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Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)

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Flickr Album: Gaolan Shichuan Ancient Pear Orchard System in Gansu Province, China
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.

Flickr Album: Agricultural Systems in Jable and Volcanic Sands in Lanzarote Island, Spain
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.

Flickr Album: Shade-grown Erva-mate: a traditional agroforestry system in the Araucaria Forest of Parana
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.

Flickr Album: Deqing Freshwater Pearl Mussels Composite Fishery System in Zhejiang Province, China
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.

Flickr Album: Metepantle Ancestral Agricultural System in the Mountainous Zones of Tlaxcala, Mexico
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.

Flickr Album: Fuding White Tea Culture System in Fujian Province, China
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.

A collection of global impressions
01/09/2024

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

Flickr Album: Traditional Wasabi Cultivation in Shizuoka, Japan
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.

Flickr Album: Fallen Leaves Compost Agroforestry System in Musashino Upland, in the peri-urban area of Tokyo, Japan
01/10/2023

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

Flickr Album: Xianju Ancient Chinese Waxberry Composite System in Zhejiang Province, China
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.

Flickr Album: Traditional Walnut Agricultural System in Tuyserkan, Hamedan Province, Iran
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.

Flickr Album: Sonteul (hand net) Fishery System for gathering Marsh Clam in Seomjingang River, Republic of Korea
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. 

Flickr Album: Jeju Batdam Agricultural system, Republic of Korea
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.

Flickr Album: Spain, Agro-Silvo-Pastoral System of the Leon Mountains
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.

Flickr Album: Thale Noi wetland buffalo pastoral agro-eco-system, Thailand
02/11/2022

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

Flickr Album: The ksour of Figuig: oasis and pastoral culture around the social management of water and land, Morocco
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.

Flickr Album: Argan-based agro-sylvo-pastoral system within the area of Ait Souab - Ait Mansour
08/09/2022

The agro-forestry-pastoral system in Ait Souab-Ait Mansour is a unique region where argan trees have been cultivated for centuries.

Flickr Album: The Agricultural System of Valle Salado de Añana, Spain
23/08/2022

The Valle Salado of Añana is an outstanding example of the interaction between humans and the natural environment in the creation of a salt producing agricultural system whose origin dates to Prehistory, more than 7,000 years ago, and which in the 21st century continues to enjoy great vitality.

Flickr Album: Fruit Cultivation System in Kyoutou Region, Yamanashi, Japan
11/07/2022

The following album entails impressions of the Fruit cultivation system in the Kyoutou Region in Japan, officially designated as an Agricultural Heritage system in 2022.

Flickr Album: Biwa Lake to land integrated system, Japan
11/07/2022

The Biwa lake to land integrated system is centered on traditional inland water fisheries which have developed along with paddy agriculture that provides safe breeding grounds for spawning lake fish.