Marimba music and traditional chants from Colombia’s South Pacific region

© Claudia Lorena Cruz

17 June 2013 – Anniversaries are opportunities to reflect on the past and to envision the future. As the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention celebrates its first decade (2003-2013), experts and officials who were involved in its conception and birth came together in Chengdu, China to discuss how it has lived up to – or exceeded! – their expectations and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead of it.

Please read the Conference’s recommendations (English|French) including background papers. Read more

El Salvador: first community-based inventorying experiences of intangible cultural heritage following the ratification of the Convention

17 June 2013 – Just nine months after the ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO and the Secretariat of Culture of the Presidency of El Salvador join forces in organizing an intensive training in community-based inventorying from 17 to 25 June 2013. Starting with a first theoretical phase in the country’s capital, San Salvador, which will involve about thirty participants coming from the Secretariat of Culture, non-governmental organizations and community representatives from Conchagua, a third of the group will then move on to the department of La Unión on the Pacific coast, about 200 km from the capital, to complete the training session. Read more

Lao PDR on its way for safeguarding its rich intangible cultural heritage through community-based inventorying

12 June 2013 – Lao’s national capacities to safeguard its intangible heritage are increasing, culminating with an eight-day workshop from 11 to 18 June 2013 at Thalat, Vientiane Province. This national safeguarding effort has been made possible thanks to the generous contribution from the Republic of Korea. The workshop is part of a two year project that aims at enhancing national capacity of Lao PDR, both in government institutions and in civil society for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. Read more