The development model promoted in the last decades has not only shown to be ineffective to solve the economic problems of many rural areas, but also contributed to the loss of cultural values associated to rural communities. This has brought to the degradation of valuable landscapes shaped by several generations of farmers, to the abandonment of millions of hectares of farmed land and to urbanization processes, creating social degradation and increasing urban sprawl. Agriculture is often considered as one of the main drivers of the degradation of the ecosystems. Nevertheless, when agriculture is practiced in a sustainable way, it can preserve landscape, biocultural diversity, protect watersheds, and improve soil health and water quality. The use of sustainable ecological practices is a key feature distinguishing resilient agricultures developed over centuries, ensuring sustainable yield over time, using reduced external energy inputs and adapting to difficult and diverse environmental conditions. The identification, documentation and safeguard of agricultural heritage systems intends to contributes to a new vision integrating human society and the environment, according to the sustainable development goals, but taking landscape as unifying perspective.