October 2 – 4, 2024 Alicante (Spain)
The MED GIAHS project, co-financed by EU ERDF funds through the Euro Med Territorial Cooperation programme, has taken part in the first Mediterranean GIAHS Workshop, organised on 2-4 October 2024 by the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and Casa Mediterráneo, in Alicante (Spain). This event, part of the Regional Programme for Arab States, aimed to strengthen cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean on Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). Together with the Spanish GIAHS, the GIAHS from the North African countries of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia participated in this workshop.
GIAHS are the result of a slow and sustainable evolution between farming communities and their environment. These livelihood systems, based on unique biodiversity and extraordinary knowledge and know-how, have enabled the establishment of sustainable and resilient food systems, thus ensuring food security and thriving communities for centuries.
Spain and the countries of North Africa share many common challenges, in particular dealing with the impacts of climate change, the rural exodus, the economic slowdown, as well as the disappearance of traditional agriculture. Moreover, the two shores share a common history marked by migrations and cultural exchanges, in which agriculture has been the cornerstone of adaptation and anchorage to territories whose common heritage can still be found on both sides of the Mediterranean.
The objectives of this workshop were to share experiences and lessons learned from already recognised GIAHS, to present potential GIAHS sites and to identify common challenges and perspectives for strengthening them. Moreover, another objective was to learn about previous or existing initiatives for the establishment of GIAHS site networks to promote their development.
In this sense, the lead partner of MED GIAHS, Consejería de Agricultura, Pesca, Agua y Desarrollo Rural de la Junta de Andalucía (Regional Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of Andalusia), explained the details of the project and, in particular, the initiative to create a network of GIAHS territories already recognised in the European Mediterranean basin, as well as the development of a strategy for sustainable agricultural tourism in the area of those GIAHS already recognised as well as in the candidate systems to be recognised as GIAHS.
GIAHS in the North of Africa and Spain:
Algeria
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Ghout Oasis system El Oued (2011)
Spain
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Añana Salt Production System (2017)
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Malaga raisins production system in La Axarquía (Málaga)
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Ancient Olive Trees Agricultural system in Territorio Sénia (2018)
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Historical irrigation system in l’Horta de València (2019)
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Agrosilvopastoral system Montañas de León (2022)
Morocco
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Oases System in Atlas Mountains (2011).
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Argan-based agro-sylvo-pastoral system within the area of Ait Souab – Ait Mansour (2018).
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The ksour of Figuig: oasis and pastoralist culture around the social management of water and land (2022).
Tunisia
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Gafsa Oases (2011).
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Hanging gardens from Djebba El Olia (2020).
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Ramli agricultural system in the lagoons of Ghar El Melh (2020).
