1 Introduction
In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations initiated a global partnership initiative in Johannesburg, South Africa, launching the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) project, which aims to protect representative traditional agricultural systems in all countries
[1]. This project focuses on unique land use systems and agricultural landscapes in rural areas formed through longterm co-evolution and dynamic adaptation between human and nature
[2], nominating heritage sites with significant living characteristics. Being continuously refined, the GIAHS list has covered diverse production systems including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery. Currently, impacts of climate change, urbanization, and excessive tourism development have also imposed challenges on GIAHS, calling for a broader recognition and more effective protection actions to spread and develop their value.
[3]GIAHS are picturesque sustainable landscape systems arising from the community's long-term adaptation to the environment, which incorporate agricultural biodiversity, resilient ecosystems, and valuable cultural heritage
[4]. Upon the initiation of the GIAHS project, FAO began to evaluate typical traditional agricultural systems globally
[5]. By the end of 2023, 86 GIAHS sites in 26 countries have been designated, covering agricultural landscapes, integrated systems, and species resources
[6]. Among the 57 GIAHS sites in the Asia-Pacific region, China has 22, highlighting its rich traditional knowledge, technology, and intelligence for agricultural ecosystems accumulated in its long history. Meanwhile, GIAHS have been increasingly recognized across the globe as a treasure trove for sustaining bio-cultural diversity, due to their value in addressing climate change, ensuring food and livelihood security, building resilient communities, and supporting biodiversity
[7]. Huzhou Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond System in Zhejiang Province was designated as a GIAHS site in 2017. However, the protection of this system still faces a series of challenges. It is urgent to clarify the priorities and implementation paths at multiple scales to clearly interpret and demonstrate its heritage significance, thus finally achieving sustainable protection, inheritance, and active utilization of it.
In recent years, scholars have had an in-depth exploration and introduction of the "rural environmental museum" concept
[8]. Unlike traditional museums that simply display collections, this concept treats the entire rural area as a "museum." It can display historical and cultural identities, disseminate resource information, and achieve regional revitalization and resurgence
[9] by protecting and utilizing both tangible and intangible resources formed through the interaction between human and nature. The rural environmental museum system has played a prominent role in protecting rural landscapes and traditional agricultural facilities
[8]. However, it is still underused in GIAHS protection. Thus, with this concept, this research explores and practically verifies a protection framework suitable for the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural heritage in Huzhou City, in order to supplement its application on GIAHS.
2 Overview of the Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond Agricultural Heritage in Huzhou
2.1 Evaluation Criteria for GIAHS Projects
There are mainly five criteria for FAO to designate GIAHS: food and livelihood security; agro-biodiversity; local and traditional knowledge systems; cultures, value systems and social organizations; and landscape and seascape features
[10]. Although similar to the World Cultural Heritage as evolving cultural landscapes, the selection for GIAHS is quite different: a GIAHS site must meet all the five criteria simultaneously. These criteria for GIAHS are interrelated, connecting the tangible and intangible, heritage and community, and nature and culture which together constitute the core value of GIAHS as a living and continuously evolving anthropogenic complex ecosystem, i.e., harmonious coexistence of human and nature.
2.2 Characteristics of the Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond Agricultural Heritage in Huzhou
The mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural heritage in Huzhou is one of the most concentrated, intact, and largest existing dyke-pond system in China. Its core protection area is located in Linghu Town and Hefu Town of Nanxun District, to the south of Taihu Lake in the Yangtze River Delta, covering a total area of 6,900 hectares
[11]. The mulberry-dyke & fish-pond system originated around 2,500 years ago in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods; since then generations of residents have developed an agricultural ecosystem adaptable to the wetland environment. Up to now, the region still preserves nearly 4,000 hectares of mulberry gardens and 10,000 hectares of fish ponds
[12]. Designated as GIAHS, Huzhou Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond System is an eco-agricultural system integrating several agricultural production modes working in symbiosis (Tab.1)
[12].
3 Building a Protection System for Agricultural Heritage Based on the Concept of Rural Environmental Museum
3.1 Concept of Rural Environmental Museum
The concept of rural environmental museum originated from "ecological museum." The latter refers to an approach to sustainably realizing the integral protection and utilization of cultural heritage, social milieu, and ecological environment within a certain geographic area, supported by local participation and oriented by the regional characteristics
[13] [14]. The ultimate goal is to achieve the integrated development of heritage and community
[9]. First proposed in France in 1972, ecological museum has been widely recognized in museum construction practices around the world over the past 50 years, generating a new paradigm of heritage protection. It emphasizes the
in-situ protection of natural and cultural heritage
[15], advocates heritage protection and display in a broad natural environment. In this type of protection which emphasizes connections between heritage and historical culture, natural resources, ecological zones, and agricultural practices, communities become the core agent of the ecological museum
[16] to carry out the best strategies for understanding and interpreting localities
[17] [18]. On this basis, in December 1998, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan proposed the Rural Environmental Museum Plan
[19], which helped establish a localized implementation path of ecological museum, refine the action framework and steps for heritage protection and community development in rural areas, and finally form a set of guidelines for the practice of ecological museum. This marked the first proposal of the rural environmental museum concept.
This concept includes three types of elements: core facilities, satellite facilities, and exploration routes, focusing on water, soil, and settlements
[8]. The rural environmental museum is not about simply connecting resources through linear paths; instead, it regards the whole rural area as a museum, integrating resources at all scales by flexibly organizing regional geographical characteristics. Its open-air nature enables the presentation of village and agricultural heritage as a whole, aiming to achieve their synergistic development
[20]. Up to now, Japan has established 56 rural environmental museums
[8] and generated its own adaptive methods and implementation paths for rural revitalization and heritage protection.
3.2 Advantages of Rural Environmental Museum as a GIAHS Protection Paradigm
Since 1995, China has started ecological museum practices in rural areas
[15] for ethnic villages and agricultural heritage sites
[21], deriving many schemes such as ethnic village ecological museums
[22], neighborhood museums, and community museums
[13]. However, most of these practices are spontaneous explorations by local stakeholders, without a unified action framework for wide application. Moreover, most of these ecological museums place emphasis on tourism development rather than the connection with locals' daily life, failing to engage communities in heritage conservation. Therefore, based on the rural environmental museum paradigm, an implementation framework suitable for China's agricultural heritage protection will greatly promote the establishment of protection methodology for GIAHS in China.
Generally, the GIAHS protection framework on the basis of the rural environmental museum paradigm differs from the traditional ones in scope demarcation, subjects, key elements, methods, and display modes (Tab.2), with its advantages mainly reflected in three aspects. First, it respects temporal and spatial characteristics of the site, emphasizing the systematic interpretation and comprehensive protection of historical, natural, cultural, and industrial resources. Second, it emphasizes dynamic presentation of historical development, rather than the isolated presentation of historical segments, realizing an "authentic" and "integral" display of GIAHS which are gradually disappearing or endangered. Third, community participation in agricultural production and heritage maintenance is key to the survival of GIAHS, because this determines how to organize and redefine local features, thus to better attach locality to related facilities and combine the rural communities' daily life and production activities with the heritage.
3.3 Protection Framework Establishment for the Mulberrydyke & Fish-pond GIAHS Based on Rural Environmental Museum Concept
On the basis of the concept of rural environmental museum and the evaluation criteria of Huzhou Mulberry-dyke & Fishpond GIAHS, a protection implementation framework for this heritage is established (Fig.1). The entire framework includes three stages covering macro-, meso-, and micro-scales. The first stage is resource investigation and problem identification. The second stage clarifies key planning goals at different scales: at the macro-scale, understanding the regional natural and cultural characteristics in a broader spatio-temporal background, and refining the regional cultural identity of the heritage; at the mesoscale, integrating natural and cultural resources within the village territory according to the regional cultural identity, and setting up the display sequence of heritage resources; and at the micro-scale, organizing and guiding community activities in living, production, and recreational places, to strengthen the sense of place in daily landscapes. The third stage proposes a strategic scheme of specific heritage protection, including delineating the scope of heritage value interpretation, constructing a graded system for value display, and integrating community daily activities into heritage spaces. Centering on community participation, the entire protection framework responds to existing problems at multiple scales and levels, to achieve dynamic protection and development of the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural heritage.
4 Case Study: Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond GIAHS Protection in Digang Village Under the Rural Environmental Museum Concept
The case study area is part of Digang Village in Hefu Town of Huzhou, located at the intersection of the ancient channel of the Grand Canal, the core protection area of Huzhou Mulberrydyke & Fish-pond system, and the nationally recognized Famous Historical and Cultural Village of Digang. The village is a typical lake–polder settlement covering an area of 6.3 km
2, with more than 1,000 households and a total population of around 4,000
[23]. Within the village, the protection area of the mulberrydyke & fish-pond heritage covers 66.7 hectares
[24], retaining the traditional agricultural ecosystem and production mode. Through field investigation on the natural and cultural resources of Digang Village, the agricultural heritage protection status, as well as in-depth interviews with the villagers, the research team summarized the current situation into three aspects: protection and interpretation of the heritage value, display and utilization of heritage resources, and rural community participation in heritage maintenance. The identified problems are listed as follows.
4.1 Incomplete Protection Scope Against Integral Heritage Value Interpretation
Digang Village has delineated different scopes for protection as being the nationally recognized famous Historical and Cultural Village and GIAHS (Fig.2): 1) delineating the ancient village protection area and the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond protection area according to the Protection Plan for Digang Village as Famous Historical and Cultural Village (2011–2020); 2) further subdividing the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond protection area in Digang Village into protection area of traditional landscape, first-class construction control zone (traditional landscape restoration area), and secondclass construction control zone (development-restricted area) according to the Nanxun Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond Protection Plan (2022–2035)
[23]. Like "frozen preservation" or "isolated protection" of historical relics, these measures undoubtedly sever the relationship between the agricultural heritage and the regional natural and cultural environments, thereby impacting the integral value interpretation of the mulberry-dyke & fishpond. As outlined in the Guidelines for Making a GIAHS Proposal Documents, this narrow understanding of the complexity and connectivity of GIAHS landscape and its surrounding environment may lead to an incomplete cognition of GIAHS and limit future protection activities within a very narrow scope.
[10]4.2 Non-narrative Resource Display Leading to Weak Public Perception of Heritage Value
Field investigation revealed that most existing resources of natural environment, settlement landscape heritage, and industrial landscape heritage were separately displayed in traditional museums, indoor exhibition halls, or scattered in historical buildings and relics. Such non-narrative display weakened the historical, cultural, and local value of the heritage. Those intangible cultural resources were mainly displayed in facilities like the Chinese Brush Exhibition Hall, Research Institute for Fish and Mulberry Culture, Fishbone Painting Studio, and festival square in Digang Fishing Resort, most of which were primarily used by study tour groups with weak connection with the daily activities of local residents. Moreover, the resource utilization patterns were relatively monotonous—there were only eco-tourism, cultural study tours of intangible heritage, and culinary experiences confined in Digang Fishing Resort, Lixiang Dam, Waixiang Dam, Baisang Mulberry Garden, and Shell Bay. There is a lack of in-depth experience to the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural heritage and other historical heritage in the village (Tab.3).
Under the non-narrative display mode, the public can hardly perceive the value of heritage, nor can villagers enhance their cultural identity. Interviews with tourists to Digang Village revealed that over 90% of them were not familiar with the Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond GIAHS, and their tourism purposes were mainly local culinary experience and spending weekends in Digang Fishing Resort. Research also showed that less than 2% of tourists knew that the Huzhou Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond System is a GIAHS site
[12]. Therefore, the key to heritage protection lies in the systematical display and comprehensive utilization, by which its value can be better recognized and the heritage can better interact with the local community.
4.3 Changing Agents of Heritage Maintenance Leading to Decline of Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond Agricultural Ecosystem
In recent years, the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond system has performed worse economically
[25], thus changed livelihood patterns of local community residents: some migrate to towns, and some shift the compound farming via mulberry-dyke & fish-pond system to monoculture via fish ponds, leading to area reduction of the system
[26]. The decline of silk trade, changes in livelihood, and the loss of a large number of sericulture farmers have become major threats to the sustainability of the Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond GIAHS. As shown in Fig.3, although being recognized as Important Agricultural Heritage in China in 2014 and GIAHS in 2017, only the core protection area of Huzhou Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond System maintains a dyke-to-pond ratio of 3:7
[27], while the peripheral area has been largely replaced by photovoltaic agriculture and common fish ponds, with a dyke-to-pond ratio of 2:8 or even lower. The withdrawal of local residents in daily maintenance of the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural ecosystem resulted in the village collective's passive role in heritage maintenance. Although the landscape characteristics of the core protection area were preserved, it is difficult to prevent the decline of the ecosystem function as a whole. As a result, at the village scale, the changed dyke-to-pond ratio and the declined agricultural ecosystem have caused the poor nutrient exchange and energy flow between water and land
[25], and the use of chemical fertilizer and fish medicine also disturbs the ecological balance
[28] and reduces biodiversity.
5 Protection Strategies for the Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond GIAHS in Digang Village Based on Rural Environmental Museum Concept
Given the problems above, this research proposes heritage protection strategies for the GIAHS in Digang Village, with specific planning goals proposed from the multi-scale protection implementation framework
[29]. These strategies aim to propose regional cultural identity of the heritage, determine the display sequence of village heritage resources, and strengthen the sense of place in daily landscape through investigation, preservation, interpretation, display, and active utilization of this GIAHS.
5.1 Macro: Regional Scale
5.1.1 Summarizing Natural and Cultural Characteristics, Refining the Regional Cultural Identity of Heritage
Spatially, Digang Village features a wetland environment with numerous rivers, ports, and ponds due to its location in the central lowland plain area of the Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou region
[30]. Historically, development of the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural heritage here was closely associated with the rise and fall of the Husi (silk produced in Huzhou) trade.
[30] [31] Some scholars believe that Huzhou Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond System has a history of over 2,500 years. As early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, residents in this region had started digging ponds and building dikes to form the mulberrydyke & fish-pond ecological production and construct a unique lowland agricultural recycle: sericulture by mulberry leaves, fish farming with silkworm manure, and mulberry cultivation with pond mud.
[12] [32] During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) and Qing Dynasty (1636–1912) when the Husi trade boomed, the Huzhou Mulberry-dyke & Fish-pond System gradually expanded and prospered, making Huzhou one of the most developed sericultural areas in China. According to
Supplementary to the Book on Agriculture written by Lvxiang Zhang in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond system had become a main agricultural mode in the Taihu Lake region at that time
[32]. During the Qing Dynasty, as Husi gained fame both domestically and internationally, the system dominated the agricultural production in the south Yangtze River region
[23]. By now, the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural system, water transport facilities, drainage and irrigation systems, relics of traditional settlements, and traditional mulberry-fish culture in Digang Village, having vanished or still existing, witness the history of the silk industry in the Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou region.
In summary, the unique regional natural and cultural characteristics of Digang Village include the lake-polder settlements, historical sericulture villages relying on the Husi trade, traditional water conservancy and transport projects, as well as traditional mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural ecosystems. Thus, the regional cultural identity of the mulberrydyke & fish-pond agricultural heritage in Digang Village can be refined as a mirror of the development of silk culture in Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou region.
5.1.2 Delineating Interpretation Scope of Heritage Based on the Regional Cultural Identity
Defining a reasonable scope and providing a systematic and integral mode for the interpretation of the GIAHS in Digang Village are key to replacing the current isolated and static protection of the heritage. According to Freeman Tilden, interpretation is an educational activity to explain the relationships between things with authentic media, original objects and visitors' real experiences, instead of simply conveying factual information
[33].
The Charter for the Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites defines "interpretation" as "the full range of potential activities intended to heighten public awareness and enhance understanding of cultural heritage site."
[34]Centering on the regional cultural identity proposed above, the interpretation scope includes natural environment, cultural heritage, and industrial heritage related to sericulture, raw silk transportation, silk trade, and the Husi culture spatially (Fig.4), guaranteeing the authenticity and integrity of the GIAHS in Digang Village. Specifically, the interpretation scope covers elements with natural (rivers, ports, wetlands, ponds) and cultural (historical buildings and relics), and historical (cultural and agricultural heritage) and contemporary (mulberry-dyke & fish-pond transforming into common fish ponds, new type of folk houses in historical villages, and newly-built tourism service facilities) characteristics. All of them can interpret relationships between regional environmental characteristics, local landscape features, and traditional livelihood patterns influenced by the Husi trade. Such a definition of the interpretation scope breaks limitations of the existing core protection area, bridging the gap between rural settlements and agricultural heritage, while treating nature and culture, and living and production spaces as integrated rural landscape heritage.
5.2 Meso: Village Scale
5.2.1 Establishing a Categorization and Grading Catalogue of Village Resources to Determine Display Sequence
Historically, flourishing water transport networks drove the prosperity of silk economy and culture in Digang Village, and the corresponding heritages are represented by the preserved branches of the canal, drainage and irrigation water conservancy works, and relics of irrigation works
[35]. Meanwhile, historical buildings, relics, streets and alleys, production facilities, and the mulberry-fish culture collectively witness the village's formation, growth, and prosperity relying on canal transport and the vicissitude of the Husi production and trade. Categorizing and grading these natural and cultural heritage resources of the village help determine the priorities and sequence displaying them.
Firstly, sort all the natural environment resources, settlement landscape heritage resources, and industrial landscape heritage resources, and categorize them into spots, linear elements, and zones based on their spatial form (Tab.4). Secondly, grade the resources into primary and secondary resource heritages based on the degree of their association with heritage value, authenticity, and integrity, which is also the reference of display priority.
5.2.2 Building a Graded Facility System for Value Display According to the Heritage Resource Priority
Referring to the categorization and grading catalogue of heritage resources within the village, a three-tier facility system comprising core, major satellite, and other satellite facilities can be established for Digang Village (Fig.5). This system includes 1 core facility, 44 major satellite facilities, 16 other satellite facilities, and 2 exploration routes. The core facility, i.e., the Research Institute for Fish and Mulberry Culture in Digang Fishing Resort, functions multiply as a tourism reception center, cultural communication hall, research base, agricultural exhibition hall, information center, etc. It can provide a comprehensive interpretation of the natural and cultural heritage resources of the GIASH. The major and other satellite facilities are conducive to the graded protection and display of Digang Village's heritage resources.
Routes are a collection of facilities that connect, interpret, and present diverse regional characteristics
[36]. The two planned exploration routes, by land and water, can help display heritage value and integrate facilities scattered throughout the village. For example, the water exploration route with existing waterways, drainage and irrigation systems, and linear waterways close to Lixiang Dam and Waixiang Dam can connect sluices, ferries, docks, ancient bridges, etc., presenting a whole picture of the water transport history.
5.3 Micro: Site Scale
5.3.1 Enhancing Sense of Place in Daily Landscapes Through Sitespecific Narratives
Site is the smallest unit in practices of rural environmental museum in villages, inseparable from the daily life and production of local communities
[37]. Different heritage resources, due to their varied functions, are endowed by residents with different spatial meanings, forming scenes of living, production, and cultural activities.
Overall, at the micro-scale, the survival of heritage is closely related to the daily activities of community residents. Residents are the core agent to foster the sense of place and to create and maintain heritage value. Forming a unique heritage narrative through daily community landscapes and integrating daily activities into heritage spaces can enhance residents' cultural identity and awareness of heritage protection. Meanwhile, individual elements and historical events can be integrated with daily community life in heritage narratives, and serial elements under the same spatio-temporal background can also be combined to represent historical scenes and interpret the value and significance of daily landscapes
[38].
Moreover, using site-specific narratives to interpret heritage value from individual views
[39] can enhance the sense of place and realize a dialogue between "history" and "reality." Through narratives of daily landscapes used to represent daily scenes featured with historical elements, community activities can be combined with the heritage, and residents will become more proactive in heritage protection. For instance, in Digang Village, Lixiang Dam, Waixiang Dam, and Yiyuan Teahouse are typical daily living scenes, with the silkworm room, Baisang Mulberry Garden, and fish ponds as daily production scenes, and festival square and fish culture festival square as scenes of community cultural activities.
5.3.2 Integrating Agriculture, Culture, and Tourism to Integrate Daily Community Activities Into Heritage Spaces
Historically, the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural heritage in Huzhou has provided livelihood support for local residents continuously, the agricultural production based on which has been the main source of income for families in this area. In turn, the local knowledge system, adaptive techniques, traditional production skills, and landscape and soil resource management methods obtained by the rural community have ensured the continuous development of the heritage agricultural system. From the perspective of value production, the daily landscapes are manifestation of daily life and production patterns of local communities, i.e., a living heritage. Hence, community residents are not only creators, participants, transformers of the landscape, but also inheritors and interpreters of heritage who can interpret the sites via their own narratives.
Dynamic development of the heritage should be the focus of display and utilization of the mulberry-dyke & fish-pond agricultural heritage in Digang Village. Here "dynamic" means an innovative and adaptive utilization of the heritage while maintaining its traditional agricultural production function. The synergetic development of agriculture, culture, and tourism can increase the diversity and added value of agricultural products, and enrich livelihood modes of local communities
[40]. It is important to strengthen visitors' immersive experience by a localized display of daily community activities. In this process, local residents shift from performers to producers, sellers, and protectors of the historical and cultural heritage
[41], interpreters of the heritage value, and guides of heritage resources. The residents can share the benefits of heritage development from displaying local community landscape, and heritage protection and community development can be achieved.
6 Conclusions
GIAHS are a shared treasure of humanity, while China's agricultural heritage embodies the ecological ethics of harmonious coexistence between human and nature, representing its long history of agricultural civilization. Protecting these nonrenewable heritages is of great significance for maintaining China's biodiversity and cultural diversity, ensuring food security and farmer livelihoods, improving regional ecological environment, responding to extreme weather disasters, and promoting sustainable development.
The protection and sustainable development of the mulberrydyke & fish-pond agricultural heritage reflect values across regional, village, and site scales. This research establishes a protection framework for the Huzhou Mulberry-dyke & Fishpond GIAHS based on the concept and practical methods of rural environmental museum. Serving as a methodology for the protection of GIAHS, this paradigm can theoretically and practically integrate the value interpretation of the GIAHS with spatial planning measures, and promote heritage protection along with community development. Starting from a broader spatio-temporal perspective, this research proposes a step-bystep layered protection path centered on local communities, from interpretation to display then to dynamic utilization of heritage value, so as to emphasize the heritage and encourage public awareness and participation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Shanghai Xband Group for its support in the preliminary data collection and field investigation for this research.
Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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