GEF Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations
 

FAQ

  1. What does GIAHS stand for and what are GIAHS?
  2. When was GIAHS concept formulated?
  3. What is the goal and objectives of the GIAHS Initiative?
  4. What are the intervention strategies of the GIAHS Initiative?
  5. What is dynamic conservation approach?
  6. How is GIAHS initiative trying to achieve both its development and sustainability goals in the face of globalization and global climate change/variability?
  7. What do we mean by five assets of rural systems?
  8. What are the criteria for judging adaptive management and dynamic progress?
  9. At the rural community level, what are the factors that are most frequently at the base of the sustainable management of land and natural resources?
  10. Why intervene in situations where the people concerned are already practicing ingenious and sustainable land and natural resource management techniques?
  11. What kinds of local partners will GIAHS work with?
  12. What are good policies for dynamic conservation of GIAHS and sustainable agriculture and rural development?
  13. What are the advantages of using traditional agricultural knowledge systems?
  14. How are the GIAHS sites and candidate systems chosen?
  15. Will GIAHS Initiative work on sites in industrialized countries?


5.What is dynamic conservation approach?

The term “agricultural heritage” in GIAHS acronym is sometimes misunderstood by many readers as for creation of museum. The programme does not promote creation of museums nor aim to maintain unchanged the existing landscape and natural resource management methods. On the contrary, GIAHS Programme supports enhancement and capacity development of the local communities and indigenous peoples to react to ecological, economic, social, and cultural changes using endogenous mechanisms. For these reasons, GIAHS programme is promoting “dynamic conservation of living and evolving agricultural systems”, through:

  • Conservation without fossilization;
  • Strengthening “what is there”, the human management systems and cultures that underpin the sustainability and resilience of GIAHS;
  • Improving people’s livelihoods and viability;
  • Farmer centred, proactive participation and community driven;
  • Creating better policy and options for regulatory environments and incentive structures at all levels;
  • Integrating indigenous knowledge and wisdom with the modern agro-ecological knowledge for effective natural resources management;
  • Enhancing viability and risk-aversion;
  • Synergizing local-level activities and enabling policy and legal environments that provide incentives and share benefits; and
  • Bring about the recognition of these systems at the regional, national and international level, in particular of the capacity of these systems to satisfy the needs of the populations concerned, the biodiversity of global significance, the quality landscapes that they produce, constitute an essential contribution to the world’s agricultural heritage.

Pilot systems

Candidate systems

Other systems