Promoting Ingenious Agriculture Heritage Systems: a new inter-agency and civil society initiative

At its first stakeholder workshop, which was held last August in Rome, FAO launched the Globally Important Ingenious Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) initiative. This initiative aims to provide support to ingenious traditional agricultural systems and the communities that own and manage these systems. It builds on the involvement of other UN agencies, Governments, CGIAR institutes, NGOs and Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Globally Important Ingenious Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) and their associated landscapes have been created, shaped, maintained and passed on 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 they have contributed and continue to contribute tremendously to the agricultural biodiversity, the landscapes and cultural heritage of the world. GIAHS are evolving, vital and inherently sustainable agricultural systems which are of crucial importance for the survival of ecosystems and landscapes, as well as for food production, livelihood security and quality of life for people at all levels, from local to global. The GIAHS project seeks to promote the recognition, conservation and (re-)vitalisation of these systems in the face of globalisation, environmental change and inappropriate policies. It will strengthen the capacity of farmers and farming communities to conserve and sustainably manage these systems and share knowledge and experiences with in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity and approaches to their agricultural heritage with the assistance and involvement of policymakers, scientists and other stakeholders.

The project concept is centred on the profound inter-relation between local livelihoods and food security, agriculture, ecology, culture, ethics, land and water management and social organisation. Since GIAHS have many broad ranging but such closely related elements, the project integrates and builds on the perspectives, experiences and knowledge, as well as on existing initiatives of other UN agencies (UNESCO's World Heritage and MAB programmes, UNDP/GEF, Worldbank, UNEP, the People Land Management and Environmental Change Project of the UNU), CGIAR institutes (such as IPGRI and ISNAR), Governments, NGO's (COMPAS, IUCN) and Indigenous Peoples.

The GIAHS project is supported by GEF-UNDP and executed by FAO in close collaboration with its partners. The first stakeholder workshop marked the beginning of the development of the second phase of the project. During this phase, ten pilot sites will be selected, on which action programmes will be developed for their support as well as the further methodology for the project stages that follow. The GIAHS project team invites all stakeholders to participate in the further development of the GIAHS concept and methodology and to submit proposals for GIAHS sites. In the coming month an electronic conference will be held to further develop the project concept and methodology and to identify partners. The GIAHS website provides the criteria and a format for GIAHS site proposals and regularly updated information on the subject.