Heritage creates and shapes identity while providing security and contributing to sustainability. In this context, the world’s diverse tangible and intangible heritage is recognized as the result of human creativity, which should be used for sustainable development. Protecting humankind’s heritage is, therefore, a challenge for civil society and the international community’s responsibility. In response to this challenge, the international community have adopted and implemented the “Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage” on the one hand and the “Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage” on the other. This article discusses and reflects on how, despite their distinct goals and objectives, these conventions converge in their overarching potential for building and protecting identity and fostering sustainability.