Ifugaos fight to save terraces amid fund lack

BAGUIO CITY—The Ifugao government has been busy online, drawing tourists to a February 3 “photo safari” so they can document for a fee how its people are restoring centuries-old rice terraces that have been damaged by last year’s typhoons.

The project, which was mounted for the government and the Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation by John Chua, also urges visitors to help residents rebuild terrace stonewalls.

The income this project would generate would be used to finance the restoration.

But the stakes are more than the photo opportunity, said Ifugao Representative Teodoro Baguilat Jr.

“The planting season is near and we have [damaged] terraces,” he said.

The government had pledged to help in the restoration but no money has been allocated so far this year, he said.

Ifugaos need to rebuild terrace areas that eroded and collapsed in the aftermath of last year’s Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel.”

Baguilat said these terraces fed people living in 13 villages. About 2,000 farmers toiled on these rice farms and have tried to rebuild their terraces without government help. But restoration would cost over P122.65 million, he said.

At a January 18 news conference, Chua said “the Ifugaos know best how to rebuild their terraces.”

But restoration work would entail an understanding of how it eventually crumbled following strong rains, a government official said.

Purificacion Molintas, Cordillera director of the Department of Tourism, said there were concerns that the ancient hydrological system that sustained the terraces may no longer exist due to deforestation and because many of the terraces had been abandoned.

The book “Impact: Sustainable Tourism and the Preservation of the World Heritage Site of the Ifugao Rice Terraces,” which was published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in 2008, cited the Ifugaos for the soil conservation technology they used in the rice terraces.

Unesco enshrined five Ifugao terraces as a World Heritage Site in 1995.

“Ifugao is a mountainous rainforest area. Rains wash away the topsoil and cause erosion,” the Unesco book said.

So the ancient Ifugao clans built the terraces, which trapped mountain soil “in its maze-like structure, allowing only heavier stone particles to end up in the rivers,” it said.

“By making terrace ponds, the collected water creates a seal that prevents the formation of cracks in the substructure [of the mountain] which would otherwise lead to landslides. Aside from conserving the humus-rich soil, this system also minimizes siltation as the paddies act as mud traps,” it added.

The Ifugaos also sustain a “muyong” (communal forest) atop the terraces to reduce water runoff.

Baguilat filed House Bill No. 5692 to establish the Ifugao Rice Terraces Rehabilitation and Preservation Plan (IRTRPP) and create the administrative machinery for its implementation.

The measure creates a supervising agency that monitors the “restoration, maintenance and development of the rice terraces walls, irrigation [systems], dikes, paddies, watersheds, access roads and view decks.”

It will “arrange, negotiate for, accept donations, grants, gifts, loans and other funding from domestic and foreign sources to carry out the activities and purposes of the IRTRPP.”—Vincent Cabreza