In many countries specific agricultural systems and landscapes have been created, shaped and maintained by generations of farmers, herders, forest dwellers and fish folk based on diverse species and their interactions and using locally adapted, distinctive and often ingenious combinations of management practices and techniques. Through trial and error, people continuously adjusted the ways in which they fished, grew crops and herded animals, while protecting their environment and sharing the benefits.

Building on dynamic local knowledge and practical experience, these ingenious agricultural systems reflect the evolution of humanity and its profound harmony with nature. They have resulted not only in outstanding aesthetic beauty, maintenance of globally significant agricultural biodiversity, resilient ecosystems and valuable cultural inheritance but, above all, in the sustained provision of multiple goods and services, food and livelihood security and quality of life.

Such agricultural and agro-silvo-pastoral systems can be found, in particular, in highly populated regions or in areas where the population has, for various reasons, had to establish complex and innovative resource use and management practices; for example, due to geographic isolation, fragile ecosystems, political marginalisation, limited natural resources and/or extreme climatic conditions. GIAHS reflect rich and often unique agricultural biodiversity, within and between species but also at ecosystem and landscape level. Having been founded on ancient agricultural civilisations, certain of these systems are linked to important centres of origin and diversity of domesticated plant and animal species, the conservation of which is of great global value.

Their ecosystem resilience and robustness has been developed and adapted to cope with change, i.e. natural events, new technologies and changing social and political situations, so as to ensure food and livelihood security and alleviate risk. The dynamic human management strategies and processes that allow the maintenance of biodiversity and essential ecosystem services are characterised by continuous technological and cultural innovation, transfer between generations and exchange with other communities and ecosystems. The wealth and breadth of accumulated knowledge and experience in the management and use of resources is a globally significant resource that needs to be promoted and conserved and, at the same time, allowed to evolve.

See also:

“Conservation and Sustainable Management of Globally Important Ingenious Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)”, 2005 Tokyo (International Symposium “Conserving Cultural and Biological Diversity: The Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes”)

“Conservation and Adaptive Management of GIAHS”, FAO 2006, Philippines

“GIAHS: Algunos Elementos Metodologicos”, University of California at Berkeley