Unesco recognizes cooperatives as Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

The decision was taken because "allow building communities through shared interests and values, creating innovative solutions to social problems, creating jobs and helping people build projects ".

The United Nations Organization for Education, Scientific and Culta (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization-UNESCO) It has included cooperatives in the List of intangible cultural heritage.

The decision was adopted by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in the city of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).

The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage is the international legal instrument from 1992 attempts to respond to possible threats on equity derived from the processes of globalization and social transformations that are continually living.

The importance of this recognition, Intangible Cultural Heritage, does not lie in the cultural manifestation itself, but in the social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge that is relevant for social groups, both minority and majority of a State, and equally important for developing countries than for developed countries. Intangible cultural heritage is important because it instills a sense of identity and belonging linking our past with our future through the present.

UNESCO thus recognizes the global and transformative contribution of the cooperative movement as a whole and describes cooperatives as institutions that "allow building communities through shared interests and values, creating innovative solutions to social problems, creating jobs and helping people build projects ".

From now on the cooperative movement is part, officially, the common world heritage, which should result in greater protection and safeguarding, by governments and global agencies, cooperatives and organizations that ensure continuity.