Assessment framework of food and livelihood security in Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems

Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) are a living, evolving system of human communities that represent traditional agricultural systems worldwide. Food and livelihood security are the core all-throughout the designation, conservation, and development of GIAHS. On one hand, food and livelihood security is one of the five basic selection criteria for GIAHS; GIAHS should be capable of maintaining basic food and livelihood security for households over a long period of time. On the other hand, the households are the most fundamental decision-making units, and their livelihood activities can drive the evolution of man-land relationship in GIAHS sites forward. However, there is currently a lack of research and discourse in current theoretical and practical conservation in these fields. Thus, based on the theory of Sustainable Livelihood Approach, this study constructed an assessment framework and indicator system for GIAHS, which is composed of two parts, food security and livelihood security. The supply, quality and diversity of material products are the core elements of food security assessment. The indicators system encompasses the supply of food products and supporting products, the quality of food products and environment, as well as the diversity of food products and supporting products. Among them, food product supply includes both the supply of primary food products and relevant food products. The supporting product supply includes both the supply of energy-related products and manure related products. The food product quality contains both the quality of primary food products and relevant food products. The environmental quality contains both the environmental quality of primary food products and relevant food products. Food product diversity covers the diversity of primary food products and relevant food products, and the proportion of traditional or endemic varieties in primary food products and in relevant food products. Supporting product diversity covers the diversity of energy-related products and manure related products, and the proportion of traditional or endemic varieties in energy-related products and in manure related products. For livelihood security assessment, the background, condition, and development of the farmers' livelihood are the core. The indicators system covers the circumstances of the external and inner family environment, the conditions of livelihood assets and outcomes, and the development of livelihood strategies and regional policies. Among them, the circumstance of the external environment includes the backgrounds of the natural, social, and economic environment. The inner family environmental background includes the households' demographic characteristics economic characteristics, and location characteristics. The conditions of livelihood assets contain the natural assets, physical assets, human assets, social assets, financial assets, cultural assets and informational assets. The condition of livelihood outcomes is comprised of the conditions of both household income and household consumption. Livelihood strategy development is comprised of the current situation of household livelihood strategies, and the outlook of agricultural livelihood strategies. The development of regional policies is composed of the development of agricultural policies and the development of rural employment policies. This study's innovation is to construct the assessment framework of food and livelihood security, based on multiple scales, involving farmers and a region in a GIAHS site; which satisfies the theoretical gap of GIAHS and related research, and provides a scientific basis for the designation, conservation, and development of GIAHS.