How young people can become active in World Heritage and climate protection was shown at the final conference of “Young Climate Action for World Heritage” from 01.-03.11.2023 at the World Heritage Site “Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin”.
Over one school year, the students had prepared their own projects in collaboration with six World Heritage Sites addressing the question: How can we safeguard our World Heritage and combat climate change locally? At the Youth Summit, students from all participating World Heritage Sites came together for the first time and presented their projects to the guests from the field of heritage and nature conservation, World Heritage, climate change and education. The young people engaged the experts in various activities, like escape games, watching self-produced films, listening to students podcasts, discussing art pieces and much more. The engagement and enthusiasm showed by the students for the protection of heritage and passing on their knowledge and motivation to others was striking and was met by the guests with great interest leading to a fruitful exchange between the generations.
Parallel to the Youth Summit, an expert forum on climate change challenges concerning the Berlin parts of the World Heritage Site “Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin” was organized by the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing. Building on the discussions of the experts and actively creating synergies, students in two different workshops dealt with very similar topics. In a creative video workshop, they produced artistic essay films visualising the change of the historic parks in an emotional and provoking way. In a simulation game workshop, students first interviewed the participants from the expert forum from the fields of heritage, nature and climate protection, politics and administration. Then they exchanged their arguments in a simulated meeting, impersonating the experts and bringing in their different perspectives and looking for solutions.
The commitment of all participating young people and schools was honoured with the ceremonial presentation of certificates. The guided tours in the World Heritage Sites “Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin” and Berlin’s “Museum Island” gave everyone the opportunity to discover Berlin and two of its World Heritage Sites. We thank all students, teachers, project partners from Berlin and the World Heritage Sites for their support for the successful and inspiring Youth Summit.
The Youth Summit is a project extension to the “Young Climate Action for World Heritage” project. It is implemented by the Institute Heritage Studies in cooperation with the German Commission for UNESCO. It is funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation and the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing.
Photos: German Commission for UNESCO, Laurent Hoffmann