The transdisciplinary Coastal TALES project, led by the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES (UK) hub at UWTSD, secured €770,000 of funding in Belmont Forum’s Climate and Cultural Heritage joint call (CCH 2023).

Coastal TALES is an international, transdisciplinary, collaborative project that will explore the role intangible cultural heritage plays in helping coastal communities innovate and adapt to the changing climate. The consortium draws together teams in Wales, Ireland and Alaska.

Coastal TALES = Telling Adaptations, Living Environmental Stories for Coastal Resilience. Using a transdisciplinary approach, Coastal TALES asks how stories of past practices can help people (re)discover more sustainable ways of living in their rapidly changing coastal environments. The goal is to show how heritage stories can generate tangible local action that diverse communities can draw on to adapt to a changing climate.

The Coastal TALES project ties together research teams and community partners in Wales (Swansea), Ireland (Dublin) and the US (Tempe, Arizona and Old Harbor in Kodiak, Alaska). University environments leading the project include the UK BRIDGES Hub at University of Wales Trinity Saint David, the Trinity Centre for the Environmental Humanities at Trinity College Dublin and the #BRIDGES Flagship Hub and Narrative Storytelling initiative in the ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, with additional participation of researchers from University of Washington, Seattle, SUNY Cortland and with support from Universidade do Porto.

Key community partners in the project include Carmarthen Coracle and Netmens Association, Towy Valley Fish and Game, Cardigan Bay Fish and Câr-y-Môr (Wales); the environmental education and youth organisation ECO-UNESCO and The Archaeological Diving Company (Ireland); and the Native Village of Old Harbor, the Alutii Tribe of Old Harbor, Old Harbor Alliance, the Old Harbor Native Corporation and the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository (USA).