On May 16-17, 2016, the international workshop on Accessing Resilience and Ecosystem Goods and Services of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in Selected Rice Systems in China and the Philippines was held at Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. More than 50 experts and representatives took part in the meeting. This meeting was co-organized by Biodiversity International, World Agricultural Heritage Foundation (WAHF), IGSNRR and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).

At the opening ceremony, Mr. LI Wenhua, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and former Chairman of FAO GIAHS Steering Committee, made a speech. He stressed the important role of biodiversity in protecting agricultural heritage systems, and proposed his expectation on researchers to conduct solid studies and explore constantly on biodiversity, function and resilience of agroecosystem.

Mr. Percy W. Misika, the FAO's representative in China, Mongolia and DPRK, delivered a speech and noted government of China has been playing a significant role to promote FAO’s GIAHS initiative. He expressed that Prof. LI and Prof.MIN Qingwen’s team made great contributions to implement GIAHS project in the last decade.

During the meeting, experts discussed the methods for accessing the resilience and ecosystem goods and services in GIAHS, capacity building and how to build an international network of in-situ conservation of agrobiodiversity harbored in GIAHS sites as well as others.

Prof. LIU Yi，deputy director of IGSNRR, Dr. Fabrice De Clerck and Prof.ZHANG Zongwen from Biodiversity International, and Mr. Parviz Koohafkan, President of WAHF attended this meeting.

After the meeting, Prof.MIN Qingwen made a field trip to Qingtian Rice Fish Culture System in Zhejiang province, accompanying with foreign representatives.