In an era where traditional agricultural communities face unprecedented challenges, this book explores dynamic conservation and presents strategies for preserving and governing these invaluable systems. Highlighting Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), it integrates traditional knowledge with development and conservation efforts.
Aligning with SDG2: Zero Hunger, this book provides guidelines for supporting small-scale food producers and promoting sustainable, resilient agricultural practices. It emphasizes traditional knowledge and genetic diversity, promoting sustainable agriculture, enhancing food security, and improving nutrition globally. The book assesses heritage agroecosystems and suggests practical methodologies for local action plans. Case studies from four continents will reveal governance insights for preserving our agricultural heritage. Finally, the volume includes discussions on the sustainable management of heritage agroecosystems as nature-based solutions, insights into Indigenous knowledge and its resilience in addressing climate and food challenges, as well as step-by-step guides to developing and evaluating dynamic conservation strategies.
Essential for anyone passionate about sustaining traditional agricultural communities, this book blends theoretical insights and practical guidance, pointing the way for sustainable, inclusive, and resilient practices that maintain our rich agricultural heritage.
Chapter
1. Introduction: Why Dynamic Conservation Matters.- Part I:
Basic Concepts.
Chapter
2. Dynamic Conservation of Traditional
Agroecosystems.
Chapter
3. Introducing the GIAHS Program: An
Interdisciplinary Perspective.
Chapter
4. The Role of Commons in
Agricultural Heritage Systems.
Chapter
5. Our Future Is in Our Past:
Traditional Farming System.
Chapter
6. Globally Important Agricultural
Heritage Systems in the Context of Other Global Systems for the Preservation
of Agricultural Heritage.- Part II: Methods.
Chapter
7. Geographic
Information Systems Applied to GIAHS: Concepts, Tools, and Open Data.-
Chapter
8. Dynamic Conservation and Institutional Analysis and Development
(IAD) Framework.
Chapter
9. Co-Designing Conservation Pathways:
Participatory Approaches for the Future of GIAHS. The Case of Horta de
València.
Chapter
10. Exploring Resilience in Agricultural Heritage Systems:
A GIAHS Perspective.
Chapter
11. Rethinking GIAHS Monitoring: Insights From
Chinas Practice.
Chapter
12. Beyond GIAHS Recognition: Labeling and
Branding Strategies as Tools for Sustainable Heritage and Agri-Food Systems
Resilience.
Chapter
13. Nature-Based Solutions and Globally Important
Agricultural Heritage Systems in Sustainable Tourism Research: A Bibliometric
Approach.- Part III: Commented Case Studies.
Chapter
14. Gender Challenges
in the Governance of the Chiloé GIAHS Site.
Chapter
15. How Industrial
Integration Development (Iid) Improves Smallholder Farmers Livelihood and
Food Security of GIAHS Sites in China?.
Chapter
16. The Sustainable
Management and Efficient Operation of the Jeju Haenyeo Fishery Heritage
System.
Chapter
17. Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)
in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) Region: A Biodiversity
Perspective.
Chapter
18. Dynamic Conservation of Maasai Pastoral Systems in
Kenya Under the GIAHS Framework: Resilience in the Face of Climate Change.-
Chapter
19. The Mountains of León GIAHS Site: A Model of Agro-Silvo-Pastoral
Sustainability.
Chapter
20. Traditional Hay Milk Farming in the Austrian
Alpine Range.
José-María García-Alvarez-Coque is a Professor of Applied Economics at the Universitat Politècnica de València-UPV, Spain. His research spans from conducting global-scale policy assessments to the local analysis of small-scale farmers socio-economic characteristics, and practices of collective farming. He is also interested in urban and peri-urban food systems. Between 2022 and 2025, he has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) Program of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). García-Alvarez-Coque coordinated a project that led to the recognition of the irrigation system of La Huerta de Valencia as a GIAHS.
Nobuyuki Yagi is a Professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Japan, and a Member of the Science Council of Japan. His research focuses on the socio-economic aspects of small-scale fishery and marketing analysis on food products. He was an expert member of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) from 2014 to 2018. Yagi also served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) Program of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from 2019 to 2023, and as Chair of the GIAHS Scientific Advisory Group in 2022.
Clelia Maria Puzzo has occupied different positions at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), acting between 2014 and 2024 as a Program Specialist at the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS), Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment. She holds an MSc in International Relations focusing on rural development from the University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy.
Norat Roig-Tierno is a Professor of Applied Economics at the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. He is also a Member of the International Economics and Development. Research Group (GEID), director of the Chair of Economic Model Transformation (Valencian Regional Government) and member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the University-City partnership in the Valencia city council.
His research focuses on regional innovation, innovation systems, and agri-food systems. Furthermore, a part of his work focuses on the social project REDONA, an innovation project for the recovery of surplus food in agri-food markets for donation to social entities.
