The UNESCO Chair contributes to global discussion about living heritage and climate change

The UNESCO guidance note on climate action for living heritage has been adopted. Aet Annist from the UNESCO Chair (University of Tartu) also contributed to this document. These are meaningful discussions that researchers should also follow, states the Chairholder Professor Kristin Kuutma.

Last week the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage met in Paraguay. Every year, this meeting brings together the living heritage global community.

In this framework the guidance note on climate action for living heritage was presented and adopted (see LHE/24/19.COM/11). The Committee addressed the overall document concerning thematic initiatives on living heritage and sustainable development, in highly supportive terms, without any alterations to the draft text on

• the economic dimensions of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, 
• safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and climate change, 
• the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in urban contexts.

Aet Annist from the UNESCO Chair on Applied Studies of Intangible Cultural Heritage (University of Tartu) was part of the group of experts who contributed to this document. The meeting of experts was organised by UNESCO earlier this year. 

With increasing recognition of the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and climate change, experts discussed 

• the roles and risks for living heritage in the climate emergency, 
• integrating policy frameworks on climate change and living heritage,
• challenges and opportunities for future action.

The experts considered the need to set discussion of climate change and living heritage within a framework of human rights and cultural rights, as well as the importance of established ethical frameworks for engaging with stakeholders and articulating and upholding the values of living heritage bearers.

Side events provided discussions that researchers should follow

Professor Kristin Kuutma (Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair at the Univeristy of Tartu) further highlights two highly pertinent initiatives that provided welcome and meaningful discussion fora in the living heritage domain that academics and researchers should follow, besides the more normative or bureaucratic efforts that prevailed the debates in the main hall of the meeting.

First, a roundtable held on 3 December, where the above mentioned guidance note was first introduced to the Paraguay meeting. The live and online roundtable was co-organised by UNESCO, by the ICH NGO Forum, Working Group on Climate Change and ICH, and CRESPIAL (Category 2 Regional Centre in Latin America). The Roundtable focused on how to advance the connections between living heritage, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Several participants shared also experiences from across different regions.

Another significant live and online event, hosted on December 5 by the ICH NGO Forum members SIEF (International Society for Ethnology and Folklore) and ICTM (International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance) that our UNESCO Chair co-sponsored and Kristin Kuutma attended on 5 December, posed the question 'What Can Be Done with All Those inventoried Materials - Archiving for ICH Safeguarding'.

See also the homepage and Facebook page of the UNESCO Chair on Applied Studies of Intangible Cultural Heritage.