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Call for Stories | Living Legacies: Tales of Culture and Resilience
March 15
A call for stories from Asia and the Pacific
- How is climate change changing the way culture is practiced in your community?
- What traditions, places, skills, or knowledge are being affected – and how are you adapting?
- And how are culture and heritage helping people to respond and build resilience?
UNESCO and ICHCAP invite you to share personal stories that show the connection between culture and climate change – from the challenges communities face and creative solutions they develop.
Your story can help raise awareness, inspire action, and show how culture is not only at risk from climate change, but also part of the solution.
What stories are we looking for?
Climate change is transforming the way people live, celebrate, remember, and pass on their culture and heritage. Historic places are increasingly affected by floods, heat, fires, and sea-level rise, while living heritage – such as rituals, crafts, festivals, and traditional knowledge – changes as environments and seasons shift. At the same time, communities adapt, innovate, and draw on culture as a source of resilience and climate action.
Through this call, UNESCO and ICHCAP seek personal, experience-based stories that show how culture and climate change are connected in everyday life. Stories may include, for example:
- A traditional festival or ritual that has changed due to extreme weather
- A heritage site or cultural space affected by climate-related disasters
- Cultural practices that help communities adapt to environmental change
- Traditional knowledge used to build resilience or support sustainable living
Submissions should be rooted in your own experience and clearly highlight the challenges climate change poses to culture and/or the ways culture helps people respond and adapt. Selected submissions will be featured in UNESCO and ICHCAP’s awareness campaign on culture and climate action, to be shared through online platforms and exhibitions. The submitters of selected submissions will receive a Certificate of Participation from the organizers.
Who can participate?
We welcome submissions from community members, youth and elders, cultural bearers – anyone with a personal story to share.
You do not need to be a climate expert or heritage professional. We are looking for real experiences, told in your own way.
What can you submit?
You may submit one of the following formats:
- Photographs: up to 5 images (JPG / JPEG / PNG, high resolution)
- A short video (1–3 minutes, with English subtitle, audio narration in any language) Each submission must include a written narrative (maximum 300 words, in English), explaining:
- Some information about yourself
- The background of your work
- What it shows about culture and climate change, adaptation, or resilience
- When and where it takes place Minimal editing is encouraged to keep the work authentic.
All submissions must be your own. By submitting, you agree that UNESCO may use selected works for awareness-raising and communication purposes related to its mandate.
How to submit
Email your submission to: beijing.culture@unesco.org
Deadline: 15 March 2026
Please include “Culture and Climate Story” in the subject line
Please click the link to learn how to submit the application form and read more information about the submission.
