Towards Carpathian Pastoralism nomination under the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List of Humanity – Introductory online meeting

Pursuant to the Carpathian Convention COP7 Decisions (COP7/12) giving a special mandate to “supporting, promoting and protecting the traditional pastoral practices in the Carpathians” and particularly to “exploring possibilities to inscribe the Carpathian pastoralism in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List of Humanity” (DECISION COP7/12 para 2-6, page 21-22),

the Secretariat invited experts for an introductory meeting related to the process on supporting, promoting and protecting the traditional pastoral practices in the Carpathians, including a possible inscription of the Carpathian pastoralism/transhumance in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) List of Humanity.

The introductory online meeting took place on 21 February 2024 at 11:00 CET.

The overall objectives of the meeting were:

• to present the mandate of the Carpathian Convention and ideas for cooperation in regard to the Carpathian pastoralism, particularly the UNESCO nomination,
• to present international experience from the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralism (IYRP2026), as well as the experience from Romania with respect to the national process for the extension of the Transhumance – the seasonal droving of livestock –  file under the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List of Humanity,
• to discuss possibilities for further extension of the Transhumance file under the UNESCO ICH or other options to promote the Carpathian pastoralism under UNESCO, and in this respect discuss and possibly coordinate necessary efforts and next steps at the national and regional levels to support nominations from the Carpathian countries.