Abstract
Traditional agroforestry systems have received increasing attention in recent decades for their multifunctional role and as a sustainable development model for rural areas. At the international level, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme in 2002 with the aim of identifying agricultural systems of global importance; preserving landscapes, agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge; applying the dynamic conservation principles while promoting sustainable development. The aim of the research is to carry out a review of the inscription dossiers of all the 59 sites already included in the GIAHS programme, in order to analyze the role of forests and agroforestry systems. Moreover, the main traditional management techniques have been identified and briefly described, as traditional forest-related knowledge is particularly important for sustainable forest management. Forests and agroforestry systems have been found to be important or crucial in about half of the sites. The main role assigned to forests and agroforestry systems in GIAHS proposals is related to the production of timber, fuelwood and by-products for the local communities according to sustainable and traditional management techniques. Among these, they also play important roles in hydrogeological protection, water regulation and biodiversity maintenance, representing examples both of human adaptation to different environments and of resilient systems that could help to face global challenges such as hydrogeological risk and climate change. The review of the GIAHS inscription dossiers also highlighted the lack of a uniform approach in dealing with forest issues, especially for what concern the description of management plans and the relation with protected areas or forest planning instruments.
Highlights
Nowadays, rural areas are facing numerous challenges in economic, social, cultural and technological fields, together with climate change and its consequences
The aim of the research is to carry out a review of the inscription dossiers of all the 59 sites already included in the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme, in order to analyze the role of forests and agroforestry systems
The scores given to each GIAHS site according to the importance assigned to the forests and/or agroforestry systems is reported in the Appendix A
Summary
Rural areas are facing numerous challenges in economic, social, cultural and technological fields, together with climate change and its consequences. Recent deforestation, estimated to be 13 million ha/year [7], occurring mostly in Asia and South America, to obtain wide portions of farmland to be cultivated as intensive monocultures, has caused soil erosion and wild flora and fauna habitat degradation too [8,9,10]. For these reasons, the use of sustainable ecological practices related to traditional agricultural systems is a key feature to prevent such consequences which are negative both for environmental and life quality. This kind of farming may be considered less productive than modern-intensive systems, but it has ensured a sustainable yield over time [8]
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