The Research into the World Heritage Value and Tourism Development of Dike-Pond Agriculture in the Pearl River Delta

Abstract

The Dike-Pond agriculture is a traditional agriculture model developing in the Pearl River Delta of China. 600 years ago, people in the Pearl River Delta dug the low-lying field into a pond, accumulated the clay around as its dike, raised fishes in the pond, and planted mulberry, fruits or vegetables on the bank, so a variety of farming models such as Mulberry, fruits or vegetables-dike-fish-pond came into being. Of these, the parts and function of Mulberry-Dike-Fish-Pond are the most special. Virtuous circles, with “Flourishing mulberry-Robust silkworm-Big fish-Fertilized field,” consist of raising fishes in the ponds, planting mulberry on the bank, raising silkworm with mulberry, feeding fishes with silkworm dropping, fertilizing the mulberry with pond clays, which made great contributions to the economical development of the Pear River Delta and even the whole China and was called “Rare scenery in the world and the model of virtuous circles” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. With the change of economical system and update of agriculture, nowadays the Dike-Pond agriculture declines and is in the danger of disappearing. Several years ago, FAO and other international organizations set up the project of “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems” to develop and protect traditional agriculture in new perspective. Referring to the explanation to the standard of the World Agricultural and Cultural Heritage Systems by FAO, the author finds the world heritage value of the Dike-Pond agriculture quite distinct: its rich diversity in production, biology and culture, the harmonious relationship between human and nature, the coordinated development of human and society, the common thought about Circular Economy and ecological civilization, promoting the local sustainable development. Tourism development is also an important way of transmitting and developing the agricultural culture of the Dike-Pond agriculture so it is necessary to develop agricultural culture tourism by building up museums, agriculture bases, synthetic ecotourism areas and taking other measures.