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Harnessing Living Heritage for a Sustainable Future: a thematic webinar – 13 April 2023

Living heritage is a reservoir of the world’s cultural diversity. It encompasses traditional knowledge systems and cultural practices, including of Indigenous Peoples. Living practices are an enabler to build pro-planet societies, achieve environmental sustainability as well as improve economic growth and well-being. Living heritage practices and knowledge systems sustain communities…
ICH NGO Forum
April 12, 2023
Europe and North AmericaNGOs

Research Centre for Greek Singing (ERKET)

ERKET promotes the study and scientific research of greek art of singing. This is done through research programmes and field research aiming the way people sing in greek communities on local, regional, national or international level. The creation of several greek singing archives such as: discography, library, sound and video…
ICH NGO Forum
March 31, 2023
Europe and North AmericaNGOs

Institut National des Métiers dArt (INMA)

Founded in 1889, the French Savoir-Faire Institute is a non-profit association under the triple-aegis of the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education. It conducts a support policy for artistic crafts as well as Living Heritage Companies. It actively participates in the promotion of French…
ICH NGO Forum
March 9, 2023
Case Studies

Pottery-making tour, Botswana

Earthenware pottery-making skills are practised among the Bakgatla ba Kgafela community in south-eastern Botswana. The women potters use clay soil, weathered sandstone, iron oxide, cow dung, water, wood and grass to make pots of different forms, designs and styles that relate to the traditional practices and beliefs of the community.…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

The monolith of Uluru and the domes of Kata Tjuta were inscribed as a World Heritage property by UNESCO in 1987, as a natural heritage site, and then as a cultural landscape in 1994. This area is linked to one of the oldest Indigenous belief systems in the world.77
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

Gambia’s Ninki Nanka Trail

The Ninki Nanka Trail was created in the 1980’s to open up Gambia to tourism through the Gambia river. The trail is based on a responsible, collaborative tourism approach, in a collaborative way, and gives clear benefits to local communities as well as tourism stakeholders in the area.71 While following…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

The Apsara dance, a Khmer classical dance

Existing since the 7th century and associated with the Cambodian court, the Apsara dance was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008 under the name “Royal ballet of Cambodia”.80 The dance is said to have a sacred and symbolic role and embodies the…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

Macau food souvenirs marketing

Following Macau’s handover to China in 1999, the number of tourists increased considerably. Macau did not suffer under the cultural revolution like mainland China, so it has a strong continuity of cultural traditions.89 Portuguese influences are still visible in Macau’s gastronomy, for example in the local pastries. “perishable gifts rather…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Anantapata TamboCase Studies

Andean Lodges, Peru

Andean Lodges is a privately owned tourism company founded with the goal of preserving and safeguarding the cultural heritage and ecological integrity of the Ausangate region. Its goal was to create a circuit around Mt. Ausangate that strategically positions ecolodges at key sites and includes local communities in actively presenting…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

The Sarawak Rainforest World Music Festival

The Sarawak Rainforest World Music festival of Borneo (Malaysia) has been held since 1997, to showcase music from the entire world but also to highlight indigenous music and instruments. It is known for the considerable visibility it gave to Borneo’s intangible heritage worldwide through its showcasing of traditional music and…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

The Savoy Cheese Route

The Cheese Route of Savoie 75 is a network of sites designed to help the local population and tourists discover the cheeses of two French departments united around the same cheese culture. The cheeses produced in this network of sites have a Registered Designation of Origin, which proves their distinctiveness,…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

Viennese coffeehouse culture

Viennese coffeehouse culture was designated as intangible cultural heritage in 2011 in the Austrian inventory of the UNESCO’s National Agency for the Intangible Cultural Heritage.73 It combines the intangible heritage with its tangible dimensions: gastronomy, atmosphere, customary practices and social relations, along with interior decor, architecture, food and drink, furnishings,…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

Horseback shrimp fishing of Oostduinkerke

The city of Oostduinkerke, in Belgium, is the only place where horseback shrimp fishing91 is practised to this day. This traditional fishing technique has been used for centuries and has been inscribed in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013. “This can be considered as…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

The Florida Stories: Walk – Tarpon Springs Tour

The interpretation of ICH for tourists should ideally be provided through the perspectives of local residents. A downloadable app provides a highly accessible aural tour of the Greek American community of Tarpon Springs, Florida in the US. Developed by Tina Bucuvalas, a folklorist and Greektown resident, for the Florida Stories…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

Celestinian forgiveness celebration, Italy

The Celestinian forgiveness celebration was inspired by Pope Celestine V, who issued a historical ‘Bull’ as an act of partnership among local populations. Taking place in the city and province of L’Aquila, the tradition comprises a set of rituals and celebrations transmitted uninterruptedly since 1294. Participants walk along with the…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

The network of Pehuenche tourist trails

In the Biobío region of Chile, several indigenous Mapuche communities worked together with Chile’s National Tourism Administration to offer visitors a series of trails in the mountain, from 9 to 100 km long. The network of Pehuenche tourist trails is a public-private-community partnership resulting in a tourism activity.
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

Handmade in Bruges, an initiative to safeguard local handicrafts

A network of partners has developed the programme 'Handmade in Bruges'98 in the spirit of promoting and safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage of craftsmanship in this city in Belgium, This partnership is endeavouring to realise a sustainable tourism approach in the context of over-tourism. One of its initiatives involves assigning…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Inuit drum dancing festivalCase Studies

Inuit drum dancing festival, Greenland, Denmark

Drum dancing and drum singing are indigenous forms of Inuit artistic expression and music in Greenland. Drum dances and songs are frequently performed during national holidays, festive celebrations and social events, by a single person or a group. Drum songs often touch on the experiences and activities of daily life…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Case Studies

The Shewula Mountain Camp

The Shewula Mountain Camp was created in the Shewula community of Eswatini in 2000 and aims to allow tourists to discover the way of life of the community while helping it to develop and improve sustainably. It is an accommodation project that makes it possible for guests to live with…
ICH NGO Forum
October 7, 2022
Experience on the ground

Patachitra, India

Patachitra is a type of scroll painting practiced by a unique community of folk artists who are painters, lyricists, and singers belonging to the Naya village of West Bengal, India. The tradition itself can be traced back to the 13th century; the scroll painting is called Patachitra and the songs…
ICH NGO Forum
October 6, 2022
Experience on the ground

Chau mask-making, India

The art of Chau mask-making originated in the village of Charida in West Bengal, an eastern Indian state around 150 years ago and is now home to 115 households of traditional Chau mask-makers. The masks depicting gods, goddesses, local tribals, demons, animals, and birds are traditionally made for use in…
ICH NGO Forum
October 6, 2022
Experience on the ground

Dokra, India

Dokra is an age-old craft of lost-wax metal casting used to handcraft figurines, deities, decorative pieces, jewelry, and pots, practiced by specific ethnic communities in the village of Bikna in West Bengal, India. The hamlet consisting of 60 Dokra artist households who settled here in the 1960s is now an…
ICH NGO Forum
October 6, 2022
Castello in Piazza Erbe, Verona, Tocatì 2015Experience on the ground

Tocatì, Europe

Tocatì is a community-led, multi-actor movement established for the safeguarding of Traditional Games and Sports (TGS) as social practices and expression of ICH. TGS are living practices that exist in an informal environment, as part of daily life, and also in ritual and festive contexts.
ICH NGO Forum
October 6, 2022
Ceramics of GoriExperience on the ground

Ceramics of Gori, Georgia

Gori was one of the most important ceramic centers active in Georgia in the early 19th and 20th centuries. However, the survival of this practice is under threat as there is only one local artisan, Mr. Giorgi Tatulashvili who possesses the relevant skills and actively continues to create the ceramics…
ICH NGO Forum
October 6, 2022