In rural life, everything is connected to everything else. Seen as a complex adaptive system, the “rural” in most regions of the world has evolved over many centuries and is well known to have endured invasive predations and conflicts and to have adapted to changing conditions, both physical and human, many times. Such changes are recorded in the culture and in the landscapes which have continuously evolved and which characterize rural places today. These features of contemporary rural life—economy, culture and landscape—are the key elements of rural systems. Interestingly, they have also become the elements that attract tourists to rural areas. This theoretical paper, starts from the position that the rural world as a whole is complex and that systems adjust in the face of uncertainty, and a type of dynamism that is generated externally in the form of shocks and stresses. Complex Adaptive Systems theory provides an excellent opportunity to examine living systems such as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in China that can provide new perspectives on resilience and self-organizing capabilities of the system. The paper suggests that adopting such approaches in contemporary research will produce new insights of whole systems and stem the tide of mainstream scientific research that reduces systems to their component parts and studies them with micro-techniques, while mostly failing to reintegrate the component parts back into the system as a whole. By reviewing this approach in relation to GIAHS and by introducing tourism into the rural village system, as a perturbation, we can create new ways to understand the effects of rural development interventions in ancient landscapes such as those which cover many parts of rural China today.

The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) initiative was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 2002 with the aim of establishing the basis for the global recognition, dynamic conservation and adaptive management of outstanding traditional agricultural systems and their associated landscapes, biodiversity, knowledge systems and cultures. There is anecdotal evidence that designated GIAHS are economically better than non-GIAHS sites. However, there have not been done an economic analysis to prove this. Nor are any sophisticated economic performance criteria for GIAHS in place for a continuously monitoring of the functioning. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to conduct an economic valuation for a GIAHS system versus a similar non designated GIAHS system. For this, a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is chosen. The major constraint is the data availability. Therefore, a framework for economic analysis shall be developed with the intention to provide directions, assumptions, and data requirement to carry out an economic analysis and so give guidance on future inclusion of economic valuations of GIAHS. Theconceptual framework for economic assessment will use the Rice-Fish pilot site in China as a case study. The example calculations on the rice-fish co-culture (RFC) have to be taken cautiously due to data availability on different activities (tourism, marketed products on local and international markets) as well as comparison to similar systems.

This study seeks to isolate a select group of landscape metrics particularly well-suited for describing the Hani Terrace in southwest of China. We examined the response of 47 landscape metrics to a large range of imagery grain sizes. Based on a correlation analysis, the original 47 metrics were placed into 21 groups such that all metrics within a group were strongly correlated with each other with a value of more than 0.9, and were represented by a single descriptor. Using these cross-sectional metrics in the context of principal components analysis, we found that five factors explained almost 93% of the total variation in the landscape pattern. The highest loadings for these five factors were the Splitting index (SPLIT), Patch area distribution (AREA_CV), Shannon's diversity index (SHDI), Euclidean nearest neighbor distance distribution (ENN_AM), and Total core area (TCA), respectively. Considering the real landscape, we added the Patch fractal dimension distribution (FRAC_MN) as the sixth landscape pattern metric. As the scale effect of landscape pattern metrics we design to investigate how a suite of commonly use landscape metrics respond to changing grain size. Based on the anlasis, we determined that the best domain of scale to characterise the Hani Terrace pattern metrics is between 40m and 45m. Through the fractal method, we found that the characteristic scale of the Hani Terrace is the same as the scale domain of metrics, among the 40m and 45m. We suggest that the majority of the patterns in the Hani Terrace landscapes, indeed for all those in southwest China,can be described effectively with these six metrics.

This paper looks at the agricultural heritage potential of the tameike reservoirs in Japan, through a case study of the Kunisaki Peninsula, which was recognized as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) in May, 2013. The “tameike” in this area are small scale ponds storing spring water or water flowing through the short and rapid rivers of the area. Tameike construction in Kunisaki is found to be closely associated with the spread of wet rice cultivation and forestry. Most existing reservoirs were built during the Edo Period (1603–1867), and were managed through traditional farming knowhow till the postwar period. However, rapid decline in the use and ecosystem functions of these reservoirs ensued from the years of economic development, and at present, total number of these reservoirs has fallen to nearly one-third, compared to the pre-Meiji time. The GIAHS initiative is trying to reevaluate the ecosystem functions and knowledge systems associated with these reservoirs and link them to rural revitalization efforts. This article is based on both literature survey and field based research with regional coordinators, and comes to the conclusion that proper management of these reservoirs can successfully reinvigorate a culture of resource circulation, that defined the agri-heritage of Kunisaki area in historical times.

Agricultural ecosystems are the largest managed ecosystem in the world. The sustainable development of agriculture is significant to the reversion of dramatic loss of biological diversity in the world. Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) project launched by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is among the global efforts to conserve and dynamically manage the specific agricultural knowledge system and landscapes. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Japan stressed the environmental concern of conventional farming practices in Japan in 1992. Noto Peninsula and Sado City were designated as two new GIAHS pilot sites in Japan as part of local level initiative to preserve the traditional agricultural systems in 2011. This paper reviewed the development process of sustainable farming in Japan and analyzed the challenges and new possibilities to its further extension. The current situation of various sustainable farming practices: such as farming with reduced input of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to conserve rich biodiversity, and organic farming, were reviewed. Emphasis was given to the sustainable farming practices in Hokuriku region, in particular, Ishikawa Prefecture and Sado City in Niigata Prefecture. Based on the recent official documents, reports and research papers, policy implication was brought forward. The challenges of sustainable farming practices and market valuation of sustainable farming products were analyzed. It was concluded that the environmental concerns of farmers and consumers are key to extend the sustainable farming practice in Japan. Conversion to bottom up policy making process paying attention to farmers' interest with involvement of multi stakeholders including government, researchers and private sectors is effective for sustainable farming extension.

The renewed interest in “cultural landscapes” is a global phenomenon to be explained in a multi dimensional way. The process of revalorising traditional habitats, people and their way of living in a particular environment, is closely linked to the introduction of heritage as “a cultural, social and economic construct”. The recognition of cultural landscapes as a new category on the world heritage list (UNESCO) since the 1990s, emphasises the importance of the human-environment interaction and the need for understanding the dynamics of landscapes in time and space. Values are changing and new opportunities emerge for a “dynamic preservation” of iconic landscapes and traditional communities. A cross disciplinary understanding of interacting processes is essential to plan and manage sustainable heritage(land)scapes. Various pilot projects and case studies—world-wide—lead to critical reflections about the sustainability of heritage landscapes and the sovereign role of tourism. The perspective of “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Sites” (GIAHS), supported by economic resources generated by tourism, requires a research-based approach analysing opportunities and expectations, assessing strategic policies and top down politics.

Population growth, loss of biodiversity, and climate change necessitate a new vision for the future of both agriculture and biodiversity. In order to safeguard and support the world's agricultural heritage systems, in 2002 the FAO started an initiative for the conservation and adaptive management called Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). Tourism is suggested as part of the future as it is considered to be an alternative income source that will not only promote local economic development, but also provide the opportunity for tourists to learn about agriculture and ecology. However, inappropriate tourism in GIAHS sites will bring impacts on local culture and living styles, which not only threatens tourism's sustainable development, but also has the potential to damage these unique agricultural systems. This paper proposes that agriculture-based tourism is suitable for GIAHS and that Multi-functionality of Agriculture (MFA) can be the link between agriculture and tourism. This study constructs the framework for tourism development in GIAHS through MFA and applies it to the four GIAHS sites in China. Referring to the quantitative assessment for MFA and a qualitative analysis of the relationship between agriculture and tourism, we can give advice on agricultural tourism development in GIAHS sites. This framework also offers a universal methodology that allows stakeholders to communicate about the multiple functions of GIAHS across scales.

The rich biodiversity and cultural patterns of agricultural heritage sites are preserved unconsciously in the traditional way of life of local communities. They are also attractive resources for tourism development, which supports the conservation of agricultural heritage systems (AHS) while providing benefits for local communities. As a typical case study, a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) site with a Rice-Fish-Duck agricultural system (RFDS) in Congjiang County of South West China is introduced to illustrate the community approach to agricultural heritage conservation and sustainable tourism development. The concept of a community approach to agricultural heritage is dynamic both in terms of conservation and livelihood adaptation. Six elements in the concept model and their relationship were analyzed. The community is the core element and the other five are: local community identity, livelihoods, local sustainable tourism development, the farming system, biodiversity and cultural patterns in the site. All are interconnected and thus support the agricultural heritage conservation of agricultural heritage and the development of sustainable tourism in the heritage sites.

Most agro—cultural heritage tourism is community—based, for which the residents' attitudes towards tourism development are of crucial importance. Taking Ping'an Village as an example, the rice-terraced agro—cultural heritage in Guangxi, this study has probed into the interaction between the residents' perception of the culture change because of tourism development and the tourism development itself by using a field investigation method and statistical analysis. The field investigation has been employed to make the research more comprehensive. By applying exploratory factor analysis, four significant tourism perceptions have been found. They are environment perception, relationship perception, benefits perception and rights perception. Based on the factor analysis, the research undertakes statistical analysis upon resident samples of different groups by means of Pearson correlation coefficient, independent samples t-test and analysis of variance. The results show that although there exists different views from different residents, in general he residents hold a positive attitude towards developing heritage tourism. However, some existing problems such as environmental pollution, cultural reconstruction, the absence of residents' rights and unreasonable income distribution have seriously restricted the development of heritage tourism, which is specifically embodied in the following four points. Firstly, residents are discontented with the environmental pollution in the area. Residents' attitude towards future tourism development reflects a high correlation with positive perceptions of the village community. Secondly, residents are satisfied with community relationships after tourism has developed. The degree of satisfaction is relatively high for those who are not operating tourism, but low for families with poor annual tourism income. Thirdly, residents are dissatisfied with the distribution of income' from tourism. Families with relatively high annual tourism income show a lower degree of satisfaction. Fourthly, residents are not satisfied with their lack of rights in decision-making, in community participation and in tourism development. Residents who are educated to the secondary level show the highest degree of satisfaction in decision-making authority. Finally, some corresponding countermeasures and suggestions have been put forward to resolve the problems existing in the process of tourism development.

Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, an outstanding example of a traditional land-use that is representative of human interaction with a distinctive environment, has been presented for UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) designation. One of Canada's most fertile agricultural landscapes, it is also an iconic memorial site for a people who overcame a tragedy of forced migration—the Acadian Deportation—in 1755, which has since become the lure for significant numbers of tourists to the region. Now facing a double threat of agriculture change and tourism decline, Grand Pré has high expectations from its recent WHS designation (2012) and the perceived tourism that it will bring. This concept paper discusses Grand Pré as a globally important agriculture heritage system and, in light of previous research, questions its expectations of WHS designation as a conduit for future economic viability and sustainability in the region.

Numerous studies have looked at sustainable tourism as the key to balancing environmental conservation and development in agricultural heritage sites. A microcosm of the traditional rural productive landscape, the Noto Satoyama Satoumi landscape has been designated as a pilot site for the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) in Japan. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of green tourism, focusing on the GIAHS program. The secondary objective is to explore the features of green tourism in Japan. First, the historic development and current state of green tourism in Japan is reviewed. The case in study is a typical green tourism project concerning an organization of farmers in the Noto Peninsula—the Shunran-no-Sato group. The question of how to develop green tourism in the context of the GIAHS project and considering the sustainable development of rural society and its farming systems by increasing incomes of rural households, is investigated. The study combined literature review and in-depth interviews with farm inn owners to investigate tourism development in the depopulated rural areas of Japan, examine its challenges, and present this information to international readers.