European Cultural Heritage Strategy for the 21 st century „ Page 75 Components: [S] Social Targeted audience: Local authorities (communities and municipalities, non-profit cultural organisations, museums, groups of practitioners and bearers of ICH elements) Aims / Content: Identification and inventorying of the intangible cultural heritage of Cyprus as an inte- gral part to the process of safeguarding Year / Duration: 2015 - Ongoing Online material: wwww.unesco.org.cy Cyprus Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Cyprus ccording to the provisions of the UNESCO Con- vention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), each State Party shall “ensure identification with a view to safeguarding, [and] shall draw up, in a manner geared to its own situation, one or more inventories of the intangible cultural heritage present in its territory”. Following ratification of the Convention by Cyprus in 2006, a first Register of elements was compiled by the Cyprus Research Centre on the basis of the Centre’s Oral Tradition Archive and was published in 2012. — In order to ensure greater participation of communities in the process of inventorying and implementing safeguarding measures as well as to provide regular updating and access, the Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministry of Educa- tion and Culture and the Cyprus National Commis- sion for UNESCO (Decision No: 76.222) decided in 2013 to revise the procedure of inventorying Intan- gible Cultural Heritage in Cyprus. — The Expert Committee for ICH, which was ap- pointed in charge of this task, consists of represen- tatives of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Department of Antiquities, the National Commission for UNESCO and experts on the 2003 Convention. — The National Inventory is updated annually with the addition of new elements, upon proposal of communities concerned. The Nomination Form was prepared according to the guidelines set forth by the 2003 Convention and requires the following information: „ Name of the element (in the Greek stan- dard language and the local Greek-Cypriot dialect); „ Domain of ICH manifested by the element; A „ Communities and groups of people con- cerned; „ Geographical distribution; „ Description; „ Present-day bearers and practitioners: who they are, the roles and responsibilities they assume; „ Knowledge and skills transmitted today; „ Social functions and cultural significance of the proposed element for the community; including: transmission, education, docume- ntation, research, awareness-raising, pres- ervation, enhancement, and revitalization); „ Adherence to customary practices govern- ing access to the element; „ Method of collection of information (inter- views, bibliographic references); „ Photos and audiovisual material (and cesion of rights for its use); „ Reference letter (optional) by 1-2 experts. „ Viability of the element: number of practi- tioners, contemporary challenges; „ Safeguarding measures (past and present; measures proposed for the future). — Several communities and cultural groups expressed their interest for including elements on the National Inventory of ICH and eighteen elements have been inscribed by December 2016. Three of these elements are also included in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (RL ICH). The current process of invento- rying has stimulated interest in the implementation of safeguarding measures and has enabled the iden- tification of elements in common with other coun- tries, resulting in the preparation of a multinational nomination file for inscription in the RL ICH.