The awarding ceremony of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) GIAHS(Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems)  pilot sites, organized by Department of International Cooperation (DIC) of the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), FAO of the United Nation (UN) and Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was held in the Great Hall of People on September 5^th , 2012. This grand ceremony was designed to celebrate “Aohan Dryland Farming System” and “Pu’er Traditional Tea Agroecosystem” becoming new FAO GIAHS pilot sites. It means, besides their traditional farming technology and agricultural biological species, that the local culture and natural environment will be also protected.

FAO launched the GIAHS project in 2002 and China was among the countries that first responded to the call of the GIAHS initiative. Under the cooperation of MOA and IGSNRR, GIAHS conservation in China has been greatly strengthened and a series of fruitful results have been achieved since 2004. “Qingtian Rice-fish Culture System” in Zhejiang Province was designated as the first pilot site for GIAHS by FAO in 2005. “Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System”, “Wannian Rice Culture System” and “Congjiang Dong’s Rice-fish-duck Agroecosystem” were listed as GIAHS pilot sites in 2010 and 2011. As the two new systems are added to the list, China is now owning six GIAHS pilot sites, ranking first in the world.

Mr. Alexander Müller, Assistanf Director General of FAO and Prof. LI Wenhua, Chairman of GIAHS Steering Committee awarded the certificate to Mr. LI Xiao Ping, Mayor of Pu’er city

These two systems have their own characteristics. Pu’er is located in the southwestern region of Yunnan Province, center of the origin place of the tea tree. It has a long history in tea cultivating, producing and drinking, a very rich tea culture and prolific tea resources. Today, over 200,000 acres of artificial ancient tea gardens, which are regarded as the largest and the oldest in the world, still exist in the forests of Pu’er. And the Bulang people, the first people that learned how to use the tea, are also still living there now. Pu’er people started to cultivate tea trees artificially in the East Han Dynasty over 1800 years ago. The famous Qianjia Zhai tea tree in Zhenyuan, one of the oldest tea trees, is over 2700 years old now.

Aohan is located in the southeast of Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. It is the interchange place for the Chinese ancient agriculture culture and 

Mr. Alexander Müller, Assistanf Director General of FAO and Prof. LI Wenhua, Chairman of GIAHS Steering Committee awarded the certificate to Mr. QIU Wenbo, Leader of Aohan Banner

prairie culture. From 2001 to 2003, the grain specimens of millet were continually discovered by archaeologists in the “First Village of China”, Xinglongwa relics in Aohan. These grains are dated back to 7700 to 8000 years ago, 2700 years earlier than the grains discovered in the central Europe, which were once proved to be the earliest relics of artificial grain and millet cultivation known to the world. It indicates that the millets have been planted on this land for almost 8000 years generation by generation. Aohan has a temperate continental monsoon climate, characterized by efficient heat accumulation, adequate sunlight and big temperature differences between daytime and night time. The climatecharacteristics and the special soils determine that the millets and grains rooted on the dry slopes of Aohan are resistant to drought and lodging with strong adaptability, high quality, good palatability and rich nutrition.

China is one of the four main agricultural civilization countries in the world and different kinds of agricultural heritage systems have been formed through the ten-thousand-year-old development. However, with the rapid expansion of industrialization and urbanization, a great number of agricultural heritage systems are in danger of disappearance.

From Center for Natural and Cultural Heritage, IGSNRR