Globally Important Ingenious Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) and their associated landscapes have been created, shaped, maintained and passed on by generations of farmers, herders, forest dwellers and fisher folk. Based on diverse species and their interactions and using locally adapted distinctive and often ingenious combinations of management practices and techniques, they have contributed and continue to contribute tremendously to the agricultural biodiversity and the natural and cultural heritage of the world. The GIAHS project aims to establish the basis for the global recognition, dynamic conservation and sustainable management of these systems in the face of economic and cultural globalisation, environmental variability and inappropriate policy, incentive and regulatory environments.