Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, Yunnan (China) inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List

27/06/13

China’s 45th site in the UNESCO World Heritage List, the cultural landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, was inscribed this week.

For the past 1300 years, the Hani people, an ethnic group and one of the 56 nationalities officially recognised by the People’s Republic of China, have transformed the slopes of the Ailao Mountains by building terraces that cascade down to the banks of the Hong River. By means of a complex system of channels, they bring water from the mountaintops to these terraces. The Hani have also developed a farming system that integrates buffaloes, cattle, ducks, fish and eels with the production of red rice, the primary crop of the area.

This extraordinary landscape, based on distinctive land and water management techniques, depicts a unique harmony between people and their environment, and is based on solid social and religious frameworks. Its international recognition as a “cultural landscape” exemplifies the key role of the World Heritage Convention (with which Ramsar cooperates closely) in addressing human culture and wetland ecology together.