In 2003 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) created a new Convention for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Physical structures such as Hadrian’s Wall are inscribed under the original Convention as tangible Heritage Sites, but UNESCO recognised that human customs and practices also need safe-guarding. Whereas History is about the past, Heritage is about passing the baton of culture on from one generation to the next, so it concerns the future. To date 183 countries have signed the ICH Convention.
The Convention articles include the definition:
The ‘intangible cultural heritage’ means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.’
Falconers attended the UNESCO conferences right from the start and made a submission for Falconry. In 2010 Falconry was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind initially on behalf of 11 signatory countries.
Being inscribed by UNESCO places an onus on the practitioners to create an Action Plan for safe-guarding the future of their ICH and on their governments to support that ICH, if not financially then at least by considering it when creating any legislation that might impact it.
UK only signed in 2024, working through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The operational staff there are Phil Foxwood and August Crocker. The first step is to create a UK ICH Inventory split into England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Later, items from the UK Inventory can be submitted to UNESCO for inscription.
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