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.