According to the oral traditions of the Cook Islands, sacred rituals were commonly performed on what is known as a marae or sacred ground. Each tribe has its own marae where ceremonies such as offerings of prayers, tributes to the gods and the induction of traditional titles on family members were once carried out. It also acted as a meeting place for important tribal matters.

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.

The Asia-Pacific region can be called a treasure house of ICH because of its diverse heritage and rich cultural environment. However, much of the ICH in the region is facing the possibility of disappearance because the value of ICH isn’t fully understood and there is a shortage of institutional and administrative support. In particular, developing or underdeveloped countries in the region are experiencing difficulties in effectively safeguarding ICH in the context of maintaining sociocultural traditions and promoting sustainable development because globalisation, urbanisation, and modernisation stand as obstacles.Recognising the shortcomings in ICH safeguarding, ICHCAP, a UNESCO Category 2 Centre, has recently been established based on the approval of UNESCO General Conference in 2009 and the agreement between UNESCO and the government of the Republic of Korea. The main roles and functions of the Centre focus on information and networking in the ICH safeguarding field. ICHCAP has contributed to ICH safeguarding and has learned a lot from the activities the Centre has conducted and participated in over the past four years.In this paper, I will introduce the main roles, functions, and collaborative works of ICHCAP in relation to ICH safeguarding in the Asia-Pacific region. I am hoping that the information provided here will also contribute to developing useful methods and cooperative measures in the ICH field among Asia-Pacific Member States and ICHCAP.

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.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is the most populated city in the country. It is also one of the most populated cities in the world with a density of 23,234 people per square kilometer within a total area of 300 square kilometers. The Greater Dhaka Area has a population of over 18 million as of 2016 (World Population Review, 2017). According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects (2014), the population of Dhaka was only 336,000 in 1950. Dhaka has always been a center of cultural vibrancy and has a long history and tradition of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The cultural vibrancy and heritage that have given glory to Dhaka for centuries often get buried under different modern-day civic problems. As an ever-expanding mega city, Dhaka is losing its cultural spaces to religious and ruling coteries. Many of the city’s prime spaces are now earmarked for various public and private business, commercial, or military purposes. The situation was not so deplorable even during the Pakistan era from 1947 to 1971.

This paper looks at the current situation for intangible cultural heritage in Australia, a place of great cultural diversity. Australia is a continent, a vast country, with a migration story 65,000 years old, when the first humans arrived, after homo sapiens sapiens left Africa. Since then, migrants from around the world have come to this continent, particularly since British colonization in 1788, resulting in many ethnic and cultural groups settling.

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.

From 10 to 14 March 2015, Tropical Cyclone Pam (TC Pam) struck Vanuatu, an island country in the Pacific composed of more than 80 islands with a population of around 270,000 people and with some 100 languages. The category 5 cyclone caused widespread damage across the country. TC Pam’s eye passed close to Efate Island in Sefa Province, where the capital Port Vila is located, with winds around 250km/hr and gusts peaking at 320km/hr. The President of Vanuatu, Father Baldwin Lonsdale, who was attending the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, returned to the country immediately, before the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) was concluded. The Sendai Framework includes the importance of Disaster Risk Reduction strategy of cultural heritage to contribute to strengthening communities’ resilience and nurture a culture of prevention.

"As we all know, the importance of intangible cultural heritage has been greatly enhanced since the 2003 Convention though the forms we are talking about are old if not ancient in many cases, and the individuals who have worked in the arts with what was called ‘expressions of folklore’ were involved in efforts to preserve and transmit these traditions. However, the 2003 Convention, which has at its centre the aim of safeguarding, has helped bring these issues to the centre, resulting in debate and the need to define the ‘intangible’.\nI am discussing these issues not only as one who works in this area but as one providing perspective from India, from the standpoint of an archivist who is involved in the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of forms of intangible cultural heritage, including music, oral traditions, rituals, and other forms of performance.1 Though this is an attempt at providing an overview of the status of the Convention, my aim will be to deal with the spirit rather than the Though my experience is limited to India, this paper is based on input from Moe Chiba of the UNESCO New Delhi office for an overview of issues from Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, which fall under their aegis."

The tug-of-war is widely spread throughout the world, especially in agricultural communities. The Gijisi Tug-of-War Festival is highly regarded. Held on the second weekend in April, it has a five-hundred-year history. The event, which is based on agriculture, fishery, and merchant traditions, is held to wish for prosperity and good luck for the coming year. The tug-of-war represents the agricultural, rural, and social characteristics of the region. The rope used for the event is two hundred meters long and one meter thick, so it is truly a community event. Similar tug-of-war games are also held in other nations. After creating a museum for Gijisi tug-of-war, members discovered that it could be a symbol of the region, so the local government invested into the museum. After building the museum, we wanted to expand our knowledge of tug-of-war events in other countries. In the past, there wasn’t much communication among the different communities celebrating tug-of-war festivities. However, after building the museum, we had the opportunity to invite other countries as a sort of network that allows research into other types of tug-of-war in the Asia-Pacific region. As Gijisi tug-of-war is well known, we thought that having a festival to display other cultures’ traditional tug-of-war through a networked festival.\n\nTug-of-war (juldarigi in Korean) is an intangible heritage that is commonly found in various regions across the world. In particular, it is a popular activity that takes place with the aim to foster harmony and solidarity among communities in rice-farming regions across Korea, Japan,and various Southeast Asian countries.

The time is opportune for nations across the world to take up the cause of safeguarding intangible heritage, for there is a growing awareness and renewed interest worldwide, as evidenced by UNESCO’s initiative to develop the 2003 Convention as a standard-setting instrument for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.

This research work aims to view the present actions regarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH) through the experience of two different countries. The question enunciates on how the museum can safeguard and disseminate intangible cultural heritage.\nThe official documents of the two countries and the results of the interview are used in the research work. The National Folk Museum of Korea has extensive experience in comparison with the experience of the National Museum of Kazakhstan as the National Museum of Kazakhstan was established recently in 2014. \nIt was found out that nowadays, the museum pays more attention to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and tries to combine a variety of approaches to work with ICH. In this work, I believe that exhibitions, collecting data and non-formal education can certainly support safeguarding in important ways; however, that full safeguarding work would need to include the holders as well.