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FAO / AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE SYSTEMS
STORY: FAO / AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE SYSTEMS
TRT: 03:10
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / CHINESE / NATS
DATELINE: 19 APRIL 2018, ROME, ITALY
19 APRIL 2018, ROME, ITALY
1. Various shots, GIAHS exhibit in the Atrium of FAO HQ
2. Various shots, audience in Green Room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy-Director, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO):
“We now have 50 GIAHS sites in 20 countries. A number that speaks for the GIAHS success, including two new regions: Europe and North America. By safeguarding GIAHS we are also responding to the world’s greatest challenges: climate change, depleting natural resources, urbanization, change in diets and lifestyles.”
4. Med shot, atendees
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy-Director, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO):
“GIAHS sites are unique examples of a harmonious relationship between humans and agricultural systems. More important, farmers have a leading role in conserving and promoting biodiversity, traditional knowledge and landscapes. They are not about a nostalgic past, but offer solutions for the present and the future.”
6. Wide shot, conference room
7. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhang Taolin, Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China:
“The Chinese central and local governments actively implement practices to continuously expand the multifunctionality of agriculture by formulating conservation plans, implementing development projects, carrying out farmer training, experimenting with ecological compensation, building beautiful countryside, and developing leisure agriculture, explore the path of protection and development of agricultural cultural heritage in the context of modern agriculture, and ensure the coordinated promotion of heritage protection, cultural heritage, eco-environmental protection, and economic development.”
8. Wide shot, attendees clapping
9. Full shot, slide of awarded site
10. Representative of Diebu Zhagana Agriculture-Forestry-Animal Husbandry Composite System, China receives certificate from Semedo
11. Full shot, slide of awarded site
12. Representative of Chongyi Hakka Rice Terraces in Southern Mountainous and Hilly Areas, China receives certificate from Semedo
13. Full shot, slide of awarded site
14. Representative of Chinampas Agricultural System, Mexico receives certificate from Semedo
15. Family photo
The Deputy-Director of the Food and Agricultural Organization said by safeguarding Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) the international community was also responding to “the world’s greatest challenges: climate change, depleting natural resources, urbanization, change in diets, and lifestyles.”
Speaking at the GIAHS International Forum in Rome today (19 Apr), Maria Helena Semedo said the number of GIAHS sites speaks for the success of the network. FAO’s global agricultural heritage network now comprises 50 remarkable landscapes in 20 countries.
The GIAHS programme highlights unique ways that rural communities have over generations forged to foster food security, viable livelihoods, resilient ecosystems and high levels of biodiversity, all while enhancing natural beauty.
SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy-Director, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO):
“GIAHS sites are unique examples of a harmonious relationship between humans and agricultural systems. More important, farmers have a leading role in conserving and promoting biodiversity, traditional knowledge and landscapes. They are not about a nostalgic past, but offer solutions for the present and the future.”
The GIAHS Forum brought together policymakers, representatives from GIAHS sites, country delegates, international experts and FAO staff as well as relevant international organizations to discuss and exchange the experiences gained and lessons learned through GIAHS application, implementation of action plans for dynamic conservation and to consider future perspectives of the GIAHS Programme.
Chinese Vice-Minister of Agriculture Zhang Taolin said his Government was actively implementing practices to “continuously expand the multifunctionality of agriculture by formulating conservation plans, implementing development projects, carrying out farmer training, experimenting with ecological compensation, building beautiful countryside, and developing leisure agriculture, explore the path of protection and development of agricultural cultural heritage in the context of modern agriculture, and ensure the coordinated promotion of heritage protection, cultural heritage, eco-environmental protection, and economic development.”
Newly designated GIAHS sites proposed in 2016 also received awards in during the Forum.
FAO said the concept of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) is distinct from, and more complex than, a conventional heritage site or protected area. A GIAHS is a living, evolving system of human communities in an intricate relationship with their territory, cultural or agricultural landscape or biophysical and wider social environment. The humans and their livelihood activities have continually adapted to the potentials and constraints of the environment, and also shaped the landscape and the biological environment to different degrees. This has led to an accumulation of experience over generations, an increasing range and depth of their knowledge systems and generally, but not necessarily, a complex and diverse range of livelihood activities, often closely integrated.
FAO said the resilience of many GIAHS sites has been developed and adapted to cope with climatic variability and change, i.e. natural hazards, new technologies, and changing social and political situations, so as to ensure food and livelihood security and alleviate risk. The Organization said the wealth and breadth of accumulated knowledge and experience in the management and use of resources is a globally significant treasure that needs to be promoted and conserved and, at the same time, allowed to evolve.
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