The “Bamboo for Carbon Neutrality in Rural Areas: Innovation and Practices in Carbon Reduction and Low-Carbon Development in and around World Heritage Sites” Call for Case Studies, jointly organized by UNESCO and INBAR, collects and promotes good practices and innovations of site management by using bamboo to explore solutions in carbon reduction and low-carbon sustainable development. The initiative aims to contribute to China’s efforts in attaining the “Double Carbon Targets” (carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060).
Submission Details
Present until 10 October 2022
Who can Submit:
Any institutions or individuals, including relevant administrations for “Hometown of Bamboo of China” or World Heritage sites, NGOs and other social groups, local government authorities, academic institutions and individuals.
Themes：
All submissions should fall under one or more of the following thematic categories:
Theme 1: Fostering of low-carbon and sustainable environment at World Heritage Site
Natural World Heritage sites have Outstanding Universal Values and are irreplaceable and non-renewable resources. These sites are required to avoid or mitigate the negative impact of construction and developmental activities in line with the standards and conditions of authenticity and integrity as elaborated in the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage and its Operational Guidelines. Bamboo can help create a low-carbon and sustainable heritage environment. Bamboo forests in and around World Heritage sites are huge carbon sinks, which can even be increased through adequate management. Developing carbon sink projects and facilitating entrance into the carbon market could transform natural resources to tangible profits. Durable bamboo products can also provide lasting storage for carbon. A variety of bamboo products, such as bamboo buildings, indoor and outdoor bamboo flooring, furniture and decorative materials, can be applied to the construction of heritage facilities. Replacing high energy-consuming materials such as steel, cement and plastic with bamboo can lower carbon emissions.
Theme 2: Development of low-carbon cultural tourism products and concepts
Bamboo is an important element in Chinese culture, and there are as many as 50 national level living heritage elements related to bamboo in China. Bamboo is fast to harvest and easy to obtain. Processed by artisans, bamboo becomes exquisite handicrafts. When combined with local cultures and regional characteristics, these handicrafts can be further designed into cultural tourism products or educational gadgets, and contribute to the spiritual and material needs, ecological and social economic needs at the same time.
Theme 3: Education programmes for youth on sustainable management and low-carbon development of World Heritage site
To enrich the content of low-carbon tourism services, heritage sites have adopted a series of publicity, education and consultation activities to advocate for sustainable consumption and responsible tourism. Bamboo is already used to replace plastic in many high-carbon consumer goods, such as tableware and packing boxes. Case studies could include but are not limited to, establishing youth education centres in “Hometowns of Bamboo” and World Heritage sites, offering heritage education and hands-on research activities in proximity to nature, advocating for green and low-carbon consumption, disseminating knowledge on environmental protection, and to foster awareness of low-carbon lifestyles and consumption for young people.
Theme 4: Communication of the culture and its values of the World Heritage site
Based on a thorough understanding of bamboo culture and the cultures in and around World Heritage sites, new media can be used to spread the abundance and values of heritage sites to the public in a straight-forward, accessible and participatory way, which will help broaden the public's vision and awareness.
Requirements
The submitting entity or individual is invited to focus on one or more of the above-mentioned themes relevant to bamboo and World Heritage sites, and elaborated in the form of text, multimedia, digital applications or products of various categories of cultural creativity.
• Texts can include the following sections: context and issues that need to be addressed; description and analysis of measures taken to address the issues; achievements and lessons learned; sustainability and replicability of the solution.
• Multimedia works can include short videos, photography, graphic designs and other forms, and should be accompanied by corresponding text descriptions. The length of short video should not exceed 5 minutes, the video resolution should be 720P or above, and the format should be in MP4. The photo dossier should consist of more than 5 photos on the same theme. The style of multimedia works is unlimited.
• Digital applications can include data visualization, mobile applications, etc., supplemented by corresponding links and text introductions.
• Creative products can include posters, arts and crafts, tourist souvenirs, office supplies, animation IP, WeChat emoticons, etc.
Language:
Chinese
Number of Characters:
Text should be no less than 600 characters; title should be limited to within 25 characters.
Evaluation Criteria:
The submission should be in line with the theme and orientation of this initiative. Specifically:
• It should be innovative in concept and design;
• It should be practical in concept and design;
• It should be exemplary and adaptable in concept and design;
• It should be viable and have good market value for better transformation and commercialization of achievements (for low-carbon cultural tourism products).
Requirements:
• The author should ensure that the works are free from infringement such as plagiarism and counterfeiting, and do not infringe any rights of the third party, including copyright, portrait right, reputation right, privacy right, etc. Works shall not violate the contents stipulated by national laws and regulations. Where violation of the above provisions leads to related disputes, all legal responsibilities shall be borne by the contributors themselves.
• Copyright of works and ownership of multimedia works belong to the authors, and the organizers have the right to non-commercial use of the entries, and can use the works through any media forms (such as online display, printing and publishing, etc.); When using works, the organizer will always retain the authorship of the author.
How to Submit:
Participants can access the Call for Case Studies and download the Submission Form through the official WeChat platforms of UNESCO, and choose their respective themes. Please submit all works to the dedicated e-mail address before the deadline (24:00, 10 October 2022) according to the submission requirements. The subject line of the e-mail should be [Name + Carbon Neutrality in Rural Areas - Case Study for Innovation and Practices in Carbon Reduction and Low-Carbon Development in and around World Heritage Sites], e-mail address: beijing.culture@unesco.org.
Naming rules:
• Submission form: “Name + Submission Form”;
• Textual works: “Name + Title”;
• Multimedia works: “Name + Title + No.#”. If the file size exceeds email attachment size limit, please attach a download link of the work;
• Digital application and other cultural creative products: “Name + Title”.
• Note: Attachments should not exceed 10MB.
Others
UNESCO and INBAR jointly constitute the Evaluation Committee. The Committee shall evaluate each submission in adherence to the principles of fairness, justness and openness, and score the submission based on criteria such as whether it is in line with the theme, its relevance to bamboo, to what extent it addresses effective measures to reduce carbon emission, whether it is innovative, exemplary, practical and replicable, etc.
Award Setting：
The jury will select 5 Best Innovation Awards and 5 Best Practice Awards from all submitted applications. The shortlisted candidates will have the opportunity to attend the International Bamboo and Rattan Congress (BARC 2022) to be held in Beijing in November 2022 and share their case studies. The selected applications will be compiled into Bamboo for Carbon Neutrality in Rural Areas: Collection of Case Studies on Innovation and Practices in Carbon Reduction and Low-Carbon Development in and around World Heritage Sites, which will be promoted through UNESCO and INBAR platforms.
Contact：
• UNESCO, Ms. LU Ye y.lu@unesco.org, 010-65322828
• INBAR, Ms. LI Yanxia yxli@inbar.int, 010-64706295
Annex: Submission Form
• Link: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1B-DHkraqZAowts7xnRTqKg
• Code: 81j7
For more information, please refer to:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/k-IjhtZDn5B5sgRz4pzNPQ