Book: 20 years of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Book: 20 years of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems

FAO. 2022. Twenty years of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems – Success stories of dynamic conservation for sustainable rural development. Rome. # 52 p.

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.

The publication is a collection of success stories from different Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) and aims so showcase the achievements made over the past 20 years since the establishment of the GIAHS programme of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UNited Nations (FAO).

The publication features success stories from: 1.) Tanzania 2.) China 3.) Japan 4.) Italy 5.) Spain 5.) Peru and 6.) Algeria

Shimbwe Juu Kihamba Agroforestry Heritage Site, United Republic of Tanzania

Shimbwe Juu is a small village of the Chagga community, located on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. In a semi-tropical climate, the villagers have practised agroforestry for centuries.

In 2013, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania proposed Shimbwe Juu Kihamba Agroforestry Heritage Site as a GIAHS in the hope of finding sustainable solutions to the erosion of culture and the forest, and to improve environmental and economic opportunities. The Shimbwe Juu Kihamba Agroforestry Heritage Site is an example of how synergy between humans, animals and the forest can contribute to a sustainable environment, using an integrated multilayered system to help overcome the challenges of soil infertility and water scarcity.

The vegetation structure of the kihamba (home garden) system comprises four main layers. The uppermost layer is formed by closely spaced trees, which provide shade, medicine, fodder, fruit, firewood and timber. Multiple varieties of bananas are grown underneath the trees. Coffee shrubs grow beneath the bananas and various vegetable species grow under the coffee. This multilayer system maximizes the use of limited land and provides a large variety of local foods and cash crops, such as banana, cassava, yams, taros, ginger and pineapple all year around.

Kihamba are irrigated by furrows collecting runoff and by canals from rivers originating in the montane forest. These home gardens feature extraordinary biodiversity: over 500 different plant species, including 400 that are not cultivated but preserved in their natural habitat. Farmers raise animals such as cattle and chickens to enhance the nutritional status of their households and to increase farm income through the sale of milk, eggs, and other products. This traditional system faces serious threats, including land scarcity due to population growth, the outmigration of young people which also disrupts the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next, as well as changes in dietary habits, land use changes and fragmentation.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Since the Shimbwe Juu Kihamba Agroforestry Heritage Site was designated a GIAHS site in 2013:

The Shimbwe Juu community have been trained in crop improvement and organic coffee farming using integrated pest management.
Farmers have been provided with more than 12 000 coffee seedlings to replace old coffee trees.
The community have been certified as organic coffee farmers, linking them with the organic coffee market.
The Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) has established a coffee sales point in the village to facilitate marketing
Sixty farmers have been trained in the establishment and management of vanilla plants and provided with cuttings for planting.
FAO has overseen the establishment and official registration of the Engaresero Eramatare Community Development Initiative, a community-based organization (CBO), as part of strengthening sustainable tourism. The initiative offers guided tours to the growing number of visitors that the region saw before the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the initiative the number of tourists has grown back.