During their annual meeting, held online from 13 to 18 December 2021, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage inscribed four elements on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and 39 elements on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage lists now feature 630 elements from 140 countries.
One of the four elements inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding comes from Europe, from Estonia: the building and use of expanded dugout boats in the Soomaa region.
UNESCO provides the following information about the expanded dugout boats: “The expanded dugout boat is a canoe-like boat, hollowed out from a single tree, with expanded sides and a shallow base. (…) Transmitted through apprenticeships and formal studies, dugout boat building and use is a communal activity that is accompanied by storytelling about legendary masters and their boats.”
UNESCO also shares the following video about the expanded dugout boats:
Read about the 43 elements inscribed on UNESCO’s intangible heritage lists in UNESCO’s press release.