Benefitting country(ies): Belarus

Overview:

The main goal of the project was to safeguard living heritage in Belarus through the identification and documentation of existing cultural practices, creating a database and developing a national inventorying procedure. It aimed at ensuring promotion and distribution of structured information about the diversity of the intangible cultural heritage in Belarus while underlining the crucial role of cultural diversity and cultural heritage for sustainable development.
Communities and bearers in six regions of Belarus worked closely with experts to establish procedures and mechanisms for inventorying of ICH. Procedures for data collection, digitalization, storage and presentation were put in place and the first on-line ICH inventory of Belarus is available at http://livingheritage.by/en/.
The project also provided the occasion for sharing of experiences, lessons learnt and best practices in identification and inventorying of ICH within the region, with an international seminar organized on 25 and 26 March 2013 in Minsk. The involvement of communities and bearers in inventorying and safeguarding of ICH and challenges related to the identification and inventorying of ICH were at the core of the debates. The seminar concluded with a set of recommendations addressing governments, NGOs, communities and ICH bearers.
The final results of the project, including a handbook on inventorying and the six regional ICH inventories on DVDs, were to be presented during the European Heritage Days on 26 and 27 September 2013, organized around the theme ‘Intangible cultural heritage: conservation, cooperation, continuity’. The final report is to be submitted according to schedule by the end of October 2013.

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