The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) are agroecosystems inhabited by communities that live in an intricate relationship with their territory. These evolving sites are resilient systems characterized by remarkable agrobiodiversity, traditional knowledge, invaluable cultures and landscapes, sustainably managed by farmers, herders, fisherfolk, and forest people in ways that contribute to their livelihoods and food security. Through the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has designated over 80 sites around the world.
The Spanish GIAHS “Malaga Raisin Production System in La Axarquía” and “Historical Irrigation System at l’Horta de València” and the “Italian Olive Groves of the Slopes between Assisi and Spoleto”, together with the GIAHS recognition candidates “Katuns in the Bjelasica, Komovi, and Prokletije region” in Montenegro, “Agricultural Heritage System: Bulgarian Rose agroecosystem of Rose Valley region” in Bulgaria and “Agricultural Heritage System: Gum Mastiha of Chios Island” in Greece, form the project called MED GIAHS, which aims to create a GIAHS network in the Mediterranean, the MED GIAHS network.
This project includes the creation of a sustainable tourism strategy for GIAHS in the Mediterranean, a practical guide on how to draw up action plans in each territory, a training plan in GIAHS for local actors, as well as a catalogue with tourist experiences linked to the SIPAM experience.
The start of MED GIAHS took place on 11 March 2024 with the first meeting of all project partners. It is led by the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of Andalusia and also includes the Regional Development Agency of Bjelasica, Komovi and Prokletije in Montenegro; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; the Consorci Consell de l’Horta de València, in Spain; the University of Florence, Italy; and, the Regional Administration of Pazardzhik, in Bulgaria. All of them will have 2 years to carry out the work and a total budget of almost 1 million euros, financed 80% by the European Union Interreg EURO-MED Territorial Cooperation Programme. The Interreg Euro-MED Programme funds projects to make the Mediterranean smarter and greener and to improve the governance in the region.
These unique agricultural systems that possess a valuable and diverse material and intangible heritage are subject to threats such as climate change, globalisation or abandonment because of their low profitability and lack of generational renewal. The disappearance of these production systems would have a negative impact on their territories, as it could generate losses in three very important aspects: population by emigration, biodiversity and also of the ancestral knowledge that has been generated in the territory over the centuries. This project, in short, aims to contribute to the conservation and development of these unique agricultural systems through the GIAHS network of the Mediterranean, generating multiple economic, social, landscape, cultural benefits, amongst others. It will contribute to the enrichment of the local population who inhabit these systems and to fix the population to the territory, as well as to mitigate or eliminate the risks listed above.
The MED GIAHS network is not limited to the above mentioned GIAHS, but will also host two more Spanish GIAHS, one Algerian, two Moroccans and three Tunisians, and will be open to all existing or future Mediterranean SIPAMs who wish to join the initiative.
