ICH MANAGEMENT AND DRR IN VIETNAM
Phan Phương Anh

Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Introduc�onDuring the last two decades, the Vietnamese government has made a significant effort
to the preservation and promotion of Intangible Culture Heritage (ICH). A large
number of projects and programs have been implemented to conduct inventories toclassify and restore lost and endangered ICH. The country has also prepared andsubmitted ICH related files to UNESCO for inscription on the Representative List of ICH
of Humanity. The promotion of ICH elements aims at raising awareness of the local
communities about their own heritage as an important part of cultural identity and theneed to preserve this heritage. In addition, the dissemination of ICH as cultural assets
is used as a strategy to strengthen the local economy through tourist development. In
doing so, some local authorities separate ICH from its context and culturalenvironment. This approach is criticized because ICH, as living culture, needs to be
nurtured within the communities that have created and/or held the heritage andshould be regarded and managed as a total social phenomenon. The role of disasterrisk reduction (DRR) in ICH management and preservation and vice versa is apertinent example. Recent studies have shown that ICH has a close relationship with
DRR. On the one hand, past experience and local knowledge about the universe, living
environment play an important role in the community’s resilience to disasters.
Specifically, social-cultural norms and religious beliefs influence the perception of risks
and thus the way communities respond to natural hazards. Furthermore, cultural
practices such as rituals, lineage and religious institutions contribute to strengtheningsocial capital that is an important element of the community’s resilience. On the other
hand, natural hazards have posed significant threats to ICH elements such as ICH
holders (e.g. local communities, artisans, etc.) and cultural buildings where cultural
practices take place and thus part of ICH.
Despite the close relationship between ICH and DRR, DRR has been poorly consideredin ICH preservation, protection and promotion policies and practices in Vietnam andvice versa. This paper examines current ICH management policies and practices and its
implication for DRR, and propose some recommendations on how the synergy
between ICH and DRR in Vietnam can be improved.

The Concept of ICH in Vietnamese Legal Documents and the Role of StateIn the 2001 Vietnamese Law on Cultural Heritage, ICH is defined as ‘spiritual productsof historical, cultural or scientific value, being saved in memory or in scripts, handed

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down orally and through professional teaching, performance and other forms ofsaving and handing down, including speech, scripts, literary, art or scientific works,
oral philology, folk oratorio, life style, way of life, rites, traditional cra� know-how,knowledge about traditional medicine and pharmacy, about gastronomic culture,
about traditional costumes, and other folk knowledge’ (Art. 4, Law# 28/2001/QH10).
This law highlights the role of the State (articles 17 to 26) and allows very limited
room for community involvement in ICH’s protection and promotion activities.
The 2001 Law was amended in 2009 in which ICH is redefined as ‘spiritual products
associated with related communities, individuals, objects and cultural spaces, which
are of historical, cultural or scientific value, express the identity of communities, areconstantly recreated and transmitted from generation to generation orally, throughcra� teaching, performing arts or in other forms’ (Law#32/2001/QH12, underlines
added by the author). This new definition was influenced by the 2003 Convention for
the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003 Convention), ratified by
Vietnam in 2005 (as the 22nd country). It is observable that, for the first time, thenotions of community, individuals, community identity, and culture spaces are
introduced. This adjustment makes the concept of ICH less abstract and has important
implication for the management of ICH.

ICH Management in Vietnam
Key policies, focus and achievement
The Vietnamese Government has been paying a lot of attention to ICH management.
A decade a�er the introduction of reform policy Đổi mới in 1986, the 1st Program on
the ‘Protection and Promotion of Intangible Cultural Values’ focusing on theendangered ICH elements and ICH of small ethnic groups (under 10,000 people) wasapproved under the National Target Program for Culture (NTPFC) in 1997 (Nguyễn ChíBền 2005). The NTPFC is renewed every five years and always has one section on ICH
safeguarding and promotion. In 2016, this NTPFC has the new name National Target
Program for Culture Development.
In addition to the NTP for culture sector and the Law on Cultural Heritage, a numberof policies and programs have been developed and implemented. These policies covera range of activities, which can be grouped into the following areas: (i) investigate,collect, research and analyze the value of ICH; (ii) develop a data bank of Vietnamese
cultural heritage including texts, photos, audio, and video; (iii) disseminate andpromote the collected data; and (iv) disseminate ICH internationally.
To date, Vietnam has made significant achievements. A systematic inventory of ICH
elements throughout the country has been conducted. Hundreds of projects forrestoration, protection and promotion have been implemented (with 500 projects per
five years program as an objective). Ten years a�er the 2003 Convention, two databanks were established at the national level and 15 satellites in provinces (Nguyễn ThếHùng and Nguyễn Kim Dung 2014). In addition, being known as one of the mostactive UNESCO member states, Vietnam has 12 ICH elements inscribed in the UNESCO
Representative List of ICH of Humanity up to 2018 (Figure 1).

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Figure 1

Bài Chòi Performance by artists from Bình Định Province in Hanoi. The art of Bài Chòiin Central Viet Nam was inscribed in 2017 on the Representative List of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage of Humanity. (Source: Phan Phương Anh 2012)

Besides the policies that are directly linked to ICH, the Culture sector also develops
annual plans for DRM for the sector at the national and provincial level.
Approaches and Gaps
1) Top-down approach and product oriented instead of process driven
Although Vietnam has made significant efforts in ICH preservation and promotion,
there are still some big gaps. ICH policies are developed and implemented based on
the top-down and sector-oriented approach. There has been limited room for an
active and meaningful engagement of the community and other stakeholders/sectors.
For example, while ICH has been strongly affected by natural hazards, thecollaboration between agencies in charge of ICH and those responsible for DRM/DRR
is very limited.
In addition, ICH management is o�en driven by product-oriented approach. Limited
attention has been paid to relevant processes. For instance, the national government
set the objective to conduct the inventory of ICH for the whole country (Cục Di sảnVăn hoá 2019) and the implementing agency only focuses on having the physical listof ICH (there are 288 ICH elements classified on the national list up to January 2019)(Hoàng Phúc 2019). Questions such as how this list should be established, how ICH
has been changed and what are the drivers of the viability/sustainability or decline of
ICH are o�en not considered.
2) ICH managed separately from its socio-cultural environment and (changing) context,
and also from the people
In Vietnam, ICH is o�en considered as fixed object even though it is continuously
recreated and transformed. The support for the process of archiving ICH into books,
audios and videos is useful for keeping the memory of endangered ICH elements andfor research. However, this approach may also pose the risk of freezing ICH that is aliving culture and need to be nurtured in its living context (Lê Thị Minh Lý 2010). In
addition, the inventory and archiving process may separate ICH from the changing
context and environment that contributes to the evolution/transformation of ICH. The
case of Bá Trạo, a ritual opera taking part of the whale worship practice is a pertinent
example. This worship includes multiple aspects related to the perception of risk and

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Figure 2

Cá Ông (Whale) temple and altar in Sông Đốc, Cà Mau.
(Source: Phan Phương Anh 2012)

the recovery process a�er disasters of the fishermen community (Figure 2). However,
only the Bá Trạo opera (instead of the whole whale worship) was inscribed separately
to the national list of ICH in 2016. The promotion of such classified ICH is driven
mainly by economic and tourism development purposes (See also Lê Thị Minh Lý
2010; Lê Hồng Lý et al. 2014). As a result, ICH elements are decontextualized from its
environment and broader sociocultural contexts.
3) Limited linkages between DRM and ICH management
Past experience and local knowledge about the universe and living environment play
an important role in the community’s resilience to natural disasters. Specifically, socialcultural norms and religious beliefs influence the perception of risks and thus the way
communities respond to natural hazards. Furthermore, cultural practices such as
rituals, lineage and religious institutions contribute to strengthening social capital thatis an important element of the community’s resilience. At the same time, natural
hazards have posed significant threats to ICH elements such as ICH holders (e.g. local
communities, artisans, etc.), and cultural buildings and spaces where cultural practices
take place. Despite the close relationship between ICH and DRR, DRR has been poorly
considered in ICH preservation, protection and promotion policies and practices inVietnam and vice versa.
As a legal requirement, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has to establish anannual DRM action plan for the culture sector. However, this action plan is o�enpoorly implemented especially with regards to ICH. The term ‘intangible cultural
heritage’ is even not mentioned in the DRM action plan of the culture sector. In
addition, DRR is o�en not considered in any legal documents related to ICH
safeguarding and promotion. Our report on case study in Lào Cai province, reviewing
policy documents from 2010 to 2016, also shows evidence of this gap (Phan Phuong
Anh and Vu Canh Toan 2018). To date, there has been no work conducted by thesector to assess the impact of natural hazards on ICH. As a result, there is no plan andaction to protect ICH holders and cultural spaces from natural hazards.
On the other side, the role of ICH is also underconsidered in DRR policy and practice.
Most DRM/DRR policies, projects and programs only consider tangible heritages. In thelist of the inventory of damages caused by major disasters, ICH is not evenmentioned. From research perspectives, few studies have examined the impacts of

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natural hazards on ICH, although there are some studies looking at the role of local
knowledge in DRR and climate change adaptation activities.
The limited linkages between the ICH and DRM sectors can be explained by several
reasons as following:• the intangible nature of ICH makes the integration of ICH into DRM policies andpractices challenges• a framework to support the integration of ICH and DRR is not in place yet• lack of capacity and also interest of government oﬃcials working in the culture
sector in relation to DRM/DRR• lack of recognition of the role of ICH in DRM by DRM oﬃcials/sector

Conclusion and Recommenda�ons
By examining the current state of ICH management in Vietnam, this paper points out
the key limitation of the existing ICH management policies as being top-down, sector
based and product driven approaches that limit the participation and engagement ofother sectors and stakeholders especially the communities who hold ICH, and thatconsider ICH as fixed objects that can be managed independently from its changing
context and environment. This limitation can be a major cause of the lack ofconsideration of natural hazards and its impacts on ICH management policies andpractices. To fill this gap, it is recommended that:
1) ICH should be developed and implemented based on a holistic and process driven
approach that: manages ICH with close consideration of its context andenvironment as well as of the changing conditions that influence the existence,transformation and recreation of ICH; and that engages other relevant sectors andtakes into account the voice of ICH holders and practitioners in a meaningfulmanner;2) the role of ICH in DRM should be better recognized and the impact of natural
hazards on ICH should be better understood;3) new tools and framework to support the integration of ICH into DRR policies/
practices and vice versa need to be developed;
4) the evolution and the drivers of changes/losses of ICH should be investigated during
the process of ICH inventory.

R���������
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