Since the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) (2003), one of the responsibilities of the States parties, is the identifiication and definition of the various manifestations of ICH in their territories through inventories. This article analyzes the most representative manifestations of ICH at Santa Ana town, Magdalena county-Colombia. The methodology used was an inventory participatory, which included an implementation of ethnography method, workshops, semi-structured interviews and dialogues. These methods plus the community support allowed the investigation to identify the risky situations, which influence the sustainability of these cultural manifestations, at the same time it proposes hedging strategies. It also generated a discussion on the categories of Folklife, ICH and a reflection about these questions: Is the inventory participatory of ICH a real tools safeguard? Are the inventories supporting and strengthening the community capacity to manage the cultural heritage?