The South-Western Alps, across Italy and France are an area of long-lasting and significantly dense presence of diverse intangible cultural heritage expressions, resulting from the peculiar forms of relation and adaptation between the communities and the mountain ecosystems. But now, this area faced a number of challenges, Alessio Re & Giulia Avanza introduced the projects for building up resilience on the South-Western Alps territory.

A competencies framework for cultural heritage management in Asia and the Pacific has been recently developed by the UNESCO Regional Office (Bangkok) with the help of many partners and contributors. While it is acknowledged that some people will be knowledge bearers themselves, and others will have highly specialized disciplinary knowledge and skills in ICH, it also sets out the ICH competency expected at other ‘levels’ of work in heritage management. Alongside this work, an important network of Universities and other Higher Education institutions in the region involved specifically in ICH was formed in 2018, recognizing that the University sector has a role to play in fostering ICH competencies. Surveys by ICHCAP and other institutions has demonstrated that higher education teaching and learning in ICH is provided in diverse programs across the region, and should be strengthened. And in 2020, our thinking about strategies to enhance ICH teaching in the region has been greatly affected by the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, Kristal Buckley shares her experience on education in the field of intangible cultural heritage focusing on heritage education with digital literacy responding to pandemic.\n\nKRISTAL BUCKLEY AM is a Lecturer in Cultural Heritage at Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia). She has professional qualifications in archaeology, anthropology and public policy, and has worked in private practice, government, teaching and research. Her work has a focus on World Heritage, naturecultures, and urban landscapes. Ms. Buckley served as an international Vice-President of ICOMOS from 2005-2014, and works as an ICOMOS World Heritage Advisor.

Traditional coastal communities possess marine knowledge that enable them to live with and live on resources in different eco-niches like intertidal strands, mangroves, mudflats, beach forest, and coral reefs. After the Covid 19 broke out, Traditional coastal communities reflected how the often neglected knowledge and skills became the inspiration and hope for urban populations who rely on purchased food from convenient stores or modern trade stores, during which the semi-lockdown affected the distribution and sales of food.

Digital is becoming new normal after COVID 19 pandemic situation. But digital cannot be the only way of going with the community and ICH. and For reaching the balance of digital and ICH community, Nikhil Joshi shares the experience of documentary filming and narrative techniques of three schools in Singapore.\n\nNIKHIL JOSHI is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Educated at the University of Pune (India), University of York (UK), and National University of Singapore (Singapore). His research interests include cultural heritage management; traditional building materials and techniques; and community participatory approaches.

Examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on intangible cultural heritage. Studying the example of the Philippine to discuss the importance of national policy in intangible cultural heritage safeguarding and promotion.

The protection of China's cultural heritage has a broad prospect. It is necessary to establish cultural self-confidence to protect and inherit this precious treasure, while enhance the exchange of civilization and mutual communication so as to learn from each other's strength, and accelerate the development of human culture. As an institution of higher education, we need to focus on the purpose of "creative transformation and innovative development", constantly practicing the concept of “rejuvenating vitality through dynamic inheritance”. Jin Jiangbo shares university's innovative ways of ICH safeguarding during the pandemic. \n\nJIN JIANGBO is the Vice Director of China Arts Museum and Vice Dean of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts at Shanghai University where he serves as a professor. He has published studies on international public art, new media art, art innovative education mechanism, and the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage.

While we seem to have been prepared for a critical pedagogy for ICH including both the challenges and opportunities ICH education may pose for teaching learning, it seems we actually took for granted so many of our assumptions as well. Neel Kamal Chapagain draws some implications for our future pedagogy in terms of making it flexible through this presentation. \n\nNEEL KAMAL CHAPAGAIN is the Director of Centre for Heritage Management, Ahmedabad University – a centre dedicated for advancing critical but holistic education on heritage management in the Asia-Pacific region. An architect by training, a native of Nepal, Professor Chapagain is interested in deeper issues of education and engaged in exploring contextual learning at all levels of education.

ICCN, Interurban Cooperation Network for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, is an international organization of local governments and cultural institutions which includes 31 states, 29 cities and 34 associations. Its main objective is the protection of the intangible cultural heritage around the world and the promotion of sustainable local development. Moreover, it also seeks to achieve cultural peace through mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue between the different populations that are part of it. Julio Nacher shared some good examples of cultural events that successfully held in pandemic situation.

Juliette Hopkins introduces results of a survey that launched to share living heritage experience. It was an online survey how their living heritage has been affected by the pandemic, what role their living heritage has been playing and what safeguarding initiatives have been put in place. Its aim was to create accessible platform to share information, exchange experiences, learn from each other and also to draw inspiration.\n\nJULIETTE HOPKINS is an Associate Programme Specialist in the Secretariat for UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. She currently works in the Capacity Building and Heritage Policy Unit, where she is the focal point for issues relating to intangible cultural heritage and emergencies. Before joining UNESCO in 2016, she worked as an anthropologist with indigenous communities in Australia on heritage management and community development projects. She also has professional experience as a journalist in Cambodia and France. Her academic background is in social and medical anthropology with degrees from The University of Sydney and University of Oxford.

Roberto Martinez Yllescas shares the OECD view on resilience and the methodology behind the analysis of resilience systems. He stressed how vital resilient system analysis is in the face of rebuilding communities and rebuilding regions in the context of the very dire, very deep, and very worrisome consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In Singapore, there had been strict restrictions on social, cultural, business activites during the "Circuit Breaker" period from April to June 2020. Yeo Kirk Siang shares the ICH activies during "Circuit Breaker" period and showed the role of ICH in COVID 19 pandemic. \n\nYEO KIRK SIANG is currently the Director of the Heritage Research and Assessment Division (HRA) at the National Heritage Board (NHB) of Singapore. The division focuses on the research, documentation, and commemoration of Singapore’s tangible heritage and the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, in partnership with non-government organisations and public agencies. He is also the coordinator for the “Our SG Heritage Plan”, which outlines the broad strategies for Singapore’s heritage sector from 2018 to 2022.

The transversal contribution of culture to development and the central role of living heritage in the Pacific both as a coping mechanism that ensures social cohesion during a crisis, as well as a way of contributing to the 2030 Development Agenda is undeniable. With almost all PSIDS having ratified the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the focus is now turning towards the implementation of the Convention and more specifically on ways the Convention can contribute to sustainable development. To this end, the UNESCO Office in Apia is currently producing a policy brief that will aim to inform policy and decision makers, as well as raise awareness around the important contribution of culture and its relevant institutions in the recovery phase following COVID-19.