Moujahed Achouri, Director of FAO’s Land and Water division, discusses Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems GIAHS in an article on Africa Green Media.

GIAHS are land use systems and landscapes which are rich in globally significant biological diversity. They have evolved as a result of co-adaptation of a community with its environment and its needs and aspirations for sustainable development. Examples include agroforestry systems and home gardens in Asia and Latin America, rice fish culture in China, and the ancient mountain rice terraces in the Philippines.

GIAHS have, above all, resulted in “the sustained provision of multiple goods and services, food and livelihood security for millions of local community members and indigenous peoples, well beyond their borders,” says the article.

At the foundation of these systems are healthy soils, considered a ‘sacred resources’ by indigenous communities and therefore protected so that they can sustain crops, livestock and communities. Traditional agricultural and forestry systems are able to strengthen soils through maintaining biological diversity.

Read the full story: Soil: a sacred resource at the foundation of traditional agricultural heritage systems