GIAHS stands for “Globally Important Agricultural heritage Systems”. They are outstanding landscapes of aesthetic beauty that combine biodiversity, resilient ecosystems and a valuable cultural heritage. Located in specific sites around the world, they sustainably provide multiple goods and services, food and livelihoods security for millions of small-scale farmers. GIAHS sites are testament to the intricate relationships human beings have with their unique territory, cultural and agricultural landscapes and their wider social environment.

Origins of GIAHS:

In response to global trends undermining family agriculture and traditional agricultural systems, in 2002, during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, FAO launched a Global Partnership Initiative on the conservation and adaptive management of GIAHS. Since 2002, many global or country projects have been implemented with partners and in consultation with local communities and relevant stakeholders to assist member countries in identifying and conserving GIAHS sites.

Projects carried out in 2008–14 resulted in the designation of the first eight GIAHS sites in six pilot countries: Algeria, Chile, China, Peru, the Philippines and Tunisia, with other proposals from the same period resulting in subsequent designations. In recent years, the GIAHS program has gained traction globally. It has been specifically referenced at high-level conferences where food security and agriculture have been discussed, such as the G20 Agriculture Ministers’ meetings and the UN General Assembly in 2016.

From food and livelihood security to landscape and seascape features, there are five major criteria which must be addressed in every GIAHS proposal.

Ø  Historical relevance

Every GIAHS site has its own unique story of development. Historical relevance can demonstrate how the site has adapted to the surrounding environment over time and how farmers have developed specific knowledge and techniques to form the current landscapes and systems.

 

Ø  Contemporary relevance

 The contemporary relevance of a site is established by its present and future capacity to provide food and livelihood security, to contribute to human well-being and quality of life and to generate other local, national and global economic and environmental goods and services to its community and wider society. This relates to the relevance of an agricultural system/site to global or national policy and to sustainable development challenges, most prominently achieving food security, human well-being and environmental goals, such as climate adaptation, carbon sequestration, and water, land and biodiversity conservation.

 Five features determine the “Global Importance” of a site and are used as selection criteria when assessing the suitability for the designation of a GIAHS site.

 

1.      Agricultural systems that contribute to food and livelihood security

The farmers in GIAHS sites have gradually developed and established productive, efficient, resilient and sustainable production systems through skilful resource management, diversified crop production, and optimization of the mutual benefits of ecological functions of crops and animals to overcome disadvantageous conditions. As a result of these long-term efforts, unique local agriculture still maintains its significance in the rural community, as it provides livelihoods and contributes to food security by ensuring stable food supply.

 

2.      Rich and unique agro-biodiversity

 GIAHS sites often reflect rich and globally unique agricultural biodiversity displayed at field and landscape levels in the form of rotations, poly-cultures and/or agroforestry patterns. Agro-biodiversity is the result of a long domestication process from endemic and wild species together with a selection process of the most adapted and resistant varieties resulted by continuous attempts by farmers over time to minimize the risk of crop failure by conserving and growing several species and varieties of crops to stabilize yields, promote dietary and nutritional diversity and maximize outputs and ecosystem services with limited resources. This strategy of promoting genetic diversity provides security to farmers against diseases, pests, droughts and other stresses.

 

3.      Traditional knowledge and technologies

Indigenous peoples and family farmers living in GIAHS sites often possess a broad knowledge of plants, animals, soils and the general environment, underlying the intricacies of local and complex ecological systems through a long series of observations transmitted from generation to generation. Farmers are aware that biological diversity is a crucial factor in generating ecological services and in conserving the resource base and foods on which they depend.

 

4.      Strong cultural values and collective forms of social organizations and value systems for resource management and knowledge transmission

As specific types of agricultural systems developed over time has led to the close association of social organizations and cultural values with the entire management of agricultural resources and the operation of agricultural systems. These social organizations embedded in rural communities have also contributed to the transfer of traditional knowledge to the next generation. Thus, cultural identity and sense of place are ingrained in the agricultural sites.

 

5.      Remarkable landscapes and seascapes stemming from ingenious systems and technologies of land and water management

Many generations of farmers have worked on the natural environment to produce agricultural products and have converted hills, mountains, forests, wetlands, and natural water flows into excellent food production systems such as rice terraces, orchard terraces, irrigation networks, grasslands and mixed cropping systems. These long term human interactions have led to rich cultural and landscape diversity, as well as sustainable land and water management systems.

 Importance of GIAHS:

 

1.      Thanks to years of experience and knowledge, farmers in GIAHS sites have developed sustainable agricultural practices to manage and use natural resources effectively. This knowledge offers examples of high resilience and precious agro-ecological techniques that can help agriculture adapt to ever-changing social, environmental and economic conditions.

2.      GIAHS sites bring together the economic, social and environmental dimensions at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

3.      Small-scale and family farmers are the backbone of many GIAHS sites and can offer real solutions for achieving food security and ending poverty by maintaining rural communities, preserving knowledge, and protecting fragile landscapes and agro bio-diversity.

4.      One of the main importance of GIAHS sites is the dynamic conservation. Traditional agricultural systems are threatened by a range of challenges including urbanization, social and economic changes, neglect, inappropriate policy and lack of incentives. Through the recognition of an official GIAHS designation, the programme aims to enhance awareness of the values and associated benefits of such agricultural systems and to promote all necessary actions to achieve dynamic conservation.

GIAHS Around The World:

 

As of the beginning of July 2018 there are 52 GIAHS sites in 21 countries. Six GIAHS sites are also UNESCO World Heritage sites. These sites are listed below with their years of official designation by GIAHS and UNESCO:

 • CHINA – Hani Rice Terraces (2010)/Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces (2013)

• IRAN (ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF) – Qanat Irrigated Agricultural Heritage Systems of Kashan, Isfahan Province (2014)/The Persian Qanat (2016)

• PHILIPPINES – Ifugao Rice Terraces (2011)/Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras (1995)

 • REPUBLIC OF KOREA – Jeju Batdam Agricultural System (2014)/Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes (2007)

 • UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Al Ain and Liwa Historical Date Palm Oases (2015)/Cultural Sites of Al Ain (Hafit, Hili, Bidaa Bint Saud and Oases Areas) (2011)

 • UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA – Engaresero Maasai Pastoralist Heritage Area (2011)/ Ngorongoro Conservation Area (1979)

Unfortunately, these agricultural systems are threatened by many factors including climate change and increased competition for natural resources. They are also dealing with migration due to low economic viability, which has resulted in traditional farming practices being abandoned and endemic species and breeds being lost.

These ancestral agricultural systems constitute the foundation for contemporary and future agricultural innovations and technologies. Their cultural, ecological and agricultural diversity is still evident in many parts of the world, maintained as unique systems of agriculture.

Since, me being from Nepal, I believe presence of many beautiful sites and blessed with the environment that supports agriculture in our country, if maintained and sustained with the ancestral roots of various practices within their territory can establish many sites as GIAHS. This can prominently help Nepal with the livelihoods for many families but also can support in the tourism.

(Source: http://www.fao.org/3/i9187en/I9187EN.pdf )

Some of the figures of GIAHS sites are: