IRCI’s Asia-Pacific Research Forum for ICH Safeguarding, in conjunction with IRCI’s new project ‘Research on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific Region’, hosted two online seminars dealing with topics related to local and indigenous knowledge and climate change.

The 7th Online Seminar for Safeguarding ICH in the Asia-Pacific Region, held on 21 February 2025, featured Mr Nigel Thomas Crawhall, Chief of the UNESCO LINKS programme, who presented on ‘Indigenous and Local knowledge of changing weather and climate: UNESCO experiences of community-led research in Africa and the Caribbean’. The lecture introduced initiatives from the UNESCO LINKS programme that explored the impact of climate change on nomadic pastoralist communities in Africa and the Caribbean. He underscored the importance of integrating indigenous knowledge with scientific approaches to enhance climate policy and adaptation. As a commentator, Ms Duong Bich Hanh, Programme Specialist for Culture at UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia highlighted the lecture’s alignment with the 2003 Convention and emphasized gender dynamics, language preservation and the need for case studies in the Asia-Pacific region.

For the 8th seminar held on 26 February 2025, Ms Lisa Hiwasaki, Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island, USA, and Associate researcher at Université Laval, Canada, presented ‘Leveraging local and indigenous knowledge to enhance adaptive capacity: Examples from Southeast Asian coastal communities’. She discussed the crucial role of local and indigenous knowledge in helping communities adapt to environmental changes and reduce disaster risks, and emphasized the need to support and transmit this knowledge to future generations to ensure equitable and sustainable adaptation. Mr Christopher Ballard, Associate Professor at the Australian National University, commented on the need to address equity and vulnerability, highlighting the importance of community-led definitions of heritage and recognizing all forms of local knowledge.

Recordings of these seminars will be made available on IRCI’s official YouTube channel.

Asia-Pacific Research Forum for ICH Safeguarding will continue to offer online seminars. Information on future seminars will be posted on IRCI website, official Facebook page, and Forum’s Facebook Group.

Please feel free to contact IRCI secretariat for any questions, suggestions, or proposals concerning future seminars.