The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme, launched as an initiative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2002, provides international recognition to important traditional agricultural systems (including forestry and fisheries) which conserve agrobiodiversity, indigenous knowledge, culture heritage and agricultural landscapes. Today (as of August 2017), there are 38 GIAHS sites worldwide, each conducting its own local initiatives to conserve GIAHS by promoting sustainable agriculture. 

One agroecology-based GIAHS is “Sado’s Satoyama in Harmony with the Japanese Crested Ibis” located in Sado City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. Its traditional rice cultivation system harnesses the agroecosystem and biodiversity of its satoyama landscape - a dynamic mosaic of various socio-ecological systems comprising secondary woodlands, plantations, grasslands, paddy fields, wetlands, irrigation ponds and canals- that provides nurturing habitats for the endangered Japanese crested ibis.