Agri Dept: Rice terraces rehab was easy, sustainability the tougher challenge

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said Thursday that rehabilitation efforts at key sections of the Ifugao Rice Terraces will continue following the site’s recent return to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List.   The reconstruction of parts of slopes and the propagation of traditional rice varieties will continue, and will be finished early next year, according to National Rice Program coordinator Dante Delima.   “This is the effect of our work to rescue the rice terraces,” said Delima during the launching of the Makina Saka Program in Quezon City.  “This is the result of our hard work.”   The rice terraces were removed from the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites in Danger in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, as an international committee composed of 21 state parties voted to put the site once more to the World Heritage List.   The List of World Heritage in Danger is intended to inform the international community of the threats to the outstanding universal values of sites inscribed on the World Heritage List. More importantly, it was designed to encourage corrective action and support, according to UNESCO.   The terraces were in the World Heritage List in 1995 up to 2001, when they were moved by the UNESCO to the danger list, citing factors such as neglected irrigation and weak management systems, as well as unregulated site developments.   Funds were pooled together from inter-agency sources to save the terraces during the early and middle parts of the year.   The DA allotted P20 million, while the Department of Environment and Natural Resources allotted P5 million. Sen. Francis Pangilinan chipped in P10 million, and the local government of Ifugao also contributed to the funding.   The UNESCO said it extended $153,200 to aid Philippine conservation efforts.   The other phases of the project, which include the cultivation of traditional rice species and the management of the site as an eco-tourist area, will continue under the guidance of the Agriculture Regional Office and the Ifugao government.   “It is still a big challenge. This will not be finished with the rehabilitation. We need to teach the people there sustainable management structure. The construction is the easy part,” Delima said.   Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Joel Rudinas said that full rehabilitation should be imposed on the eco-tourism site to ensure its sustainability.   “It is simply not just engineering, but there should be watershed solution and cropping system, too, so that the land would not be stressed,” he said.   The UNESCO described the rice terraces as “the fruit of knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, and the expression of sacred traditions and a delicate social balance.”   “The decision is a historic moment for the Philippines,” said Ambassador Cristina G. Ortega, Philippine Permanent Delegate to the UNESCO, on the reinstatement of the heritage site.   “To have the international community recognize our commitment and effort reinstating the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras in the World Heritage List is, for us, a great honor and accomplishment.”   “Its removal from the list f the World Heritage in Danger reinforces anew its grandeur and relevance as a globally important cultural landscape,” she added.   However, Ortega said that the highest recognition should be bestowed on the communities living within the Rice Terraces.   “For Filipinos, the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras best embody the harmonious relationship between humankind and nature,” she said. “More than 2,000 years ago, the Ifugao community of the Philippines built the terraces in a strong spirit of cooperation and mutual respect.” — ELR, GMA News