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Agriculture is one of the main human activities with direct and indirect effects on the environment. The abandonment of many traditional agricultural practices, mainly for their inability to meet the current requirements of industrial agriculture, has brought to unsustainable agricultural systems characterized by high external energy inputs and by a high fragility to environmental and political shocks. Therefore, sustainable agriculture is nowadays crucial for preserving the environment. Agricultural heritage systems are receiving increasing attention at the international level, as testified by the establishment of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The aim of the GIAHS Programme is, in fact, to identify and safeguard agro-silvo-pastoral systems resulting from the co-existence between humans and nature, which survived using traditional techniques are still providing many ecosystem services, while maintaining magnificent landscapes, wild and agricultural biodiversity, ancestral knowledge, and strong cultural and social values. These systems, based on sustainable practices, are still able to provide food and livelihood security, resources and services to local communities, but are also examples of adaptation and mitigation to climate change and to different and often difficult environmental conditions, as well as models of resilience and sustainability. In 2018 the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), together with the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of the University of Florence, developed a project called “GIAHS Building Capacity”, aimed at identifying agricultural heritage sites in different parts of the world. This Special Issue collects the results of investigations carried out in thirteen sites in Central and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia offering a wide an coherent perspective on agricultural heritage systems across the world. The papers included in the Special Issue proved that agricultural heritage systems, despite some vulnerabilities mainly due to socio-economic causes rather than to environmental ones, still provide different ecosystem services to local communities, including: food and byproducts supply, soil erosion protection, hydrogeological risk and deforestation defense, agrobiodiversity and biodiversity conservation, cultural landscape preservation, agro-tourism; at the same time they can be important for transmitting traditional knowledge to new generations and for the local identity. The GIAHS programme can play a key role in preserving traditional agricultural systems, and their related agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services, both in developing and developed countries. In fact, its aim is not limited to the conservation of these systems, but the whole Programme is based on the concept of dynamic conservation, as sustainable innovations are needed for the preservation of agricultural heritage systems and, therefore, for the future of rural areas and of rural communities. The research is part of the activities promoted by the UNESCO Chair on Agricultural Heritage Landscapes established at the University of Florence.

It is frequently impossible to draw a direct connection between the horrifying eighteenth-century transatlantic slave trade, in which millions of Africans were forcefully transported and sold into slavery in Latin America, and architecture or place-making, particularly when considering African contexts. However, the contribution to the socio-economic development and creation of a new building style known as Aguda, or Afro-Brazilian architecture, across the Bight of Benin region, where many of the formerly enslaved peoples who relocated back and settled after the abolition of slavery in Brazil, presents an interesting example of architectural heritage with rich meaning and value. This essay will critically examine the Bight of Benin region's Aguda architecture design processes via the lenses of history, socioeconomics, the environment, with a focus on comprehending the characteristics of architectural buildings at the urban scale and the influence of Porto-Novo and Lagos as case studies. The typology of this architectural style, its relationship to collective memories, and the tangible components that enshrine social value and significance will be scrutinised via examination of both its African and Brazilian influences. Also the fast urbanisation of Porto-Novo shows that the material degradation of these buildings, lack of investment, effects of climate change induced weather events and other effects are putting these historic buildings in danger of disappearing. This essay is a part of an ongoing digital documentation and archiving of these buildings as a digital preservation effort using LIDAR scanning, ArcGIS tools and social participation of local stakeholders and building custodians.

Projectile technology is considered to appear early in the southern African Middle Stone Age (MSA) and the rich and high resolution MSA sequence of Sibudu Cave in KwaZulu-Natal has provided many new insights about the use and hafting of various projectile forms. We present the results of a functional and technological analysis on a series of unpublished serrated bifacial points recently recovered from the basal deposits of Sibudu Cave. These serrated tools, which only find equivalents in the neighbouring site of Umhlatuzana, precede the Still Bay techno-complex and are older than 77 ka BP. Independent residue and use-wear analyses were performed in a phased procedure involving two separate analysts, which allowed the engagement between two separate lines of functional evidence. Thanks to the excellent preservation at Sibudu Cave, a wide range of animal, plant and mineral residues were observed in direct relation with diagnostic wear patterns. The combination of technological, wear and residue evidence allowed us to confirm that the serration was manufactured with bone compressors and that the serrated points were mounted with a composite adhesive as the tips of projectiles used in hunting activities. The suite of technological and functional data pushes back the evidence for the use of pressure flaking during the MSA and highlights the diversity of the technical innovations adopted by southern African MSA populations. We suggest the serrated points from the stratigraphic units Adam to Darya of Sibudu illustrate one important technological adaptation of the southern African MSA and provide another example of the variability of MSA bifacial technologies.

Conservation managers frequently face the challenge of protecting and sustaining biodiversity without producing detrimental outcomes for (often poor) human populations that depend on ecosystem services for their well-being. However, mutually beneficial solutions are often elusive and can mask trade-offs and negative outcomes for people. To deal with such trade-offs, ecological and social thresholds need to be identified to determine the acceptable solution space for conservation. Although human well-being as a concept has recently gained prominence, conservationists still lack tools to evaluate how their actions affect it in a given context. We applied the theory of human needs to conservation by building on an extensive historical application of need approaches in international development. In an innovative participatory method that included focus groups and household surveys, we evaluated how human needs are met based on locally relevant thresholds. We then established connections between human needs and ecosystem services through key-informant focus groups. We applied our method in coastal East Africa to identify households that would not be able to meet their basic needs and to uncover the role of ecosystem services in meeting these. This enabled us to identify how benefits derived from the environment were contributing to meeting basic needs and to consider potential repercussions that could arise through changes to ecosystem service provision. We suggest our approach can help conservationists and planners balance poverty alleviation and biodiversity protection and ensure conservation measures do not, at the very least, cause serious harm to individuals. We further argue it can be used as a basis for monitoring the impacts of conservation on multidimensional poverty. Los administradores de la conservación frecuentemente enfrentan el reto de proteger y mantener la biodiversidad sin producir resultados perjudiciales para las poblaciones humanas (comúnmente pobres) que dependen de los servicios ambientales para su bienestar. Sin embargo, las soluciones benéficas para ambos son comúnmente elusivas y pueden cubrir compensaciones y resultados negativos para las personas. Para tratar con dichas compensaciones se requiere la identificación de umbrales ecológicos y sociales para determinar el espacio de solución aceptable para la conservación. Aunque el bienestar humano como concepto ha ganado prominencia recientemente, los conservacionistas carecen de herramientas para evaluar cómo afectan sus acciones en un contexto dado. Aplicamos la teoría de las necesidades humanas a la conservación al basarnos en una aplicación histórica extensiva de estrategias de necesidades en el desarrollo internacional. Evaluamos cómo se cumplen las necesidades humanas con base en umbrales relevantes localmente en un método participativo innovador que incluyó grupos de enfoque y censos de hogares. Después establecimos conexiones entre las necesidades humanas y los servicios ambientales por medio de grupos de enfoque con informantes clave. Aplicamos nuestro método en la costa oriental de Àfrica para identificar los hogares que no podrían cumplir con sus necesidades básicas y para descubrir el papel de los servicios ambientales en el cumplimiento de estas necesidades. Esto nos permitió identificar cómo los beneficios derivados del ambiente estaban contribuyendo al cumplimiento de las necesidades básicas y nos permitió considerar las repercusiones potenciales que podrían surgir por medio de cambios en la provisión de los servicios ambientales. Sugerimos que nuestra estrategia puede ayudar a los conservacionistas y a los planificadores a balancear el alivio de la pobreza y la protección de la biodiversidad y a asegurar que las medidas de conservación, como mínimo, no causen daño serio a los individuos. También sustentamos que puede usarse como base para el monitoreo de los impactos de la conservación sobre la pobreza multidimensional. 保护管理者常常面临的ー个挑战是如何在不对依赖于生态系统服务而生活的人们(通常是贫困人群）产 生不利结果的前提下，保护和维持生物多祥性。然而，双赢的解决方案往往难以实现，还可能会掩盖人们要面对 的利弊权衡和负面影响。为应对这样的权衡，我们需要找到生态学和社会学的临界值，以确定保护上可行的解决 方案。虽然人类福祉这ー概念近期已开始得到重视，{旦保护实践者仍缺乏有效工具来评估其行动在特定环境下 对人类福祉产生的影响。我们基于国际发展中人类需求方法在历史上的广泛应用，将人类需求理论应用于保护 领域。通过一十包含焦点团体和家庭调查的创新性的参与式方法，我们评估了在当地特定的胳界值下，人类需 求如何得到满足。接下来我们通过关键焦点团体，建立了人类需求与生态系统服务的联系。这一方法被应用于 东非沿海地区，以找出基本需求得不到满足的家庭，并揭示生态系统服务在满足人类需求中的作用。这也让我 们得以确定从环境中获得的收益怎样帮助人们满足基本需求，并分析生态系统服务供给变化可能造成的潜在影 响。我们提出的方法可以帮助保护实践者和决策者来平衡扶贫工作和生物多祥性保护之间的关系，并确保保护 措施至少不会对个人造成严重的负面影响。我们进ー步提出，这十方法可以为监测保护对多维贫困的影响提供 基础。

In an effort to better understand the ancestral state of the human distal gut microbiome, we examine feces retrieved from archaeological contexts (coprolites). To accomplish this, we pyrosequenced the 16S rDNA V3 region from duplicate coprolite samples recovered from three archaeological sites, each representing a different depositional environment: Hinds Cave (~8000 years B.P.) in the southern United States, Caserones (1600 years B.P.) in northern Chile, and Rio Zape in northern Mexico (1400 years B.P.). Clustering algorithms grouped samples from the same site. Phyletic representation was more similar within sites than between them. A Bayesian approach to source-tracking was used to compare the coprolite data to published data from known sources that include, soil, compost, human gut from rural African children, human gut, oral and skin from US cosmopolitan adults and non-human primate gut. The data from the Hinds Cave samples largely represented unknown sources. The Caserones samples, retrieved directly from natural mummies, matched compost in high proportion. A substantial and robust proportion of Rio Zape data was predicted to match the gut microbiome found in traditional rural communities, with more minor matches to other sources. One of the Rio Zape samples had taxonomic representation consistent with a child. To provide an idealized scenario for sample preservation, we also applied source tracking to previously published data for Ötzi the Iceman and a soldier frozen for 93 years on a glacier. Overall these studies reveal that human microbiome data has been preserved in some coprolites, and these preserved human microbiomes match more closely to those from the rural communities than to those from cosmopolitan communities. These results suggest that the modern cosmopolitan lifestyle resulted in a dramatic change to the human gut microbiome.

The study of plant remains in archaeological sites, along with a better understanding of the use of plants by prehistoric populations, can help us shed light on changes in survival strategies of hunter-gatherers and consequent impacts on modern human cognition, social organization, and technology. The archaeological locality of Pinnacle Point (Mossel Bay, South Africa) includes a series of coastal caves, rock-shelters, and open-air sites with human occupations spanning the Acheulian through Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA). These sites have provided some of the earliest evidence for complex human behaviour and technology during the MSA. We used phytoliths-amorphous silica particles that are deposited in cells of plants-as a proxy for the reconstruction of past human plant foraging strategies on the south coast of South Africa during the Middle and Late Pleistocene, emphasizing the use and control of fire as well as other possible plant uses. We analysed sediment samples from the different occupation periods at the rock shelter Pinnacle Point 5-6 North (PP5-6N). We also present an overview of the taphonomic processes affecting phytolith preservation in this site that will be critical to conduct a more reliable interpretation of the original plant use in the rock shelter. Our study reports the first evidence of the intentional gathering and introduction into living areas of plants from the Restionaceae family by MSA hunter-gatherers inhabiting the south coast of South Africa. We suggest that humans inhabiting Pinnacle Point during short-term occupation events during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 built fast fires using mainly grasses with some wood from trees and/or shrubs for specific purposes, perhaps for shellfish cooking. With the onset of MIS 4 we observed a change in the plant gathering strategies towards the intentional and intensive exploitation of dry wood to improve, we hypothesise, combustion for heating silcrete. This human behaviour is associated with changes in stone tool technology, site occupation intensity and climate change.

Abydos is a large, complex archaeological site located approximately 500 km south of Cairo in Upper Egypt. The site has served as a cemetery for thousands of years and is where most of the Early Dynastic royal tombs are located. North Abydos includes the Middle Cemetery and the North Cemetery, which are separated from each other by a wadi. The Middle Cemetery was the burial ground for important Sixth Dynasty (2407-2260 BC) officials and over time for thousands of elite and non-elite individuals as well. Excavations at the core area of the Old Kingdom mortuary landscape have revealed many culturally important wooden objects but these are often found with extensive deterioration that can compromise their preservation. The objectives of this study were to characterize the biodegradation that has taken place in excavated wooden objects, elucidate the type of wood degradation present, obtain information on soil properties at the site and identify fungi currently associated with the wood and soils. Light and scanning electron microscopy studies were used to observe the micromorphological characteristics of the wood, and culturing on different media was done to isolate fungi. Identification of the fungi was done by examining morphological characteristics and extracting rDNA from pure cultures and sequencing the ITS region. Wooden objects, made from Cedrus, Juniperus and Acacia as well as several unidentified hardwoods, were found with extensive degradation and were exceedingly fragile. Termite damage was evident and frass from the subterranean termites along with sand particles were present in most woods. Evidence of soft rot attack was found in sections of wood that remained. Fungi isolated from wood and soils were identified as species of Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Penicillium, Stemphylium Talaromyces and Trichoderma. Results provide important information on the current condition of the wood and gives insights to the identity of the fungi in wood and soils at the site. These results provide needed information to help develop conservation plans to preserve these degraded and fragile wooden objects.

Nearly a century of paleontological excavation and analysis from the cave deposits of the Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site in northeastern South Africa underlies much of our understanding of the evolutionary history of hominins, other primates and other mammal lineages in the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene of Africa. As one of few designated fossil repositories, the Plio-Pleistocene Palaeontology Section of the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History (DNMNH; the former Transvaal Museum) curates much of the mammalian faunas recovered from the fossil-rich deposits of major South African hominin-bearing localities, including the holotype and paratype specimens of many primate, carnivore, and other mammal species (Orders Primates, Carnivora, Artiodactyla, Eulipotyphla, Hyracoidea, Lagomorpha, Perissodactyla, and Proboscidea). Here we describe an open-access digital archive of high-resolution, full-color three-dimensional (3D) surface meshes of all 89 non-hominin holotype, paratype and significant mammalian specimens curated in the Plio-Pleistocene Section vault. Surface meshes were generated using a commercial surface scanner (Artec Spider, Artec Group, Luxembourg), are provided in formats that can be opened in both open-source and commercial software, and can be readily downloaded either via an online data repository (MorphoSource) or via direct request from the DNMNH. In addition to providing surface meshes for each specimen, we also provide tomographic data (both computerized tomography [CT] and microfocus [microCT]) for a subset of these fossil specimens. This archive of the DNMNH Plio-Pleistocene collections represents the first research-quality 3D datasets of African mammal fossils to be made openly available. This simultaneously provides the paleontological community with essential baseline information (e.g., updated listing and 3D record of specimens in their current state of preservation) and serves as a single resource of high-resolution digital data that improves collections accessibility, reduces unnecessary duplication of efforts by researchers, and encourages ongoing imaging-based paleobiological research across a range of South African non-hominin fossil faunas. Because the types, paratypes, and key specimens include globally-distributed mammal taxa, this digital archive not only provides 3D morphological data on taxa fundamental to Neogene and Quaternary South African palaeontology, but also lineages critical to research on African, other Old World, and New World paleocommunities. With such a broader impact of the DNMNH 3D data, we hope that establishing open access to this digital archive will encourage other researchers and institutions to provide similar resources that increase accessibility to paleontological collections and support advanced paleobiological analyses.

Africa is currently undergoing rapid urbanization, which has placed a significant strain on its already insufficient infrastructure. Many cities struggle to meet the needs of their residents through sustainable urban development. This has put urban Africa to a pressing dilemma: the tension between preserving historic buildings and sites, and the drive to modernize and redevelop cities. Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, exemplifies this struggle, as it is currently undergoing a rapid urban transformation underpinned by an urban renewal and infrastructure development project, which has included the demolition of historic buildings in its oldest district, Piazza. This article uses Addis Ababa as a case study to demonstrate how historic preservation can be integrated into urban development strategies. It utilizes Zerrudo’s methodology for historic preservation, encompassing the following four phases: awareness, appreciation, protection, and utilization. It further integrates Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology throughout each phase, enhancing the precision and effectiveness of preservation efforts. It argues that historic preservation not only safeguards cultural identity and heritage, but also brings significant economic benefits, including tourism and job creation. This integrated approach ensures that development and preservation are not mutually exclusive, but rather are complementary aspects of sustainable urban development in Africa.

Research projects in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin have witnessed significant developments in the use of conceptual frameworks and multidisciplinary approaches such as electrochemical and geochemical sequencing. Accordingly, there is now data to question the widely accepted model for the evolution of Mapungubwe State (AD 1200–1300) which argues that favourable and unfavourable regional climatic weather conditions (wet and dry) lead to the rise and decline of the State. Floodplain agropastoral activities in the middle Limpopo Valley are a widely assumed hypothesis, despite the general absence of relevant chemical signatures and archaeobotanical data. This article discusses soil sequences and chemical analyses (Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy and Redox Potential) to provide a palaeoenvironmental record of water regimes in relation to Mapungubwe. Findings confirm that geochemical techniques can be used to model or predict aquifer behaviour and the occurrence of groundwater. And, as such, highlighting the need for conservation planners to carefully consider integrative scientific tools to improve conservation practices of archaeological heritage and overexploitation of groundwater resources. Although more data is required, the results obtained allows researchers to begin reframing questions concerned with the links between changing water regimes and social changes, in this case relating to the decline of Mapungubwe. The understanding is important for the management and conservation of the Mapungubwe World Heritage site and surrounding landscape.