Sustainable diets and biodiversity

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coffee was adopted by farmers which allowed its adaptation to a more cash crop oriented

society. The Kihamba cultivate combined perennial (indigenous trees with vines,

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banana, coffee, shrubs) and annual crops.

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Kenya/Maasai Pastoral

System

For more than a thousand years, the Maasai in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania

have developed and maintained a highly flexible and sustainable mobile livestock-keeping

system, moving herds and people in harmony with nature’s patterns. Their customary

institutions for collectively managing livestock, pastures, water, forest and other

natural resources, combined with vast traditional knowledge and strong cultural

traditions, treating nature with respect.

Algeria/El Oued, Souf

Ghout System

In an arid region such as El Oued, where rainfall is almost absent, the groundwater

reserves provide essential support to all human life, animal and plant. To overcome

the lack of surface water, the farmers irrigate their palms plantation by groundwater.

The method of irrigating groves of El Oued is quite original: it is to get the roots of the

palm into the groundwater and will be continuously in contact with water. The population

cultivates their palms in the crater called Ghout, to reduce the depth between the

ground and the roots of the palm.

Japan/Sado Island Sado is characterized by a variety of landforms and altitudes, which have been

ingeniously harnessed to create the satoyama landscape, a dynamic mosaic of various

socio-ecological systems comprising secondary woodlands, plantations, grasslands,

paddy fields, wetlands, irrigation ponds and canals. Within their complex ecosystem,

the satoyama and the satoumi landscapes in Sado Island harbour a variety of

agricultural biodiversity, such as rice, beans, vegetables, potatoes, soba, fruit, grown

in paddy fields and other fields, livestock, wild plants and mushrooms in forests, and

seafood in the coastal areas. Rice, beef and persimmon from the Sado are among the

best in Japan.

Japan/Noto Peninsula The peninsula is a microcosm of traditional rural Japan where agricultural systems

are integrally linked to mountains and forest activities upstream and coastal marine

activities downstream. Holistic approaches to integrated human activities of fishing,

farming and forestry have traditionally been practised and continue to co-exist. Hilly

terrain interspersed with wide valleys and fields forming a green corridor surrounded

by volcanic rock coastline typify the peninsular landscape. Noto Peninsula has been

gaining recognition both locally and regionally for its traditional vegetables and rice

varieties. Over 20 varieties of indigenous aburana (rape varieties of cruciferous

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vegetables) families grow and are consumed by a majority of satoyama satoumi

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households in the peninsula.

(For more details, please refer to http://www.fao.org/nr/giahs))