Talk Show – Voices from Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)
As part of the 2025 GIAHS Certificate Award Ceremony celebrating 102 designated systems, this Talk Show brought together community leaders from new and established GIAHS systems to share their experiences on biodiversity conservation, sustainable food systems, climate resilience, and knowledge transfer. It showcased the diversity, resilience, and innovation of agricultural heritage systems by giving voice to their custodians around the world.
Watch the videoModerator
Piedad Martín
Deputy director of FAO's Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment. She has over 20 years of experience in sustainable development and international cooperation, focusing on environmental policy, intergovernmental affairs, and the principle of “Leaving No One Behind.” Before joining FAO, she held senior roles at UNEP in Panama and Kenya, and served as Special Adviser to the UN Resident Coordinator in Mexico. She also worked with UNDP Colombia and with AECID both at headquarters and its office for the Palestinian Territories. She holds a degree in Environmental Sciences and a Master’s in Economic Integration and Development Economics, with studies in Madrid, Manchester and Boston.
Panelists
Eve Nimmo (Brazil)
Eve Nimmo is a researcher and long-time advocate of the erva-mate system. Her work began with studies on 17th-century Jesuit trade and later expanded to contemporary communities. Over the past decade, she has promoted the system’s recognition as a GIAHS. She will share insights from the Shade-grown Erva-mate: a traditional agroforestry system in the Araucaria Forest of Paraná, designated in 2025. Rooted in ancestral knowledge, this system integrates food crops, native fruits, and forest products, sustaining biodiversity, food security, and cultural identity across southern Brazil.
José-María García-Alvarez-Coque (Spain, SAG Member)
He is the current Chair of the GIAHS Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) and Professor of Applied Economics at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), with 35 years of experience as an agronomist and agricultural economist. In this panel, he will reflect on the insights shared by representatives of GIAHS communities and link them to the work and expectations of the SAG—the independent scientific body that reviews proposals submitted by countries to FAO prior to the official designation of GIAHS sites.
Luigi Amatruda (Italy)
Luigi Amatruda is the co-manager of Agricola Fore Porta, a family-run agritourism farm located in the Valle delle Ferriere of Amalfi. He brings extensive hands-on experience in agricultural production systems in Italy. He will share with the panel his experience from the GIAHS site Lemon Orchards and the Terraced Agricultural System in Amalfi designated in 2025. This system features a striking landscape of lemon groves, olive trees, and vineyards cultivated on the steep terraces of Italy’s Amalfi Coast. It sustains local livelihoods, safeguards soil and water resources, and preserves the identity of Mediterranean mountain agriculture.
María Piñán (Ecuador)
María Piñán is an Indigenous farmer and community leader from Cotacachi, Ecuador. A member of the Central Women’s Committee of UNORCAC, she works to preserve native seeds, traditional farming, and Kichwa cultural heritage. As coordinator of the Muyu Raymi seed fair, she promotes seed exchange and intergenerational learning. Through her leadership, she has empowered women and youth to sustain the Andean chakra: an ancestral agricultural system of Kichwas Cotacachi Communities, designated as a GIAHS in 2023—a living system rooted in biodiversity, ancestral knowledge, and women’s strength.
Ko, Ryou-jin (Republic of Korea)
Born in Haean Village on Jeju Island, she continues her family’s long tradition as a haenyeo, following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmothers. Since beginning her diving life in 2014, she has upheld this heritage, representing three living generations of women divers. She will share her experience from the Jeju Haenyeo Fisheries System, designated as a GIAHS in 2023—a traditional fishing system led by women who dive without breathing equipment, sustaining Jeju’s coastal economy and cultural identity for centuries.
Zohra Naffef (Tunisia)
Zohra Naffef is President of the Local Union for Agriculture and Fisheries of Ghar El Melh (ULAP). She promotes sustainable coastal agriculture and supports women’s groups working within the Ramli agricultural system in the lagoons of Ghar El Melh, designated as a GIAHS in 2020. Her work focuses on strengthening traditional knowledge, improving food security, and raising awareness of agricultural heritage in fragile ecosystems. Through local initiatives, she helps safeguard this unique system where crops grow on sandy soils nourished by rainwater floating above seawater.