About the Conference
Since the advent of the new Millennium, Urban Agriculture has become an important tool for the sustainable planning of cities, thus helping to combat the growing global challenges of urbanization and declining resources. However, it is often forgotten that Urban Agriculture is not a new field, but one with a long established history and tradition. Despite this, in many parts of the World, valuable agricultural heritage is still being neglected and even destroyed, especially in emerging and developing countries.
This is the starting point for the Herrenhausen Conference Urban Agricultural Heritage. It will deliver the first global survey of projects and initiatives dealing with traditional forms of food production in cities. Experts from science, international organizations and civil society will approach the Conference’s theme from different perspectives to create a better understanding and academic awareness of the agricultural heritage of cities. Based upon this, the Conference will look ahead and elaborate new approaches for management and research in the field of global urban agriculture.
Click here to download summary report of the conference.
News
Summary report now available
We are happy to announce that the summary report of the conference is now available! Click here to download the report.
Conference successfully completed
Very heartfelt thanks to all who participated in the Herrenhausen Conference “Urban Agricultural Heritage and the Shaping of Future Cities“! We thank our speakers, chairs, commentators, young researchers and the audience who made such an informative and fruitful event possible!
Travel grantees selected
The selection of travel grantees has been finalized. More than 20 young researchers and practitioners from all over the world are now funded to take part in the Conference and exchange knowledge and ideas.
Call for travel grantees
The application period for travel grants for young researchers and young professionals has started! For further information click here.
Post-Conference Activities
Professor Lohrberg visited FAO
On October 25, Prof. Frank Lohrberg visited together with Prof. Makoto Yokohari from the University of Tokyo the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome. They followed an invitation by Guido Santini, coordinator of the City Region Food Systems Program, to report from the conference “Urban Agricultural Heritage.”
The meeting made clear that a heritage perspective is helpful to give urban agriculture a better footing, to identify all the long-term knowledge it contains and to unfold its multiple potentials for urban communities. Hence, Makiko Taguchi – on behalf of Guido Santini – underlined FAO’s interest in further cooperation, especially in the field of research and innovation.
A day before this meeting, Prof. Yokohari and Prof. Lohrberg met Prof. Koohafkan, President of the World Agricultural Heritage Foundation at FAO. They figured out manifold linkages in their work. Particularly the format of “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems” (GIAHS) was identified as a field of further cooperation and all partners agreed that it is quite useful and timely to also setup a GIAHS in the field of urban agriculture.
Conference report at UNESCO Workshop in Turin
Frank Lohrberg held a presentation about the conference “Urban Agricultural Heritage” in the “International Academy on UNESCO Designations and Sustainable Development” that took place between October 19 and 23 in Turin.
