LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Philippines?The government?s open-door policy for big business, like commercial production of vegetables and large-scale mining, are fast eroding the Cordillera?s traditional practices that should instead be tapped to preserve indigenous life systems, a former Cordillera official said.

?Indigenous peoples continue to be victims of institutionalized greed, of big business, and sadly even by their own governments,? said Thomas Killip, former Cabinet officer for Cordillera development.

Killip, also a former mayor of Sagada, Mt. Province, said the government agenda that is anchored on intensive capital investment has led to the fragmentation of systems that have kept biodiversity and ecosystems intact for centuries.

?These moves encroached on and devastated the ability of indigenous communities to adapt and protect their environment,? Killip told delegates of the First National Conference on Biodiversity, Gender and Indigenous Knowledge at the Department of Agriculture?s Agricultural Training Institute here on October 6.

He said the disappearance of traditional systems would also remove the communities? ability to weather the impact of climate change and diseases brought about by modernization.

Citing the Cordillera?s upland rice terraces, Killip said the shift to commercial farming has resulted in the increase in demand for commercial farm inputs, the toxic chemical contents of which have threatened the region?s ecosystem.

Killip said the introduction of commercial fertilizers has destroyed traditional upland farming systems.

?Women farmers told me that, even after a few years use of commercial fertilizers, whenever a rice terrace collapses due to the weight of heavy rainfall, they [find] hardened residue [at the bottom of the rice paddy], which is similar to blackboard chalk,? he said.

These, he said, are remains of farm chemicals.

Killip also cited the rapid disappearance of the ?dojo? (Japanese eel or loach) and other insects that are also food sources for the household. These, he said, formed an integral part of the biodiversity of the region?s rice terraces culture.

He noted the absence of the ?tala,? one of the most valued species of birds in the region.

This bird, despite being small, could drive away the larger hawks and crows that preyed on chickens, he said. ?It also feeds on insects that most likely have died of chemical pesticides.?

The region?s rice terraces have often been advertised for tourism purposes, like the Ifugao rice terraces, but tourists would not know how difficult the natives worked for their irrigation, said Killip.

He cited a village in Sagada where villagers sourced water 25 kilometers away.

The way they channeled water along the slopes of mountains is an evidence of crude yet traditional engineering, a knowledge which should be preserved, Killip said.