The UNESCO Beijing Office and the International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP) co-organized an online Capacity-Building Workshop on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Safeguarding and Climate Change from Jan 16-18, 2023. Shahbaz Khan, director of UNESCO Beijing, and CRIHAP’s director-general Liang Bin attended the event and delivered speeches.

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 countermeasures 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.