The InterDependent

Traditional Azerbaijani carpet weaving, musical chants, customs of southern Colombia and even French food are among the 46 new elements that have been inscribed to Unesco’s list of intangible cultural assets this year, the agency announced recently.

The list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity started in 2001 with 19 items and now includes about 200 elements generally associated with music, crafts and other skills that cannot be physically protected. The goal is to increase the intangibles’ visibility to the rest of the world.
For the first time, traditional cuisines made the honor roll, namely French, Mexican and Mediterranean cuisines.

In Colombia, the traditional dances and chants of the Afro-Colombians of the southern Pacific region of the country were inscribed. The traditions include a fiery blend of African, Spanish and indigenous rhythms that bind the people of this region together.

Unesco also designates a sublist of intangible cultural elements that need safeguarding. Of the four items added to the endangered list this year, three are in China: meshrep (a Uighur cultural event), the watertight bulkhead structure (a technique used in the building of junks) and printing with wooden moveable type (one of the world’s oldest). In Croatia, ojkanje singing is considered at risk.

Practiced in the Dalmatian hinterland, ojkanje is performed by one or more singers using a voice-shaking technique. Each song lasts as long as the lead singer can hold his or her breath. (No wonder it is endangered.) To the unitiated, it sounds like a lament punctuated by a yodel noise. Occasionally, a chorus lifts the monotone to upper notes in an energetic burst. Ojkanje is fading because not enough young people are learning the style.

Lake Oulujärvi, the fourth largest of Finland’s 180,000 lakes. The island is an esker, a narrow ridge of sand or gravel, most likely from the ice age. The region is part of Rokua National Park, which has been named to Unesco's Global Geoparks network because of its geological importance.

In addition, Unesco named 11 sites to its Global Geoparks network, ranging from such diverse areas as Finland, Canada and Vietnam. A geopark site has a specific geological heritage of international significance; the designation also takes into account the whole setting, including the park’s ecological, archaeological, historical and cultural value. The first geoparks were created in 2004; since then the network has expanded to 77 parks in 24 countries. Belonging to the network provides the local communities with incentives to preserve and protect their parks with technical assistance from Unesco.

Margarete Patzak, a Unesco program specialist of the Geoparks initiative, said that the label helps increase tourism and notoriety for the parks. The limestone Marble Arch Caves, in Northern Ireland, for example, has experienced a rise of 25 percent in visitors since its inclusion in the network in 2003.

Rokua National Park in Finland and Stonehammer Park in Canada also earned spots on the list. Vesa Krökki, director of the Rokua Park, said that this is the first time Finland has been included.

Rokua Geopark is the northernmost park in the network, lying close to the Arctic Circle. It contains ice-age heritage as well as lakes and pristine forests and has been a Finnish national park since 1956.

In Canada, Gail Bremmer, executive director of Stonehammer Park in New Brunswick, noted how proud her community is of being the first geopark in North America.

Bremmer also expects increased tourism as well as additional financing from the government and the private sector now that the park has received its new designation. The park literature says that it is a place where people can “experience a billion years of Earth’s history.”

Being a member of the network also benefits the park’s “education and awareness, protection and conservation and sustainable economic development,” she said.

Stonehammer Park is located in the Bay of Fundy in Saint John, and contains unique geological formations that are indeed millions of years old.