Since October 2025, UNESCO has been implementing in Peru the project “International Food Atlas and Digital Platform to Safeguard, Promote, and Transmit Food Practices to Future Generations”, which will run until March 2026. The project is generously funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, within UNESCO’s Culture and Digital Technologies Programme. Its objective is to generate new knowledge and develop interactive tools to document, safeguard, and transmit food traditions as living heritage to future generations.
In this way, the project aims to share experiences of food production, preparation, and consumption related to the cultural identity of communities, as well as to identify good practices that integrate the preservation of traditions with their relevance to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. It also seeks to create spaces for learning and dialogue on food traditions, their importance, value, and meaning, as well as to analyze their relevance and vulnerability in order to provide recommendations for their future safeguarding.
In the Peruvian case, two food practices will be considered:
- The practices and meanings associated with the preparation and consumption of ceviche in artisanal fishing coves in Piura, mainly in El Ñuro and Cabo Blanco;
- The knowledge, techniques, and values related to the production and use of maize in the Sacred Valley of Cusco, particularly in the province of Urubamba.
Both experiences were selected based on key criteria, such as their recognition as Cultural Heritage of the Nation or their inscription on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as well as their long-standing historical tradition rooted in territorial management.
As part of the project’s implementation in both locations, initial coordination is underway with local stakeholders to develop capacity-building workshops. These spaces aim to foster dialogue and reflection on food traditions as intangible cultural heritage, as well as on the current challenges for their safeguarding.
The first step in this process was a visit to Urubamba for meetings with representatives of local authorities and maize producers from this area of the Sacred Valley, in preparation for the workshop to be held there. The initiative seeks to bring together local communities, government actors, and other stakeholders interested in safeguarding knowledge related to maize cultivation and consumption, in order to create a space for exchange, learning, and dialogue.
READ MORE: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-peru-launches-implementation-project-safeguard-promote-and-transmit-food-practices-future?hub=701
