Inventory of damaged Ifugao rice terraces pushed due to mining

LAGAWE, Ifugao -- A senior member of the Senate wants the Senate committees on environment and natural resources and local governments to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, an inventory of the world famous rice terraces in the province to ascertain whether or not the deterioration of the identified world heritage sites is now alarming.

This, so concerned government agencies and local governments could institute appropriate mitigating measures to save them.

Sen. Manuel Villar pointed out the call for an inventory of the province’s rice terraces is to avert the massive exploitation of the terraces because of reports about alleged gold rush that often attract legal and illegal pocket miners to mine even identified heritage sites.

Earlier, the Cordillera office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau reported some towns in the province, including sites of rice terraces, are reportedly included in the proposed exploration sites of multinational companies which have pending exploration permit applications with the agency.

According to Villar, rice terraces should automatically be segregated from the mining areas being proposed to be explored as a matter of protocol but it seems the same is not being followed in the case of the province’s rice terraces which serve as the backbone of the local tourism industry.

While the rice terraces were classified as food areas by the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), the senator explained there may be rice terraces that government forest or agricultural inventories had missed.

The lawmaker said it is incumbent upon local governments to check if the rice terraces in their respective areas of jurisdiction are properly classified to prevent all forms of exploitation that may be done by local residents and pro-spective local developers.

He cited mining is dangerous once it operates in a certain area within the world heritage sites because it could eventually damage the cultural and historical legacy of the people which had been passed on from several genera-tions now.

MGB-CAR records show that two mining applications have been filed covering the municipality of Hungduan but the rice terraces of the town are not part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Office (UNESCO) heritage sites although recently, the UN awarded the local government a grant for the continuing maintenance and protection of its rice terraces as a globally important heritage sites.

Various sectors in the province have consolidated their efforts to preserve and protect the remaining rice terraces from deterioration after the UNESCO threatened to delist the same from the list of world heritage sites due to their rapid deterioration.

Aside from alleged poor maintenance, rice terraces, which are damaged by recent typhoons and earthworms, are not being immediately restored by the concerned government agencies and local governments due to the reported insufficient funds to do the same that puts to high risk the state of the local tourism industry.