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Climate Change and Hidden Heritage: Lessons from Majuli


A DfE-GCRF project led by Dr Satish Kumar from School of Natural and Built Environment

What is the project about?

The project was a follow on to an earlier DfE-GCRF grant. The purpose of the project, entitled “Climate Change and Hidden Heritage: Lessons from Majuli”, was to raise awareness and to instigate international and transnational cooperation and advocacy towards sustaining the hidden tangible and intangible heritage and to support a zero-carbon heritage management and development plan for the South Asian region. The project brought together a team of multidisciplinary experts from the UK and India.

 

What were the project outcomes? 

The project’s focus was to ‘promote entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and job creation of the heritage sector through formalisation of their creative enterprise’; ‘promoting sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products thereby sustaining heritage enterprises in the region’; and ‘Promoting social, economic, political and (cultural) inclusion of all stakeholders associated within the heritage sector.’ The key focus of the Hidden Heritage in Majuli being on supporting a zero-carbon heritage management.

 

ODA - Direct benefit? 

With a key focus of the Hidden Heritage in Majuli being on supporting a zero-carbon heritage management, a Zero-Carbon & Plastic Free Workshop was hosted in Majuli College to raise awareness of the detrimental effects of Plastics. The workshop also explored alternative indigenous heritage related materials which could easily substitute for plastics. It also helped raise awareness about improving opportunities for gainful employment for the local artisans, i.e. potters and related small scale cottage industries which use traditional materials such as clay pottery, clay cups, gogol plant based products for household use, water hyacinth’s and jute for carrier bags, and carpets.