23 Sep WBA evaluates the impact of the GIAHS site of La Axarquìa for FAO
The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) has shared the first results of the research carried out at the GIAHS site in La Axarquìa (Malaga, Spain) by our naturalists last spring.
The GIAHS program promoted by FAO has the objective of identifying and recognizing landscapes of particular value from an environmental, historical and cultural point of view at a global level.
The research carried out by the WBA in La Axarquìa is part of the collaboration between FAO and the University of Malaga aimed at developing a “Method for assessing the vulnerability and resilience of the GIAHS to climate change”.
The WBA’s objective was to extend and improve the methodology already developed, enriching it with the evaluation of the Biodiversity Indices of the Biodiversity Friend Protocol.
The two methodological approaches tested to evaluate the impact of the agricultural activities of the GIAHS sites on the state of biodiversity conservation in the cultivated areas were therefore the Biodiversity Indices and the Landscape Assessment Protocol (LAP).
The final objective of the experimentation is to identify a complete methodology that can also be used in other GIAHS sites to provide indications on the resilience of sites to climate change.
Read the article, entitled “Field testing Malaga’s agricultural heriatge site to diagnose the impact on biodiversity, as living and evolving laboratories of sustainable agriculture“, highlights how although traditional viticulture is a sustainable activity, some demographic and socioeconomic trends are contributing negatively to the vulnerability of agricultural activities and their ability to adapt to climate change.
Read the full article here