The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) are systems that combine relevant landscapes, agricultural biodiversity, resilient ecosystems and cultural heritage. They are found in specific locations around the world, providing goods and services, food and livelihoods, in a sustainable way for millions of small farmers.

The Barroso Agro-Silvo-Pastoral System, which involves the municipalities of Boticas and Montalegre, was the first Portuguese site to be recognized by FAO as GIAHS, in April 2018, being one of 11 sites across Europe with this classification, 1 in Andorra, 2 in Austria, 2 in Italy, 5 in Spain and 1 in Portugal.

Barroso is a landscape and natural composition that makes up a large part of the Peneda Gerês National Park, where the existing agricultural system is strongly conditioned by the edaphoclimatic characteristics, with smallholdings predominating and cattle and goat grazing being preponderant in the region’s agricultural economy, along with pig farming, which makes a fundamental contribution to family economies and plays an important social role.

It is a system that has remained practically unchanged to this day, as a subsistence rural economy, typical of mountain areas, with a low intensity in the use of production factors, with very few surpluses and where the level of consumption of the population is relatively lower than in other regions of the country.

This visit will allow us to get to know a little about this territory, to contact some of the players who are part of the Barroso GIAHS Platform and to find out about the initiatives in its Action Plan.

Additional information: https://www.fao.org/giahs/around-the-world/detail/portugal-barroso/en