Director-General visits Thailand’s first GIAHS where buffaloes and humans shape the ecosystem

Thale Noi, Thailand - Director-General QU Dongyu today visited the Thale Noi Wetland Buffalo Pastoral Agro-Eco-System in southern Thailand, the first site in the country to be designated as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). Recognized under the FAO programme in 2022, it is a place where communities have found a balance between livelihoods and taking care of the environment.  

The Director-General highlighted how the buffaloes shaped the ecosystem, ensuring its vitality. He described the buffaloes as being not just animals, but as partners, protectors, and lasting symbols of the bond between the people of Thale Noi and their environment. 

The GIAHS of Thale Noi is a diversified farming system based on longstanding interactions between humans and buffaloes. Over the centuries, pastoralism has shaped and conserved the biodiversity and landscapes, while buffaloes adapted to survive in an environment where the land is flooded for almost five months of the year. 

Since 2002, FAO’s GIAHS programme has worked to identify and safeguard unique agricultural systems and advocate for them as local solutions to global challenges.

The sites selected are of global importance, demonstrating food and livelihood security, agro-biodiversity, sustainable knowledge systems and practices, social values and culture as well as outstanding landscapes. Many showcase practices to render agrifood systems more resilient to climate change.

From the current 89 sites in 28 countries, the Director-General said FAO aspires to expand the GIAHS network to reach 100 systems by 2025, with the criteria for selection based on sound scientific evidence to highlight how the area is addressing the impacts of climate change and bringing together science and innovation with traditional knowledge systems.

Most importantly, multifunctional systems like Thale Noi are about people, Qu noted, saying it was about the farmers, herders, and fishers who are the true custodians of this heritage and that their knowledge and commitment ensured the survival of these systems.

Supporting systems like Thale Noi also aligns with FAO's vision of the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life – leaving no one behind, the Director-General said, reaffirming FAO’s commitment to continue supporting these programmes.

He described the visit to Thale Noi as particularly meaningful, coming as FAO approaches its 80th anniversary next year - a milestone which Qu said underscores our shared responsibility to protect and celebrate these systems for generations to come.

The Director-General also commended Thailand for its active engagement in promoting agricultural heritage such as these “Four Betters Villages”.