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Repairing Ifugao rice terraces

LAGAWE, Ifugao – The provincial government here through the Ifugao Rice Terraces and Cultural Heritage Office is now set to rehabilitate damaged portions of the rice terraces at Hapao, Hungduan and Mayoyao.

Engineer Enrique Guinaat of IRTCHO said rehabilitation of the damaged portion of Bangaan Rice Terraces was finished last year and still ongoing at Batad and Nagacadan, Kiangan. Asked about the impact of the project in Bangaan, Guinaat said the productive status and aesthetic beauty of the rice terraces were revived

To ensure maintenance and durability of the restored rice terraces after the implementation of the said project, Guinaat said the provincial government and the farmers’ organization in the heritage sites signed a memorandum of agreement containing guidelines for its implementation.

The MOA provides the provincial government through IRTCHO shall provide expert advice; technical services, financial assistance for the employment of expert stonewall rip-rappers, and shall monitor the progress of the restoration activities.

On the part of the farmers’ organization, the MOA states the organization shall hire the services of expert stonewall rip-rappers to do the restoration of eroded rice terraces, participate in monitoring the progress of the work throughout the restoration activities, and see to it that process must abide with the works’ programmed quantity and quality.

Ifugao Gov. Teddy Baguilat Jr. said rehabilitation of the damaged portion of the rice terraces was to save these world heritage sites characterized by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization as “Living cultural landscape”. “Taking the rice terraces off the list of world heritage sites in danger is one of the main goals of the conservation and management of the Ifugao Rice Terraces,” Baguilat said.

Baguilat added aside from the rice terraces rehabilitation project, IRTCHO’s programs to achieve the objectives of the Rice Terraces Master Plan include the research on barangay histories, land use and zoning, community-based reforestation, documentation and mainstreaming of various forms of indigenous knowledge.

“The Nurturing Indigenous Knowledge Experts, an indigenous knowledge transmission project funded by the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan (NFUAJ), is also being implemented,” Baguilat said.

In partnership with the Ifugao Research and Development Center, an NGO focusing on developmental researches, community dialogues on indigenous agricultural practices and climate change were conducted in Mayoyao, Hungduan, Hingyon, and Tinoc.

These and other programs to save the Ifugao Rice Terraces, according to him, are meant to preserve and enrich the interplay of the watershed, the rice terraces, people, and culture all for sustainable development. -- Jeremy M. Gawongna