Conservation and Sustainable Management of Globally Important Ingenious Agricultural Heritage System

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Conservation and Sustainable Management of
Globally Important Ingenious Agricultural
Heritage Systems (GIAHS)
PARVIZ KOOHAFKAN, Director, Rural Development
Division, FAO, Rome
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GIAHS Heritage for the future
Definition Remarkable Land Use Systems and
landscapes which are rich in biological diversity
evolving from the ingenious and dynamic
adaptation of a community/population to its
environment and the needs and aspirations for
sustainable development (FAO, 2002)

• Integrated Agricultural, Forestry, Livestock and
  Fishery systems
• Result of co-adaptation and co-evolution of
  plants, animals, humans and landscape under
  specific environmental circumstances
• Managed through highly adapted social and
  cultural practices and institutions
• Provide food and livelihood security and
  social, cultural and ecosystem services
• Important at local, national and global levels
• They are under threat

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• GIAHS are important for their contribution to
• Food security, health and nutrition of many poor,
  helpless and isolated people
• Human kind and its Agri-cultural diversity
• Biodiversity and genetic resources
• Agro-ecosystem and landscape diversity
• Ecosystem services through functional diversity
• Products and services diversity
• Collective and individual Knowledge systems
• Resilience and adaptive capacity to changes

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• THEY ARE UNDER THREAT BCAUSE OF
• Inappropriate policy, legal and incentive
  environments,
• Industrialization of agriculture and Neglect of
  diversified systems and local knowledge,
• Low priority given to in situ conservation,
• Low community involvement in decision making,
• Population pressure and cultural change.

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• Examples
• Various types of mountain agriculture
• Rice based traditional farming systems
• Maize and root crop based agro-ecosystems
• Taro based systems
• Pastoral transhumant and nomadic systems
• Ingenious irrigation and soil and water
  management systems of drylands (oasis, qanat,
  village tanks)
• Multi-layered home gardens and agro-forestry
  system,

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NUMEROUS EXAMPLES OF GIAHS EXISTS ACROSS THE
WORLD
Japan
Philippines
Peru
Madagascar
Indonesia
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In the Himalaya
In China
In India
In Indonesia and Bali.
 
People perform rituals to honor Dewi Sri. As
goddess and guardian of rice and the rice
harvest,
the Goddess Guan Yin took pity on humans and gave
her milk and blood to create white and red rice.
Goddess Pavarti, the daughter of the mountains,
was the first to grow rice.
Rice is associated with prosperity and with the
Hindu Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi.
In Hindu Temples
In Vietnam
In Japan
It is said that the Sun Goddess
Amatereshu-Omi-Kami grew rice in the fields of
heaven, giving the first harvest to Prince
Ninigi. He was told to take it to "The Land of
Eight Great Islands," Japan.
For the Rungo people, the shadows on the moon are
created by the Rice Goddess stacking up her
freshly harvested rice in the shade of a Bo tree.
Large tapestries of rice cakes are made as
offerings to Hindu temples.
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GIAHS is not about the past but the future
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What are the best options for the poorest?
GIAHS and POVERTY REDUCTION

• Which work best for the poorest
• great success in past but still 790 million
  people are food poor
• Key questions
• to what extent can farmers improve food
  production with low-cost and locally-available
  technologies and inputs?
• What impacts do these methods have on
  environmental goods and services, and the
  livelihoods of people relying on them?

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GIAHS IS BASED ON THE FIVE ASSETS OF RURAL SYSTEMS
Natural Capital natures goods and services
(waste assimilation, pollination, storm
protection, water supply, leisure, wildlife)

Human Capital the status of individuals -
health, skills, knowledge
Social Capital cohesiveness of people and
societies - trust, reciprocity, rules and
norms, networks and institutions
Financial Capital money, savings
Physical Capital infrastructure
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The overall objective of the GIAHS Partnership
is to establish the basis for the global and
national recognition, dynamic conservation and
sustainable management of agricultural heritage
systems and their associated biodiversity,
knowledge systems and cultures
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HOW ?

• At Global level
• by identification and selection/recognition and
  creation of World Agricultural Heritage category
  
• At National level
• by capacity building in policy, regulatory and
  incentive mechanisms to safeguard these
  outstanding systems and use them as
  sustainability bench mark systems
• At Local Level
• by empowerment of local communities and technical
  assistance for sustainable resource management,
  promoting traditional knowledge and enhancing
  viability of these systems

HOW ?
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GIAHS DEVELOPMENT GOALS

• Improving understanding of agriculture systems
  in their environmental, socio-economic and
  cultural dimensions
• Generating increased recognition of the global
  significance of agricultural systems in global
  ecosystem stability, sustainable development and
  human wellbeing
• Building the capacity of national and local
  institutions and providing support to promote
  dynamic conservation and sustained viability of
  rural communities
• Conservation and sustainable use and,
  rehabilitation of agricultural biodiversity and
  genetic patrimony, ecosystem services and
  landscape diversity
• Recognition and safeguarding and of the
  resilience provided by the combination of
  knowledge systems and social organisation
• Mitigating threats of degradation and root causes
  of dysfunction and enhancing environmental and
  socio-economic benefits at local and global
  levels and
• Adding economic, environmental and cultural value
  to products, artefacts and knowledge systems of
  GIAHS by supportive policies and incentives for
  their sustainability

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GIAHS OUTCOMES and OUTPUTS

• Policies and practices for Sustainable
  Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD),
• State-of-the art and detailed local knowledge on
  productive resources, environment (soils,
  rainfall conditions, etc) and agro-ecosystem
  functioning,
• Knowledge on agricultural biodiversity, genetic
  resources and locally adapted varieties and
  related wild species,
• Criteria for technology development and
  goodness-of-fit to local systems and
  circumstances (local goals and priorities, gender
  preferences, etc),
• Criteria for sustainable development based on
  diversity and diversification

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Biodiversity can be seen a a life insurance
policy for life itself - Something specially
needed in this time of fast-paced global change.
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• Partners
• GOVERNMENTS, INDIGENOUS NETWORKS
• NGOS AND PRIVATE SECTOR
• FAO, UNDP, GEF, UNESCO, UNEP, IFAD, ICCROM
• IUCN, IPGRI and ISNAR other CGIAR , UNU/PLEC,
  GTZ, COMPAS ILEIA IAC

WWW.Fao.Org/SD/giahs www.fao.org/biodiversity
FAO-Contact Parviz.Koohafkan_at_fao.org
David.Boerma_at_fao.org
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Thank you