Withstanding change

Supported by the INTO project team, our international partners are restoring six historic sites that are threatened by climate change

The project

In 2022, INTO was awarded £1.7 million in funding from the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund, to undertake a programme of climate related activity in partnership with organisations across the Middle East and Africa.

Supported by the INTO project team, our international partners are restoring six historic sites that are threatened by climate change.

Our progress

Work on the ground started in early 2023 and is due to conclude in 2025. An abundance of work has already been completed; there have been physical interventions at all the sites involved, and all of our partners have been delivering engagement and outreach programmes with local communities, raising their awareness of climate change and its impact on heritage.

In January 2024, the INTO project team met the project partners in Cairo. Hosted by the Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation (EHRF), this was an opportunity to review and evaluate our progress to date, share best practice, and exchange knowledge. Since then, our partners have continued their amazing work, invigorated and energised by their shared successes and from the key learnings that they all took away.

For now, the work continues at each site and within each associated community, educating people about the challenges that climate change brings to their lives and their cultural heritage.

In the autumn, the INTO project team will be meeting the partners again at the project’s closing meeting, which will be hosted by the Zanzibar Stone Town Heritage Society. This will be an opportunity to reflect on all the achievements that the project will have delivered to that point.

a gardener maintaining Tsegedera Garden in Addis Ababa

a group of people holding certificates in front of the door of the Old Customs House in Zanzibar

a street view of the facade of Bayt Al Razzaz in Cairo

A msall group of people looking at restoration work in progress inside Bayt Al Jahgbeer in Amman, Jordan

Update on sites

Each site has made progress undertaking building restoration work, designed to mitigate the impacts of climate change on cultural heritage. The properties will become places where neighbours can gather to learn more about the impact of the climate on their own communities.

In time, these sites will become part of the local fabric, hubs where people can meet to share their own experiences and stories specific to their intangible heritage.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing – the partners have encountered challenges along the way. However, their resilience, coupled with support from INTO and the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund, has allowed the programme to move forward in a positive way. and also supported an expansion of the capital works programme by providing additional funding of £114,000 in March 2024.

Partnerships

Each site is paired with a National Trust property in the United Kingdom:

The Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda – NT Stourhead
Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation – NT Blicking Estate
Heritage Watch Ethiopia Association – NT Mottisfont/Hinton Ampner
Zanzibar Stone Town Heritage Society – NT Llyn Peninsula/Penrhyn Castle [Welsh version here]
Petra National Trust – NT Buscot and Coleshill Estates

Coordinated by National Trust Project Manager, Katherine Shingler, the twinning relationships have developed and continue to deepen through shared concern for their respective sites and communities. They will form the platform for knowledge sharing that will continue long after the initial phase of the project has ended.

Read more on the twinning in our ‘News’ section:

Partners

building work with a stone arch on the site of Bayt al Razzaz, Cairo

Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation

Bayt al-Razzaz is a rare example of a late 15th century private dwelling in historic Cairo. Existing conservation challenges have been exacerbated by more extreme and less predictable rainfall patterns. Flash flooding resulted in the collapse of a younger neighbouring building, causing collateral damage to the site.

dappled sunlight in the Tsgedera Garden, Addis Ababa with 2 people sitting on a bench

Heritage Watch Ethiopia Association

The Tsegereda Gardens once formed part of the grounds of then crown prince Asfa Wossen’s residence. Stabilisation of this building and restoration of the Tsegereda Gardens, will showcase Ethiopian horticultural knowledge and demonstrate how indigenous ecological solutions can directly address climate change.

the facade of an old building on the sea front in Stone Town, Zanzibar with palm trees along a path and blue columns on the front of the building

Zanzibar Stonetown Heritage Society

The Old Customs House is a typical Omani mansion constructed in 1865. More intense winds and wave activity, rising sea level, warming oceans, humidity and sea evaporation – all exacerbated by climate change – are posing new, and compounding old conservation challenges.

An aerial view of the family home and associated buildings belonging to Semei Kakungulu, an important Ugandan statesman

Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda

Situated just outside of Mbale, the family home and associated buildings belonging to Semei Kakungulu, an important Ugandan statesman, will be restored. There will be a museum on site and garden areas and neighbouring community landscapes will be planted with indigenous tree species.

The entry to an old building in Amman, Jordan with a bright turquoise door

Petra National Trust

By restoring the historic Bayt al Jaghbeer, Petra National Trust will address the impact of climate damage on heritage buildings. By the re-greening of parts of the surrounding landscape, they will build on existing initiatives, strengthening livelihoods for the local community.

a group of people standing on green grass looking towards a grand building

National Trust

Each site is twinned with a National Trust property. The twinning relationships continue to deepen through shared concern for their respective sites and communities.