Traditional agroforestry systems, biocultural diversity and Agricultural Heritage Systems

The importance of agroforestry systems is today widely recognized due to their multifunctional role in terms of climate change mitigation, agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge preservation, and local communities’ sustenance. In particular, traditional agroforestry systems, being the result of human adaptation to the surrounding environment, represent an example of how man has been able to shape landscape respecting its peculiarities and at the same time improving its potentialities. In this background and considering that traditional systems are a sustainable alternative to intensive cultivations and provide multiple benefits both at the natural and human levels, Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations launched in 2002 a programme dedicated to Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems with the aim of protecting, monitoring and valorizing traditional agrosilvopastoral systems. Thanks to the cooperation between the University of Florence, FAO and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) a three-year project on GIAHS programme has been defined. It has had the aim of spreading knowledge on globally important systems and carrying on a series of scientific researches both on sites already inscribed and on potential ones. The thesis is included in this wider project and it is the result of a series of different studies mainly focused on agroforestry systems analyzing their role in GIAHS programme, their importance as agrobiodiversity and biocultural diversity spots, and investigating their structures to point out their differences and peculiarities. In particular, the thesis aims to provide a complete description of traditional agroforestry systems, giving a series of study cases in potential GIAHS site where a series of landuse analysis and specific data collections on agrobiodiversity have been conducted, and linking them to the importance of biocultural diversity preservation and valorization while paying attention in the role they play in the dynamic conservation background.