북아프리카 세계중요농업유산 사례연구 -튀니지 가프사(Gafsa) 전통오아시스 세계중요농업유산을 중심으로-

Abstract

Human civilization has been engaged in farming activities for thousands of years, and has accumulated the knowledge and experience in agriculture over the generations. Based on this, it has inherited and developed an agricultural system optimized for mankind. These traditional agricultural knowledge systems of mankind have been carried out throughout the world and have been inherited and developed into various forms of agricultural systems according to regional characteristics. In addition, it developed into a unique culture with local social and economic conditions. Today, rural areas are not only re-examining the food supply and means of livelihood, but also re-examining the pluralistic value and public interest functions of agriculture, including securing local ecosystems, inheriting traditional culture, maintaining landscape culture, transferring traditional agricultural technology and preserving biodiversity. This paradigm shift created an opportunity for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) in 2002 to designate, manage and preserve world-class agricultural and fishery heritage by introducing the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems(GIAHS) for conforming management and dynamic conservation of various heritage in rural areas. Among these world’s major agricultural heritages, the traditional oasis of Gafsa, located at the province of Gafsa in Tunisia, North Africa, is a heritage listed as a pilot project of the world’s major agricultural heritages under the leadership of FAO. This place has been inheriting and developing the multi-layered traditional agricultural system through the water resources management system for centuries in the dry climate of the desert. In particular, the value of its heritage is recognized worldwide by developing the unique culture of the local community based on this. Even now, however, Gafsa’s traditional oasis still carries various threats as it changes in social, economic and cultural sectors. Based on these points, this study considered the current situation and characteristics of the traditional oasis of Gafsa, which is listed in the FAO-led world’s major agricultural heritage system, by noting the world’s major agricultural heritage system as a priming water for expressing and maximizing the pluralistic value and public functions of agriculture. Through these studies, we could reconsider that the FAO’s World Important Agricultural Heritage System is a traditional knowledge system that contains the concerns and wisdom of our ancestors, and that it can create the possibility of internal development of agriculture and rural areas in the future by overcoming the possibilities and limitations of the ecological environment.