The Important Systems of World Agricultural Heritage (GIAHS), recognized by FAO, are unique and singular agricultural systems that have a valuable and diverse agricultural, landscape, cultural and natural heritage, with resilient ecosystems, but that are subject to serious threats, such as the climate change, globalization, more competitive products, or the abandonment of the activity due to low profitability, which implies depopulation and loss of biodiversity and ancestral knowledge. Faced with such threats, VALSIPAM will create a NETWORK of GIAHS territories and unique and singular agricultural spaces of the SUDOE space to improve its management and valorization methods. The design, testing and validation of a COMPREHENSIVE TRANSNATIONAL TOURISM VALUATION MODEL that protects said heritage and promotes its socioeconomic development based on a sustainable exploitation of its tourist resources is foreseen. Innovative solutions will be offered to REDUCE THE RISK OF EXTINCTION of these spaces, guaranteeing their sustainability and that of their populations. VALSIPAM addresses, for the first time in a territorial cooperation project, the challenge of exploiting the opportunities and potential of these agricultural systems of global importance, from an approach that goes beyond goods and products. The project promotes an alternative tourism offer of unique experiences closely linked to biodiversity, landscape, agricultural and forestry practices and the cultural and anthropological heritage of the systems. The situation generated by COVID-19 puts even more pressure on these systems, which justifies the need to address these challenges from transnational cooperation for mutual learning, the creation and validation of common tools and the capitalization of the results. The results will be transferred to the competent administrations and managers of similar spaces for inclusion in public policies that support the model, as well as to the business community and other local target groups to contribute to the sustainability of these territories. The model will also be extrapolated to other similar European agricultural systems in the SUDOE space and beyond.
