The UN now considers more than 200 cultural practices from all over the world as “intangible” world treasures, according to officials.

The UN cultural organisation Unesco added a number of practices to a list of traditions in need of urgent protection during an inter-governmental committee meeting this week in Nairobi.

The inter-governmental committee ultimately accepted all the dossiers proposed for the Unesco heritage list.

The “world intangible heritage” list was drawn up under a 2003 convention, now ratified by 132 countries. A Unesco fund delivers grants to help developing countries finance the protection of cultural practices in much the same way that the UN body protects sites of cult-ural value or great natural beauty.Practices added include Spain’s flamenco dance, the Greek Med diet, French and Mexican cuisine, Croation gingerbread, China’s Peking opera and falconry in 11 countries.

Those approved as in need of urgent protection included Croatian Ojkanje singing and Meshrep, the harvest festival ceremony of northwest China’s Turkish-speaking Muslim Uighur people.

Lithuania’s unique polyphonic folk songs called sutartines were also included in the list, highlighting the Baltic nation’s drive to preserve the traditional art.

“We rejoice at this event as it is important both to Lithuanian and world culture,” said Gintare Tamasauskaite of Lithuania’s National Commission for Unesco. Sutartines are polyphonic rhythmical songs performed by two, three or four female singers who simultaneously sing different phrases, creating complex harmonies.

Experts of the Unesco in Kenya this week praised sutartines for providing “a feeling of cultural identity, continuity and self-esteem.”

With the root of their name in the Lithuanian word “sutarti”, meaning “to be in concordance”, the harmonies in sutartines are completely unique although songs with some similarities can be found in the Balkans, Indonesia and African folk songs, said Lithuanian academic Daiva Vyciniene.

In 2003, Unesco added massive Baltic song and dance celebrations in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to its list.