91�鶹������Ʒ����

Shahbaz Khan pointed out that climate change and cultural heritages are closely related and that the general public has come to see that intangible cultural heritage can significantly help communities address issues such as climate change, disaster-relief and the well-being of local residents. He urged the trainees to pay attention to the causes and reasons behind climate change and try to figure out counter-measures to alleviate climate disasters and to enhance the recovery of the ecosystem through disciplinary collaboration to build a sustainable future. Shahbaz Khan also gave a keynote speech introducing the key knowledge and core concepts in the field of climate change and UNESCO’s major programs in the fields of cultural heritage and climate change.

CRIHAP’s Director-General Liang Bin pointed out that climate change is a grave challenge facing the whole world and that the relation between intangible cultural heritage and climate change is one of the key topics UNESCO pays special attention to. In his view, the workshop is a positive attempt CRIHAP made to provide countries in the Asia-Pacific region with the most recent theme in accordance with UNESCO’s strategic move. Liang said he hopes the training workshop can serve as a learning and communication platform for trainees from different countries to discuss relevant topics and explore new ways and measures to tackle climate change from the perspective of ICH safeguarding.

A total of 200 participants with culture and climate change backgrounds from seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region attended the capacity-building workshop. UNESCO-accredited facilitators in ICH safeguarding, Suzanne Ogge and Rahul Goswami, were invited to deliver lectures. The workshop started with case studies. The trainees shared about climate change-related ICH elements in local communities from their home countries in their homework assigned and completed before the lectures, offering diverse perspectives for the training experience. During the online lectures, CRIHAP invited experts from Nepal, Pakistan and China to talk about relevant cases through comparison and analysis.

By conducting a comparative study of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms – knowledge in China of time and practices developed through observation of the sun’s annual motion and the Suri Jagek (observing the sun) – traditional Pakistani meteorological and astronomical practice based on the observation of the sun, moon and stars in reference to the local topography, the facilitators enabled the trainees to fully understand how ICH contributed to phenological monitoring. The trainees also learned about how several ICH elements contributed to the after-disaster recovery of local communities in Nepal.

Han Qunli, Executive Director of the International Programme Office of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk and Chairman of Sustainable Development Goals Working Group of the Earth Project under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was also invited to deliver a lecture. With rich data and cases, Han’s lecture helped the trainees understand the relation between ICH and climate change from the perspectives of migration and urbanization. It turned out that the lecture not only prompted active responses from the trainees but also inspired them to explore further in the subject afterwards. The trainees thanked CRIHAP for the opportunity of learning from Han.

The capacity-building workshop is the first of its kind with a theme of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding and climate change organized by CRIHAP. While ICH safeguarding faces new challenges such as climate change and urbanization, this workshop, as a good beginning, will enhance discussion and cooperation between experts from different fields, said Duong Bich Hanh, Culture Programme Specialist of UNESCO Beijing Office at the closing session, adding that she looks forward to seeing more training activities of this kind in the future to enable meaningful dialogue about new questions and challenges in the field of ICH safeguarding.

To date, CRIHAP has organized a total of 67 ICH capacity-building workshops covering 41 countries and regions, with 2,647 direct beneficiaries from the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.