ICA announces 63 new Cooperative Cultural Heritage inscriptions
The latest additions follow the first 32 inscriptions announced in Brasilia, Brazil, in November 2025
BRUSSELS, October 2, 2026 — The International Cooperative Alliance [ICA] has announced 63 new inscriptions on its Cooperative Cultural Heritage [CCH] List, bringing the number of recognised sites and living traditions to 95 across 39 countries.
Tiago Schmidt, Chairperson of the ICA Working Group on Cooperative Cultural Heritage, announced the new inscriptions during the ICA Global Conference 2026 in Panama, held under the theme, “Building Bridges: Cooperative Contributions for a Peaceful World.”
The latest additions follow the first 32 inscriptions announced in Brasilia, Brazil, in November 2025.
The 2026 inscriptions include cultural practices, traditional livelihoods, cooperative enterprises and institutions of learning and remembrance. Among them are the culture of Jeju’s women divers in the Republic of Korea, Switzerland’s alpine pasture season and traditional irrigation practices, as well as cooperative institutions and enterprises.
According to the ICA, the list is intended to document and recognise places, institutions and living practices through which cooperative traditions have developed and been transmitted across generations.
The announcement in Panama was accompanied by recognition of the Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples Artesanías Sombrero Pinta’o del Norte de Penonomé, R.L., for its contribution to safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage associated with Panama’s Pinta’o hat.
Representatives of the cooperative received the recognition symbolically on behalf of the communities and custodians represented in the 2026 inscriptions.
The Pinta’o hat tradition involves the cultivation and preparation of plant fibres and the subsequent braiding, weaving and finishing of the hats. The ICA said cooperative organisation provides artisans with a means of pursuing shared economic interests, accessing materials and markets, and maintaining community relationships linked to the tradition.
The Cooperative Cultural Heritage programme was launched during the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives in 2025. It identifies, documents and celebrates cooperative heritage while promoting education and cultural exchange.
The programme was mentored by OCB Brazil and developed with the participation and support of organisations represented in the ICA Working Group on Cooperative Cultural Heritage.
Its approach draws partly on UNESCO’s 2016 inscription of “The idea and practice of organizing shared interests in cooperatives” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The inscription recognised cooperation as a living cultural practice involving knowledge, values and ways of organising shared interests that are transmitted and adapted across generations.
The ICA initiative also draws on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems [GIAHS] programme, which recognises agricultural systems where traditional knowledge, biodiversity, landscapes and livelihoods have developed together.
The ICA said its heritage list is beginning to connect individual sites through cooperative heritage trails.
These include a trail in Japan associated with Toyohiko Kagawa and his cooperative work, Morocco’s argan cooperative heritage, which links traditional knowledge, women’s livelihoods and landscape stewardship, and a developing Raiffeisen trail tracing places associated with Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen and the spread of his cooperative ideas.
The list also includes educational institutions that have provided cooperative education for more than 50 years, highlighting the role of education in maintaining and renewing cooperative knowledge.
ICA opens nominations for five more inscriptions
The ICA has now opened nominations for five additional heritage sites or living traditions, with the aim of bringing the Cooperative Cultural Heritage List to 100 inscriptions.
ICA members and their constituents are being encouraged to nominate heritage with a clear cooperative connection, cultural significance and evidence of continuity.
The ICA said communities should play an active role in explaining the meaning of nominated heritage and in determining how it is documented and safeguarded.
Eligible nominations may include tangible and intangible heritage such as places, institutions, craftsmanship, knowledge and traditions sustained through cooperation.
Applicants are expected to explain the cooperative contribution to the heritage and demonstrate the involvement of heritage bearers, including how knowledge is passed to younger generations.
The nomination form and guidance are available through the ICA Cooperative Cultural Heritage website’s Criteria and Nominations section. Assistance is also available from the programme at help@culturalheritage.coop.
The initiative forms part of the ICA-EU Partnership [2024–2028], also known as #coops4dev, a five-year international cooperative development programme aimed at strengthening the ICA network and positioning cooperatives as development actors within the European Union Development Agenda.
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