Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)

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Photos

07/07/2025

The Jukbangryeom system provides reliable seasonal income and food security for coastal communities through the selective harvesting of anchovy and the maintenance of local processing industries.

07/07/2025

The Almosi Valley agropastoral system is globally important as a living example of sustainable agriculture in harsh mountain ecosystems. Its unique combination of transhumant pastoralism, dryland viticulture, and lush family gardens reflects centuries of adaptation to steep terrain, water scarcity, and climate variability.

Montado 3
16/05/2025

The Montado system ensures diversified food and income sources through an intricate balance of forestry activities, pastoralism and crop production.

16/05/2025

In Fuding, China, centuries-old white tea cultivation blends ecological wisdom and craftsmanship. Centered on the Lüxueya mother tree and natural withering techniques, this system integrates tea gardens with forests and crops, preserving biodiversity and supporting rural livelihoods. Deep cultural roots, rituals, and traditions reflect a strong bond between people, tea, and the land.

16/05/2025

In Deqing County, China, farmers have sustained an 800-year-old fish-mussel co-cultivation system that merges aquaculture, agriculture, and craftsmanship. Centered on Shelled Pearl Mussel techniques, it yields pearls, rice, silk, and more.

16/05/2025

The pine-based agroforestry system of Uljin sustains food and livelihood security through a carefully balanced mix of forest-derived and cultivated products.

16/05/2025

For over 3,000 years, farming families in Tlaxcala have sustained the Metepantle system, a terraced mosaic of maize, agave, beans, squash, and wild plants. Rooted in Nahua knowledge, it preserves seeds, supports dryland biodiversity, and anchors local food systems and livelihoods, offering resilience and cultural continuity in one of Mexico’s most climate-vulnerable regions.

16/05/2025

Lanzarote’s dryland agricultural system offers an outstanding example of traditional adaptation to extreme environmental conditions. In a region with less than 150 mm of annual rainfall.

16/05/2025

By integrating food crops, native fruits, and forest products, the system strengthens biodiversity, food sovereignty, and cultural identity, while helping conserve the Araucaria Forest, one of the planet’s most endangered biodiversity hotspots and a vital reservoir of life.

16/05/2025

In Shichuan, a 600-year-old agroforestry system thrives along the Yellow River, where towering pear trees are cultivated using the traditional “Gaotian” method. Integrating fruit trees, crops, and livestock, it preserves ancient varieties like Ruan’er and Dongguo.

01/09/2024

An exciting journey to our agricultural heritage systems around the world. 

03/07/2024

Wasabi, Eutrema japonicum, is a native Japanese plant of the Brassicaceae family that has been highly prized in Japan since ancient times for the sharp flavor produced when its stems are grated.

01/10/2023

The history of this system goes back to the development of the Musashino Plateau in the Edo period in the 1600s.

01/10/2023

Xianju has a history of waxberry cultivation dating back more than 1,600 years and is known as one of the original areas of waxberry cultivation.. The unique microclimate of the proposed GIAHS site, together with the rhyolitic volcanic landform, provide a uniquely favorable environment for the cultivation of the waxberry and the composite planting and breeding mode in the GIAHS site.

17/09/2023

Tuyserkan is well known in Iran for its walnut orchards, its delicacies as well as its landscapes and historical monuments. Indeed, traditional walnut production has been practiced in the region for centuries and is deeply rooted in the social and cultural values system of the local communities.

02/07/2023

The Sonteul (hand net) Fishery System for Marsh Clam in Seomjingang River Estuary is located in the central west part of the Republic of Korea. In most of the country’s rivers the marsh clam is almost extinct. 

02/07/2023

Called Black Dragon, Batdam is the result of the ingenuity of Jeju inhabitants to survive in a windy volcanic Island. Utilizing the stones, it is 22,000 kilometer of fences which have been built since 1000 years.

02/11/2022

Thailand, Thale Noi Wetland Pastoral Buffalo Agro-ecosystem. Free ranging buffaloes grazing in the wetland and waterways created by buffalo trampling

02/11/2022

n the Mountains of León, the systems have been maintained for centuries, contributing directly to food security and the livelihoods of local communities. Local animal varieties have been domesticated and developed over centuries to meet the environmental and social requirements of the territory that forms the Mountains of León system.

08/09/2022

The GIAHS of Figuig, linking the municipality of Figuig and neighbouring AbbouLakhal, is characterized by the interdependence and interconnection of pastoralist and farming communities.