Fifteen years ago, nobody used the term ‘intangible cultural heritage’ (ICH) in Vietnam. It was only used in the official context of the 2001 Law on Cultural Heritage. The Cultural Heritage Law of Vietnam is conforming with other international documents regarding wording for safeguarding ICH and inventories. Although inventory-making is one of the important measures used in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, the term ‘ICH inventory making’ was not included in the law. At that time, inventory making meant surveying and collecting. In 2003, as an international legal tool, the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage helped enlighten the understanding of ICH inventory making in Vietnam. Six years later, this term, as well as other contents compatible with the Convention were included in the 2009 amended Law on Cultural Heritage. This illustrates the fact that, despite starting late, understanding and awareness of ICH inventory-making in Vietnam has developed rapidly and thoroughly.

Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage has always been an important issue for the large majority of countries and their citizens, long before the 2003 Convention was adopted. However, this was not formally recognized internationally, and a cultural heritage protection paradigm that prioritized monumental and prestigious heritage over local and indigenous cultural forms dominated. The experience of countries that are party to the 2003 Convention clearly demonstrates that ICH in all its various and diverse forms is a rich social, economic, and even political resource for sustainable development.

The food we eat is an important part of culture. It is also an expression of community identity. As American folklorist Millie Rahn writes, The kitchen, historically, is the place where families gather and where the everyday and the ceremonial meet and overlap. Here families interact and share private traditions, expressing identity through their food to each other and to the world. Creativity is alive in this space, from daily mealtimes to more elaborate feasts that mark rites of passage, religious and secular holidays, and other special events. This is where knowledge is passed on, from traditional ways of preparing and using various ingredients, implements, tools, and techniques to legends, stories, anecdotes, and cultural exchanges that have become part of familial and regional folklife. We all eat, and associate different layers of cultural meaning to the food we consume. Explorations of food, then, can be an easy conduit into the complex world of intangible cultural heritage. This article gives several examples from the safeguarding initiatives of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador that have used foodways as a means to get people thinking about, and engaged with, concepts of cultural transmission and heritage conservation.

"The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (‘ICH Convention’ or ‘Convention’ hereafter) was adopted in 2003 and subsequently brought into force in 2006. The ICH Convention mandates signatories to use or mobilise various measures to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. \nEven though the Convention does not succinctly mention the elaborate legal measures for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, the intellectual property rights to protect intangible cultural heritage and its holders are implied throughout provisions of the Convention. To implement the Convention’s spirit, the Operational Directives clarify legal form as safeguarding measures by stating that: State Parties shall endeavor to ensure, in particular through the application of intellectual property rights, privacy rights and any other appropriate form of legal protection, that the rights of the communities, groups, and individuals that create, bear and transmit their intangible cultural heritage are duly protected…."

"BeezBistar Foundation (BBF), a community action-based non-governmental organization, was formed in 2009 by development workers and researchers. “BeezBistar” means prosperity in life and peaceful and joyful relations between human beings and all other life-forms. BBF works with local communities, especially farmers, weavers, fishers, adivashi, dalit, and other marginalized and socially vulnerable people for a prosperous and healthy life. Its guiding ethical principles are non-discrimination on the grounds of caste, race, class, and gender. BBF believes in people’s capacity to transform their existing situation of poverty and become pros- perous through a mediated process of interdependent, collective, and community support and actions. The notion of BEEZ is grounded in the local and indigenous culture of the peoples of Bangladesh, as well as advanced by science and life-affirming knowledge and technologies."

Wrestling is an intense struggle between two people based on strength, endurance, and patience. In addition to power and physical capacity, this contest also requires mental strength and control of the body with the mind. Wrestling has some characteristics that reflect people’s physical struggle with nature under various circumstances. As a consequence of these two complementary aspects, this activity has long been part of relations, competitions, and some kinds of claims of superiority among human beings. Wrestling, for all these reasons, is one of the oldest sports in the history of humanity. At the same time, this means that rich traditions, rituals, and practices have formed and evolved around wrestling in different parts of the world. Therefore, it is possible to say that this sport, in a way, represents one of the aspects of the cultural accumulation of humanity, the knowledge, practices, and rituals transmitted from one generation to the next. This fact also leads us to think of the regional, national, and local forms of wrestling that may be regarded in the context of diversity of cultural expressions. Within this perspective and the focus of this paper, traditional oil wrestling embodies a living heritage with various cultural characteristics. It might be helpful to provide some information on the history and main elements of traditional oil wrestling before elaborating upon its value from the perspective of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) identity, transmission, and safeguarding efforts.\nTraditional oil wrestling is performed on a grass field by wrestlers called who are doused in olive oil and wear a type of hand-stitched, tight-fitting, knee-covering leather pants called . The roots of the relation between Turks and wrestling may be traced back long before its presence in Anatolia and the Republic of Turkey, to Central Asia in

Co-orgarnized by ICHCAP and Hue Monuments Conservation Centre (HMCC), this year’s Asia-Pacific ICH NGO Conference was held in Hue, Vietnam under the theme of ICH NGOs towards Sustainable Development of Communities.

Culture is chiefly perceived as a driving force for sustainable development in the UN’s action plan for people, planet, and prosperity entitled “Transforming Our World: 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. In this context, there is a foreseeable strength in ICH to generate means for sustainable development. The following issues are considered as starting points of discussion: (1) the methods of aligning commercial activities with ICH safeguarding activities, (2) the possible risks to ICH viability and the ways in which they can be mitigated, and (3) the prospect of moving toward and maintaining a mutual relationship between ICH Safeguarding and development policies.\nKeeping the grassroots level highly pertinent in Session 3, we intend to put various NGOs activities at the center of the discussion, particularly in light of our pursuit to assess their presence in sustainable tourism development and eco‐tourism, looking into the possibility of expanding the role of NGOs in areas such as cultural mapping and gender equality. To end, a plenary discussion will be held. The outcome document will be circulated to share the discussion points of and lessons learned from the meeting.

Intangible cultural heritage is one of the most unprotected forms of artistic heritage. Nowadays, in the globalization environment where different cultures exist and interact, intangible cultural heritage requires our special attention. For Tajikistan, the first victory of efforts put forth toward safeguarding ICH was the acknowledgement of Shashmaqom as a masterpiece of human intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.

Pakistani culture is a living tradition practiced by most of its people. It includes both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

The Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts is a Philippine non-profit, non-governmental orga-nization based in Quezon City, National Capital Region, Luzon and in Agusan del Sur, Caraga Region, Northeastern Mindanao. Established in 1994, the Tao Foundation is led by an all-fe-male Board composed of Filipino scholars, artists, and Indigenous community leaders engaged in cultural regeneration initiatives in response to the five centuries of colonial and neocolonial histories and the need to help build strong cultural communities. The Tao Foundation’s mission is to (1) facilitate the exchange, transmission, and development of Philippine ICH/TCH; and to (2) contribute to the empowerment of culture bearers or those who possess ancestral practical and theoretical knowledges that have endured and transformed to remain relevant through colonial and neocolonial histories as a result of day-to-day and more large-scale acts of resistance.

Chak-ka-yer is a Thai word similar in meaning to tug-of-war in western countries. It is one of the oldest folk team games in Thailand. Thai people across the country know chak-ka-yer, and many may have had some direct and indirect experience with this game, either as participants or observ-ers. Chak-ka-yer benefits Thai society in several ways. People use chak-ka-yer for fun, pleasure, recreation, and relaxation from their routine work. Chak-ka-yer is played between teams, groups, or communities to test their physical strength. The game does not focus on competition, team preparation, contest regulations, and championship, but rather on unity, friendship, morale, and incentive of communities. Chak-ka-yer as a game is related to thoughts, beliefs, customs, traditions, rituals, and values of the people in different areas. Chak-ka-yer is a high-level game of development and doesn’t focus on systematic contests; it has specific agency to respond to and has the team seriously trained and practiced to win the championship. Chak-ka-yer as a sport is left unmentioned in this article since it has become an international sport.