The interesting relationship between tourism, ICH, and climate change has important economic and developmental implications (Hernandez and Ryan, 2011). Much less written or perhaps discussed, is the potential effects climatic changes have on the intangible aspects of culture.\n\nICH, the very thing that gives cultures a unique identity, whose aspects often cannot be seen, is vulnerable to climate change and even the things we do in adapting to climate change. Climate change threatens the existence of ICH, by making preservation efforts more difficult and by causing resources to be less accessible. This has interesting effects on the tourism industry.\n\nClimate change adaptation potentially creates new policies (including tourism policies), and the implementation of these policies can potentially be challenging. In climate change science, adaptation refers to “the process, action or outcome in a system” (Smit and Wandel, 2006:282) and so this makes adaptation’s impacts on ICH potentially interesting but also complex and wide ranging.\n\nClimate change adaptation strategies often involve various stakeholder groups, and these diverse stakeholders may well have area-specific adaptation practices, and this might have effects on how national tourism plans are carried out (not necessarily for the worse).\n\nAdaption to climate change often runs parallel with mitigation strategies. We have to be aware that mitigation and adaptation might run the risk of producing contradictory impacts and/or reactions on tourism. Climate change adaptation, often seen as positive, may well support the development of special interest / niche tourism. This could be due to adaptation requiring that resources be used alternatively, creatively and sparingly, partly in the name of resource conservation. And this may also give rise to more opportunities for the preservation of ICH.\n\nClimate change adaptation often also has the important goal of increasing resilience of stakeholders (to climate change impacts). Increased resilience enables the preservation of ICH. Folke et al., (2005, Olsson et al. 2006) stated that participation allows for a continuous interchanging communication between scientific and lay knowledge because new governance and learning arrangements are expected to promote adaptability. That is good news for people involved in the protection of ICH.\n\nAdaptation therefore will change the way we preserve our cultures, or at least the way we look at the preservation of cultures and heritage. It could support the doing away of certain forms of tourism that destroys more than supports, damages more than repair. Adaptation to climate change should thus be seen as supporting the preservation of cultures and heritage, not a threat.\n\nReferences\nHernandez, B., A., Ryan, G. 2011. “Coping with Climate Change in the Tourism Industry.” Tourism and Hospitality Management, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 79-90\nLise, W. and Tol, R.S.J. 2002. Impact of Climate on Tourist Demand, Climate Change 55, 429-449.\nSmit, B., and J. Wandel. 2006. Adaptation, Adaptive Capacity and Vulnerability. Global Environmental Change 16(3):282-292. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.03.008\nThis article is the original work of the above mentioned author, and any attempt to reproduce or copy without the consent of the author is strongly discouraged.\n\nPhoto : ICH and Climate Change © shutterstock

A triad of spring festive rites—biye baylau, ayghyr kosu, and kymyz murundyk, identified and documented in Terisakkan Village in the northern outskirts of Ulytau District, Central Kazakhstan—is a testimony to nomadic culture surviving up to today. Regarded by its bearers as the most important annual festive event, it starts in early May with first spring warmth, new grass, flowers, and foals, opening a new year-round cycle of life reproduction and a new season of making koumiss, an ancient sacred drink.

The culture of the Central Asian steppes expresses itself vividly in the lifestyle of traditional nomadic practices. Mongolian culture has been in practice in the nomadic life and the traditions surrounding the nomad’s home (ger). And it is present in religious celebrations, national festivals, art and crafts, music and dance, language and literature, which form the backbone of Mongolian intangible cultural heritage of Mongolia. Mongolia is filled with valuable cultural properties and intangible cultural heritage of humanity that have been kept or practiced for thousands of years.\n\nGer, Mongolian Traditional Dwelling\nThe traditional architecture of the Mongols differed strongly from that of the settled peoples of Asia and other continents. Centuries ago, there the ger, also known as a yurt, appeared. It still offers shelter to nomads in particular places in Central Asia. Its development and fundamental principles are determined by the specific features of the way of life of Mongol tribes, which made it necessary to evolve a light and collapsible structure to be used as a dwelling or for public functions.\n\nMongolian Language and Literature\nMongolian is the language of most of the Mongolian population and inner Mongolia. By origin, Mongolian is one of the Altaic family of languages, and the history of the Mongolian language is long and complicated. Significant literary work of early Mongolia includes The Secret History of the Mongols, which was published in 1228).\n\nMongolian Religion and Beliefs\nThe Mongols have practiced several religions, of which Shamanism and Buddhism were the most common. The faith in Mongolia is Buddhism, though the state and religion were separated during the socialist period, but with the transition to the parliamentary republic in the 1990s, there has been a general revival of faiths across the country\n\nMongolian Art and Crafts\nMongolian arts and crafts have been passed down across generations from the Paleolithic times to today, leaving behind deep impressions on all facets of life and conscious, aesthetic, and philosophical thinking. Highly developed Mongolian arts and crafts come from the second millennium BCE. The works included sculptured heads of wild animals with exaggerated features. Other items include knives, daggers, and other items of practical and religious use.\n\nMongolian Music and Dance\nMusic is an integral part of Mongolian culture. Among Mongolia’s unique contributions to the world’s musical culture are the long songs, overtone singing, and morin khuur (the horse-headed fiddle). The music of Mongolia is also rich with varieties related to the various ethnic groups of the country. Among the most popular forms of modern music in Mongolia are Western pop and rock genres and the mass songs written by contemporary authors in the form of folk songs.\n\nHorse Culture of Mongolia\nIt is famously known that horses play a large role in the Mongols’ daily and national lives. Common sayings are, “A Mongol without a horse is like a bird without wings,” and “Mongols are born on horseback” these are arguably true words. Even today, horse-based culture is still practiced by nomadic Mongolians.\n\nVisit https://www.toursmongolia.com/tours for additional information about Mongolian culture.\n\nPhoto 1 : Prairie meadow grass inner Mongolia traditional clothing © Batzaya Choijiljav\nPhoto 2~7 : © Batzaya Choijiljav

Mongols have practiced pastoral nomadism for centuries within the vast steppe that stretches throughout Central Asia, which has led to the creation of a nomadic civilization, a distinct civilization accepted worldwide. Within the context of this residing landscape, the main features of spirituality, and oral and intangible cultures practiced by Mongols have been crafted and determined.

Gold has been long viewed and used as an ornament of preciousness and luxury. Gold is often used to decorate textiles and this process is referred to as gold appliqué. Gold appliqué has a long history in Korea, and there are several records explaining a situation where the government prohibited the use of gold appliqué during the Three Kingdoms era (4-7 CE) due to concerns about the dissipation of the country’s wealth.

About 2,000 years ago, Korean people started using the sedge plant, according to the ancient record of Samguksagi (The Historical Record of Three Kingdoms), which refers to the use of the plant to make a palanquin curtain.

Folkland, International Centre for Folklore and Culture is a nonprofit NGO devoted to promoting folklore and culture. Headquartered in Kerala in south-western India, Folkland has three main centers and several chapters in India and associations with other organizations abroad through MOUs and collab-orative partnerships. Folkland has been affiliated with the UNESCO ICH sector since 2010. Folkland envisions a society that respects cultural heritage by conserving arts and cultural traditions and transmitting them to future generations. As such, Folkland is proudly dedicated to promoting Indian culture and values with a focus on intangible cultural heritage. The center provides access to knowledge and information about intangible cultural heritage and is known for promoting indigenous culture that inspires audiences to explore the cultural and artistic heritage of Kerala. The main domains covered by Folkland are performing arts; oral traditions and expressions; social practices, rituals, and festivals; and traditional crafts. Folkland documents oral traditions and practices and extends training to younger genera-tions to revitalize old and near-extinct traditional art forms. One ICH element of particular interest to Folkland is tolpavakoothu (shadow puppetry).

Homegardens are traditional systems that combine agriculture, forestry, and livestock and provide economic, environmental, and social benefits for the householders. These agroforestry systems are often cited as the epitome of sustainability, yet the scientific community has long ignored them. Today, however, these age-old systems are receiving increasing attention owing to their potential to mitigate environmental problems such as reduced biodiversity and rising levels of carbon dioxide while providing economic gains and nutritional security to their owners.

The parent organization of CEE Himalaya is the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), which was established in August 1984. CEE is a national institution with its headquarters in Ahmedabad and has been given the responsibility by the central government of promoting environmental awareness nationwide. It undertakes demonstration projects in education, communication, and development that endorse attitudes, strategies, and technologies that are environmentally sustainable. Based in the city of Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh, CEE Himalaya has been working in the states of the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) for over two decades. The mission of CEE Himalaya is to enhance understanding of sustainable development in formal, non-formal, and informal education through its work with schools, higher educational institutions, local and Indigenous communities, policy makers and administration, youth, and the general commu-nity. The primary objective of CEE Himalaya is to improve public awareness and understanding of environmental issues with a view to promote the conservation of nature and natural resources by integrating education with traditional streams of knowledge and cultural expressions. This approach demonstrates and grounds sustainable practices in rural and urban communities and facilitates the involvement of the business and public sectors to respond to the effects of climate change and variability.

Once upon a time, a beautiful young woman wandered into a jungle carrying her little baby girl in search of food. She was very tired, so she made a soft bed from the petals of flowers and laid the baby on it. Then she left to search for fruits to satisfy her immense hunger. Two great birds who had no babies of their own found the little human baby in its nest of flowers and carried it away on their backs to their own nest. Their nest was very large; many strange birds lived together there in harmony. There was a parrot, a myna, a hen, a stork, a kingfisher, and a tailorbird in their nest.

This paper and the presentation highlight the value of the Yapese fish weirs and how they, and the associated intangible cultural heritage can be used to assist modern-day approaches to marine ecological \nconservation, in addition to keeping traditional sustainable fishing practices alive.\n\nYap is located 840 km south west of Guam and 1,850 km east-south\u0002east of Manila. It consists of four volcanic islands (referred to as Yap Proper), seven small coralline islands and about 130 atolls forming the \n‘Outer Islands’ that cover about 800 km in the north west Pacific Ocean, all of which forms Yap state—one of the four States of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). \n\nOn the reef flat adjacent to the volcanic islands, the Yapese developed a harmonious, sustainable system of fishing that incorporated spiritual, social, cultural and environmental connectivity and awareness. This is of particular importance to the inshore fishery, which is a sensitive region for fish breeding, and needs to be well conserved, maintained and not overfished. The Yapese employed a number of cultural practices (living heritage) related to fishing, and created a number of tangible cultural heritage, and together they form the Yapese maritime cultural landscape. This system employed a number of fish traps and weirs, with the tidal stone-walled fish weirs—aech—surviving to this day.\n\nYap has now four Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Yapese are aware that fishing is currently not implemented in a sustainable manner and are declaring ‘no catch zones’ in certain marine areas. Many of the studies associated with the need for and development of MPAs are largely science based, with little relevance and benefit given to traditional fishing (cultural practices and the material cultural). Traditional fishing practices using traditional ecological knowledge were carried out sustainably for hundreds of years and the incorporation of this knowledge into MPA management should not be overlooked.

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.