Agricultural heritage endeavors flourish, with China leading the world
Over the past 10 years, under the leadership and organization of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China's Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) protection has achieved abundant results and smoothly completed all tasks, accounting for 11 of the 32 Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems protection listings, ranking first in the world. Percy Misika, the FAO representative to Mongolia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and China, delivered a speech on October 13 at the "FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems China Project Summary and the 10th Anniversary Commemoration of the Designation of the 'Qingtian Rice-Fish Symbiosis System'" held in Qingtian, Zhejiang, and spoke highly of it, saying, "China has become a model for Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems protection, made important contributions to the construction of the global agricultural heritage protection system and the sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas, and led the global Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems work forward in the right direction."
Ten years of honing a sword; China's agricultural heritage has blazed a new path for world sustainable development
Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) is a major action launched in 2002 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, with the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), together with relevant international organizations and countries, aiming to discover the valuable experience and wealth of traditional agriculture and explore new paths for the sustainable development of world agriculture. In 2005, FAO selected 5 different types of traditional agricultural systems in 6 countries as the first batch of protection pilot projects. China's "Zhejiang Qingtian Rice-Fish Symbiosis System," recommended by the Ministry of Agriculture and with technical support from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the United Nations University, was recognized by FAO as one of the first batch of protection pilot projects and in June 2005 became the world's first officially designated heritage site. After 10 years of exploration and practice, the Zhejiang Qingtian Rice-Fish Symbiosis System has blazed a new path for the protection of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems and the sustainable development of world agriculture, becoming a world model for GIAHS protection; driven by Qingtian, the Yunnan Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System, the Jiangxi Wannian Traditional Rice Culture System, the Guizhou Congjiang Dong Rice-Fish-Duck System, the Yunnan Pu'er Ancient Tea Gardens and Tea Culture System, the Inner Mongolia Aohan Dryland Farming System, the Zhejiang Shaoxing Kuaijishan Ancient Chinese Torreya Community, the Hebei Xuanhua Traditional Vineyards System, the Jiangsu Xinghua Duotian Traditional Agricultural System, the Shaanxi Jiaxian Ancient Jujube Garden, and the Fujian Fuzhou Jasmine and Tea Culture System were successively included in the GIAHS list; the economic, ecological and social benefits of China's agricultural heritage protection and development have become prominent, farmers' cultural awareness and enthusiasm for protection have significantly increased, and governments at all levels and all sectors of society have continuously raised their understanding of the value of agricultural heritage and the importance of protection. China's agricultural heritage discovery and protection has become an important lever for promoting rural ecological civilization construction, beautiful countryside construction and sustainable agricultural development. These important agricultural heritage sites are becoming "laboratories" for studying traditional ecological agriculture, windows for displaying traditional agricultural culture, bases for producing ecological and cultural agricultural products, and destinations for developing ecological and cultural tourism.
Improve the protection system and strengthen institutional development to advance important agricultural heritage endeavors
In order to establish an all-round, three-dimensional important agricultural heritage protection system and promote the inheritance of farming culture and economic and social development, the Ministry of Agriculture established the guiding ideology of "protect in discovery, inherit in use." With the support of relevant experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and others, it built a management mechanism featuring government administration, scientific demonstration, tiered management, multi-party participation and benefit sharing; in 2012 it took the lead internationally in carrying out national-level agricultural heritage discovery and protection, and has so far announced 62 China-NIAHS in three batches, distributed across 25 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions nationwide; issued multiple measures, took the lead internationally in promulgating the "Measures for the Management of Important Agricultural Heritage," established an expert committee composed of experts in agriculture, ecology, environment, economics, history, culture, society and other fields, and set up a GIAHS work experience exchange system; explored effective dynamic protection approaches. While effectively protecting traditional agricultural systems and the agrobiodiversity, agricultural ecological landscapes, agricultural folk culture and agricultural production techniques they contain, through agricultural products and specialty food processing as well as leisure agriculture and rural tourism development, it expanded agricultural production functions and development modes, increased farmers' incomes, brought significant economic, ecological and other benefits to heritage sites, and enabled farmers in heritage sites to truly benefit, "becoming the most successful practitioners of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems protection."
Build platforms and strengthen scientific and technological support to carry out strategic research on agricultural heritage and its protection
Agricultural heritage is a complex type of system. The discovery, protection, utilization and inheritance of agricultural heritage is a complex systematic project that requires comprehensive research across multiple disciplines, fields and perspectives. With support from the Global Environment Facility, the Ministry of Agriculture's special fund for international exchange and cooperation, the Chinese Academy of Engineering's key consulting projects, environmental protection public welfare projects, and special projects for basic scientific and technological work, over the past 10 years the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with relevant research institutes, has carried out systematic research including the origin and evolution of agricultural heritage, agrobiodiversity and adaptation to climate change, ecological and environmental effects and ecosystem service functions, multifunctionality and multiple values and sustainability assessment, ecological agriculture and multifunctional agricultural development, tourism development potential and sustainable tourism development countermeasures, and the legal basis for agricultural heritage protection. It completed the "Strategic Research on the Protection and Development of China's Important Agricultural Heritage," published a series of research monographs and articles; built a series of platforms and advocated the establishment of the "East Asian Research Association for Agricultural Heritage" and the "Agricultural Heritage Branch of the Chinese Agricultural Society"; promoted the development of the agricultural heritage discipline and the training of young talent, initially forming a multidisciplinary, comprehensive research team; the consulting reports completed received instructions from Party and state leaders, and various forms of science popularization work were carried out. Over the past 10 years, China's agricultural heritage field has produced abundant scientific research results, which have both effectively supported China's agricultural heritage protection work and led international GIAHS protection theoretical research.
⟦NL> Chinese experience goes abroad, enhancing influence and discourse power
After 10 years of development, China has advanced to the forefront of the world in heritage nomination and management, scientific research and results dissemination, policy integration and mechanism development, discipline development and capacity building, and other aspects. China's experience has gone abroad and toward the world. In 2011, Academician Li Wenhua was elected chairman of the FAO GIAHS Steering Committee, playing a leadership role in world agricultural heritage protection. Researcher Min Qingwen received the "Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems Special Contribution Award" conferred by FAO in 2013, becoming the only recipient in the world so far. China's heritage protection experience and practices became a decision-making reference for FAO in formulating relevant systems, were praised and borrowed by other countries, played an important role in the vigorous development of the global Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems cause, and directly promoted the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems protection work carried out by FAO, spreading China's experience to more and more countries. In June 2014, the Chinese government and FAO signed a cooperation agreement on GIAHS work under the "South-South Cooperation" framework. The Ministry of Agriculture held two consecutive "GIAHS High-Level Training Courses" in 2014 and 2015, with 60 participants from more than 30 countries coming to China for study and inspection, promoting more countries to join the ranks of GIAHS protection. Under the promotion of the Ministry of Agriculture, the "APEC Beijing Declaration on Food Security" adopted at the Third APEC Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Food in 2014 emphasized the need to "intensify the protection of agricultural heritage in each economy and support the efforts of FAO in Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems." It is precisely under the strong promotion of the Chinese government and others that "Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems" has become an important task of FAO. Over 10 years of development, China has made tremendous contributions to promoting the global important agricultural heritage cause, and Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems has also become a distinctive part of China's international agricultural cooperation and a "golden signboard" for agricultural external exchanges. Through GIAHS work, China's influence, discourse power and initiative in international cooperation have been further enhanced.