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Paper short abstract:

How can intangible heritage practice be seen as a lens through which we explore different claims on sustainability? By bringing together heritage ecology and social and environmental justice, the paper seeks to question the underpinning frameworks of safeguarding heritage and nature conservation.

Paper long abstract:

How can craft practice be seen as a lens through which we explore different claims on sustainability? This paper draws on ethnographic research of basket-makers harvesting plants for their craft in the Mediterranean wetlands. The artisans consider themselves the caretakers and gardeners of the lagoons. However, the threat of coastal erosion and climate change leads to new environmental policies restricting their access to the waterscapes. In Europe and Ramsar wetlands worldwide, intangible cultural heritage has become an area of conflict between social and environmental justice. Craft articulates material knowledge and contrasting claims about preserving traditions or conserving ecosystems.

The paper argues that the focus on wetlands offers an opportunity to rethink and reframe our understanding of heritage. By bringing together heritage ecology and social and environmental justice, the paper seeks to question the underpinning, static categories of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) studies and the binary frameworks of safeguarding ICH and environmental conservation. The paper explores the craft as a multispecies entanglement in which the creative use of materials supports the community of practice and the environment. It highlights the value of ethnographic research on the material processes involved in making to shed new light on craft, not simply as a heritage activity but prefigurative practice to weave new pathways to sustainable futures.