GIAHS stands for “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems”:
GIAHS are defined as "Remarkable land use systems and landscapes which are rich in globally significant biological diversity evolving from the co-adaptation of a community with its environment and its needs and aspirations for sustainable development".
This is the current definition, but of course, this definition can be revised further to describe the dynamic nature of GIAHS.
Examples of GIAHS include the following types:
Outstanding rice based systems. This type includes remarkable terraced systems with integrated forest use such as rice terraces and combined agro-forestry and diverse rice-fish systems with numerous rice and fish varieties/genotypes and other integrated forest, land and water uses, like the rice terraces in south east Asia and the Himalayas.
Maize and root crop based agro-ecosystems developed by Aztecs (Chinampas in Mexico) and Incas in Andes (Waru-Waru around lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia), with ingenious micro-climate and soil and water management, adaptive use of numerous varieties of crops to deal with climate variability, integrated agro-forestry and rich resources of indigenous knowledge and associated cultural heritage.
Taro based systems with unique and endemic genetic resources in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and other Pacific small islands developing countries.
Remarkable pastoral systems based on adaptive use of pasture, water, salt and forest resources through mobility and herd composition in harsh non-equilibrium environments with high animal genetic diversity and outstanding cultural landscapes. These include highland, tropical and sub-tropical dryland and arctic systems such as Yak based pastoral management in Ladakh, high Tibetan plateau, India and parts of Mongolia; Cattle and mixed animal based pastoral systems, such as of the Maasai in East Africa; and Reindeer based management of tundra and temperate forest areas in Siberia, such as Saami and Nenets.
Ingenious irrigation and soil and water management systems in drylands with a high diversity of adapted species (crops and animals) for such environments: ancient underground water distribution systems (Qanat) allowing specialised and diverse cropping systems in Iran, Afghanistan and other central Asian countries with associated homegardens and endemic blind fish species living in under-ground waterways; and integrated oases in deserts of North Africa and the Sahara, traditional valley bottom and wetland management, e.g. in Lake Chad, Niger river basin and interior delta (e.g. floating rice system) and other ingenious systems in pays Bamileke (Cameroon), Dogon (Mali) and Diola (Senegal).
Complex multi-layered homegardens, with wild and domesticated trees, shrubs and plants for multiple foods, medicines, ornamentals and other materials, possibly with integrated agro-forestry, swidden fields, hunting-gathering or livestock, such as homegarden systems in China, India, the Caribbean, the Amazon (Kayapó) and Indonesia (e.g. East Kalimantan and Butitingui).
Hunting-gathering systems, such as harvesting of wild rice in Chad and honey gathering by forest dwelling peoples in Central and East Africa.
Based on these classification of agricultural heritage, a number of systems is being piloted for dynamic conservation, these are: - Andean agriculture - Peru
- Chiloé agriculture - Chile
- Ifugao rice terraces – the Philippines
- Rice –fish system – China
- Oases of the Maghreb – Algeria and Tunisia
- Maasai agropastoralism – Kenya and Tanzania
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