International partners were University of Innsbruck, Austria, University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) Millennium Institute, Scotland, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Scotland. The project has Valdres and Vega as study areas. Issues have included: when cultural heritage is made the subject of value creation, what perceptions do local actors have of different cultural values or qualities, what type of cultural heritage is activated as an economic resource and what effect does "selected status" have on the same cultural heritage and perceptions of it?

"VEGA 2045" - WORLD HERITAGE AND LOCAL KNOWLEDGE - INTEGRATED MODELING AND SCENARIOS FOR NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT

Vega 2045 was the second of the projects on Vega funded by the Research Council of Norway's Environment 2015 program. The project was a collaboration between NINA, NIKU and NIVA, with NINA leading the project. The project ran from 2008 to 2014. The "Vega 2045" project was based partly on in-depth interviews with the local population on Vega to obtain local knowledge about Vega's natural and cultural heritage resources. This knowledge would then be used as a basis for modeling future scenarios. Data collected by experts was also included in the modeling - for example, data on birds (eiders, geese, eagles, predators, etc.), kelp forests and marine fish resources, botany and cultural heritage. The project was intended to utilize data that has been collected for decades on these resources and to supplement it with new data collection. The project's main goal has been to develop new methods for interdisciplinary landscape studies, based on data collected over time in research projects, but supplemented with local knowledge about the resources that are systematized through interviews.

DOCTORAL STUDIES

In addition, several individuals are taking doctoral studies based on Vega's nature and culture. For several years, researchers from Texas Technical University, USA, have been visiting Vega to study the bedrock. One of the students has completed a PhD based on the so-called inclusions in the granite (see Vegaøyan World Heritage Site, Geology).

Social anthropologist/researcher Bente Sundsvold completed her PhD in social anthropology/visual communication at the University of Tromsø in 2016 based on the dune tradition and the practice of conservation. The title of the dissertation is "Den nordlandske fuglepleie - glligheter, utvær og celeber verdensarv" and can be downloaded below.

In 2019, ethnologist Knut Fageraas completed his doctorate in ethnology at the University of Oslo with the title "World Heritage on Vega - between international conventions, national policies and local practices in a northern Norwegian island community". The project examined the significance of cultural heritage for the development of Vega after the award of World Heritage status in 2004 and the processes of change that both cultural heritage and society on Vega are undergoing. A key perspective is the relationship between local appreciation and internationally defined cultural heritage values.

Anthropologist Consuelo Griggio is doing a PhD on the relationship that the people of Vega have with the landscape and how World Heritage and increasing tourism affect this. Consuelo Griggio is affiliated with the Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada.