The GIAHS Forum will be held in Ishikawa, Japan from 29 to 31 March 2013, back-to-back with the Tokyo International Conference on African Development V.

Stakeholders and supporters of agricultural heritage from around the world will meet to share knowledge and exchange experiences concerning approaches to dynamic conservation approaches, and seek to engage key actors from the public and private sector to mobilize support for humanity’s common heritage.

GIAHS Forum participants will also explore how to further sustain conservation efforts, develop ways to address, and contribute to, the global environmental challenges and agenda, as well as foster a dialogue between small-scale/family farming and scientific communities.

Under the proposed theme of ‘Innovative partnership to promote recognition of agri-cultural heritage, conservation of biodiversity for development and sustainable future’, the main objectives of the Forum will be to:

• bring together international, national and local partners, policy-makers, representatives of civil society, farming communities, scientists, research institutions and intergovernmental and development cooperation agencies to exchange knowledge and best practices on evolving agri-cultural heritage systems from different continents and countries and to take stock of lessons learned;
• conduct high level panel discussions on the links between GIAHS and the Aichi biodiversity targets, climate change and resiliency of GIAHS, food and nutrition security and family farming;
• design policies and practices for sustainable and innovative management of GIAHS Partnership programme, promoting effective partnerships and networking with relevant organizations, institutions and related initiatives;
• present the newly identified GIAHS and award certificates to their custodians; and
• visit and experience Japan’s agricultural heritage, Noto’s GIAHS Satoyama and Satoumi.

For more information, please visit www.giahs.org