Making the case for a heritage of innovation: could World Heritage listing facilitate sustainable rural adaptation to climate change?

Abstract

The adaptation of agricultural systems to rapidly changing environmental conditions remains one of humanity’s greatest challenges. Increasingly learning from places that are successfully adapting to change will need to be promoted globally. The Mt Lofty Ranges is a mixed-use agrarian landscape adjacent to the city of Adelaide, with high value viticulture, horticulture and livestock grazing, which is adapting to significant climate change. Such regions with complex, knowledge-intensive farming practices have many components that can be adjusted to increase systemic resilience through multifunctional pathways. We ask the question whether the climate change adaptation currently underway in the rural landscapes of the Mt Lofty Ranges, South Australia is, by enabling authentic contemporary relationships between the cultural landscape and regional resilience, representing an important example of intangible world heritage.