UNESCO Flags Traditional Arts and Crafts for Immediate Protection

UNESCO Flags Traditional Arts and Crafts for Immediate Protection

Why in News? 

Recently, UNESCO has taken a decisive step to protect fading traditional arts and crafts by placing them on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. This action highlights fragile cultural practices facing extinction and stresses the need for documentation and policy support to ensure these living traditions endure for future generations.

UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Framework

• Definition of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH): According to the UNESCO Convention, intangible cultural heritage means inherited practices, knowledge, expressions, and skills that communities recognise as part of their identity. This includes performing arts, oral traditions, rituals, festive events, crafts, and traditional craftsmanship. These elements are transmitted from one generation to the next and evolve naturally.
• Purpose: The UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Framework exists to protect living cultural expressions that are not physical monuments or sites. It began with the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003, which was adopted by UNESCO member states to recognise the value of non‑tangible traditions such as music, crafts, rituals, languages, dance and festive celebrations. The Convention’s main objectives are to safeguard intangible cultural heritage, promote respect for diverse cultural expressions, and raise awareness at local and global levels.
• UNESCO’s Lists Under the Framework: The Convention created three key mechanisms:

1. The Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity to increase global visibility and appreciation of cultural diversity.
2. The List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding for traditions at serious risk of disappearing.
3. The Register of Good Safeguarding Practices to share successful strategies for cultural preservation. 

• Criteria for Urgent Safeguarding List: The List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding is for those elements that are under immediate threat despite community and state efforts. For an element to be inscribed on this list, it must:
  1. Qualify as intangible cultural heritage under the Convention definition.

• Be at risk of disappearing without urgent safeguarding.
• Have a safeguarding plan developed with community involvement.
• Be included in the State Party’s inventory of heritage.
• Have been nominated with the free, prior, informed consent of the community concerned.

• Annual Decision Process: UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage meets each year to review nominations by States Parties. The Committee evaluates if the nomination meets criteria and decides whether to inscribe the element on the relevant list.
• Importance of Urgent Safeguarding List: The Urgent Safeguarding List has a critical role. It draws attention to cultural practices at immediate risk of vanishing if no action is taken. Listing mobilises international cooperation and can help secure funding, training, documentation support and technical expertise for safeguarding activities.

Endangered Traditional Arts and Crafts Around the World – UNESCO 2025 Urgent Safeguarding List

• Đông Hồ Folk Woodblock Printing (Vietnam): Đông Hồ folk woodblock printing is a traditional craft from Bắc Ninh province in Vietnam. It uses carved wooden blocks and natural pigments to print images on special paper. This art dates back hundreds of years and is tied to festivals and worship practices. The craft now survives mainly in small family workshops. Its decline is due to urban migration and modern printed media replacing handmade prints. 
• Boreendo Musical Tradition (Pakistan): Boreendo is an ancient clay musical instrument from Pakistan. The instrument and its melodies reflect local oral traditions from the Indus Valley region. Boreendo is made by hand and requires deep knowledge of clay shaping and tonal tuning. It faced a sharp decline because modern instruments replaced it and fewer young musicians learned to play it. 
• Mwazindika Spiritual Dance (Kenya): The Mwazindika spiritual dance is a traditional ritual dance of the Daida community in Kenya. It supports community healing, rites of passage, and social balance through music, movement, and storytelling. The number of active practitioners has decreased because of social change and reduced participation by youth. Rapid urbanisation and economic pressures also reduced intergenerational transmission of the dance. 
• Quincha Mud‑House Construction (Panama): Quincha mud‑house construction is a building craft from Panama that uses natural materials like wood, mud, and straw. It reflects centuries‑old knowledge of creating homes suited to tropical climates. The tradition is threatened by modern building technologies and migration from rural areas to urban centres. Fewer builders practise this craft today because concrete and steel structures are seen as more durable and profitable.
• Ñai’ũpo Ceramic Craftsmanship (Paraguay): Ñai’ũpo is a ceramic craft tradition in Paraguay. It involves shaping and firing clay to produce cooking and serving vessels by hand. This practice embodies ancestral knowledge of materials and firing techniques. Economic change and cheaper mass‑made alternatives have reduced demand for these handmade ceramics. Younger artisans seek other jobs, risking the loss of skills. 
• Asin Tibuok Artisanal Sea Salt Making (Philippines): Asin Tibuok is a rare sea salt produced by the Boholano people of the Philippines. The method uses seawater filtered through ashes and soil to create distinctive salt crystals. This technique is uniquely tied to local culture and food heritage. However, fewer people practise it today because industrial salt production is faster and cheaper. 
• Moliceiro Boat Making (Portugal): Moliceiro boat making is a traditional naval carpentry art from the Aveiro region of Portugal. These boats were historically used for harvesting moliço seaweed and local transport. The craft requires specialised woodworking, painting, and boat‑building knowledge. Declining use of traditional boats and tourism‑based replicas threaten the continuity of original techniques. 
• Kobyz String Instrument Craft (Uzbekistan): The kobyz is a traditional string instrument from Uzbekistan. It holds cultural importance in storytelling and music rituals. The making and tuning of kobyz requires ancient knowledge of wood and string work. This craft faces decline due to modern musical trends and fewer young players and makers. 
• Lahuta Epic Singing (Albania): Lahuta epic singing is a traditional vocal art from Albania. It blends storytelling with music, often recounting heroic tales. Today, global media and changing tastes have reduced community interest in learning this art form. Elders hold most of the knowledge, and few young people engage with it. 
• Negliubka Textile Heritage (Belarus): Negliubka is a textile craft from Belarus that includes unique weaving and embroidery techniques. It expresses local symbols and cultural values through cloth patterns. Industrial textile production and reduced demand for handmade textiles threaten this craft’s survival. 
• Traditional Naval Canoe Craft (Barbados): Barbados landship and traditional naval canoe craft refers to maritime cultural practices that include boat building and ceremonial movement. These traditions reflect local heritage and historical ties to seafaring. Modern recreational boating and industrial methods have overshadowed traditional skills.

Strategies for Safeguarding Endangered Traditions

• Community‑Led Documentation: Communities must record and list their own cultural practices so that urgent threats can be clearly understood and addressed. UNESCO emphasises that community‑based inventorying helps preserve detailed knowledge of traditions and gives ownership back to practitioners. In July 2024, a training in Bagamoyo, Tanzania involved cultural bearers, officials, academics, and media representatives working together to document local heritage through first‑hand inventories.

• Formal and Informal Education for Transmission: Education helps new generations learn endangered traditions and transforms passive knowledge into living skills. The 2003 UNESCO Convention defines safeguarding to include transmission through formal and informal education so that younger people can inherit wisdom directly from masters. Schools, community workshops, and apprenticeship programmes are foundational in passing on languages, crafts, music, dance forms, and oral histories.

• Capacity Building and Skills Training: Training programmes improve the ability of practitioners and stakeholders to safeguard traditions with professionalism. UNESCO supports capacity‑building initiatives that train government officials, community leaders, and heritage workers in documentation, management, and promotion of cultural practices. Between 2011 and 2017 the Asia‑Pacific regional programme focused on developing sustainable safeguarding systems through workshops and technical support. These training efforts strengthen local institutions and enhance national heritage frameworks. 

• Promotion Through Awareness Campaigns: Raising awareness increases respect and visibility for intangible heritage within and beyond communities. UNESCO encourages national and local campaigns to highlight the value of vulnerable traditions as living heritage. Awareness activities include exhibitions, festivals, media campaigns, and public outreach to show cultural practices as assets that enrich social life and national identity. 

• International Cooperation: Learning from successful safeguarding initiatives improves protection efforts globally. UNESCO’s Register of Good Safeguarding Practices identifies effective projects that have protected intangible heritage through creative and community‑responsive measures. The register allows countries to study what worked elsewhere and apply those lessons locally. International collaboration also brings funding, shared research, technical tools, and global solidarity for traditions at risk.