This webinar jointly organized by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability Operating Unit Ishikawa Kanazawa (UNU-IAS OUIK) and the Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO) shared the challenges faced by GIAHS communities in managing the impacts of COVID-19, as well as a discussion on the resiliency of GIAHS in such a crisis and the opportunities for recovery and building back better from COVID-19.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is an unprecedented crisis on humanity, crippling the functioning of governments, sectors and society. Yet it has also highlighted the criticality of the harmonious relationship between people and nature and created an urgency to re-evaluate and reinvent the ways we use natural resources, including the way we produce our food.
The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) of the Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO) are remarkable traditional agricultural systems that safeguard the livelihoods of small-scale family farmers who practise sustainable agriculture based on local and indigenous knowledge. GIAHS not only produce food, but these time-tested systems also conserve biodiversity, preserve cultural heritages and their centuries-old wisdom can provide important lessons in building back better for the planet and its people. Today, there are 62 designated GIAHS sites in 22 countries where local communities continue to inherit the sustainable approaches of traditional farming with a deep-rooted respect for nature and culture.
Highlights
