1.4 Impacts of the UNESCO Declaration
While there are rice terraces in most municipalities in the province of Ifugao,
only five (5) clusters were inscribed in the World Heritage List. These are the clusters
of Batad and Bangaan in the municipality of Banaue; Mayoyao Central; Hungduan; and
Kiangan (Ifugao Rice Terraces Master Plan, PLGU, Ifugao 2002).
The declaration of the Ifugao Rice Terraces as a World Heritage Site in 1995
has brought both positive and negative impacts (Yap n.d.). The positive impacts
include the heightened attention from the international community towards the terraces,
more initiatives from the government, more economic activities, and enhanced cultural
awareness.
However, Yap notes that there have been negative impacts as well. For
example, some residents and local officials have come to expect UNESCO to release
funds for the preservation of the terraces. Furthermore, support from external agencies
has focused mostly on addressing the physical aspects of the problem, but have paid
little attention to the social organization that greatly affects the physical component.
The increased tourism activities have also adversely affected the physical, social and
natural environments. Some scholars believe that some aspects of the Ifugao culture
have been compromised to give way to commercial interests. This is shown in the way
some rituals have lost their solemnity and significance. The people also feel that
UNESCO has restricted the use of their lands as follows: restriction on the types of
structures that can be built on the terraces and where these structures can be located, as
they can affect the view; and restriction on the use of cement to reinforce the terrace
walls and foot paths, as these can dilute the authenticity of the terraces.
The selective inclusion of terraces in the World Heritage List has resulted in the
more rapid deterioration of those terraces that were not included in the list. While
funds poured in for the repair and maintenance of the listed terraces, the farmers of the
excluded terraces were left to maintain their terraces on their own. As it is, the
farmers’ incomes from their once-a-year rice harvests are not even enough to cover the
cost of planting and maintaining the terraces.
Finally, the last allocation of the P 50-million funds from UNESCO has already
been released, and the question now is how funds will be sourced for future repair and
maintenance of the terraces.
1.5 The Research Problem
Klamer and Zuidhof (1999) ask the question of who cares enough for the
continuous provision of public goods like cultural heritage to take responsibility for
such. Even though many people may claim that they care, being potential
beneficiaries, it is possible that no one may care enough to take on the responsibility.
As a result, the government may become the default caretaker. Other organizations like
UNESCO may also become involved, as well as other private non-profit organizations.
However, Throsby (1997 as cited by Klamer and Zuidhof 1999) doubts if the market,
together with voluntary and non-profit action, will be enough for the preservation of
cultural heritage.
The World Heritage Committee (UNESCO 2005) identified the main threats to
the terraces as: the lack of an effective site management authority and adequate
legislation; the lack of a finalized strategic site management plan; declining interest of
the Ifugaos in their culture and in maintaining the terraces; and the lack of human and
financial resources. This study focuses on the last two threats.
There have been many initiatives towards the preservation of the Ifugao Rice
Terraces. The World Heritage Committee (UNESCO 2005) listed these to be in the
areas of water management, agricultural management, watershed management, hazard
management, transport development, spatial restructuring and tourism development,
cultural enhancement, and livelihood development. What appears to be lacking in all
these efforts to save the terraces is the possibility of tapping the goodwill of Filipino
people to provide incentives that will make the Ifugaos remain in the area to tend the
rice terraces that their ancestors so painstakingly built more than 2,000 years ago.
This is especially important in the light of the report to the World Heritage
Committee Secretariat that the existence of the Ifugao Rice Terraces Cultural Heritage
Office (IRTCHO) that was created in 2003 was threatened because the national
government had terminated its funding support to the National Commission on Culture
and the Arts (UNESCO 2005), which in turn provided funding support to the IRTCHO.
The IRTCHO has funded some of the conservation programs for the terraces. The
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has also expressed its
concern about the lack of clear financing mechanisms in the terraces’ 2004
Conservation and Management Plan (UNESCO 2006).
The 10-year Ifugao Rice Terraces Master Plan of 2002 identifies the potential
funding sources to be national and local government agencies, multi-lateral and
bilateral sources (e.g. official development assistance and other grants), private
organizations, academic institutions, research centers, and overseas Filipino workers
from Ifugao.
The Master Plan has three components: bio-physical, socio-cultural, and support
systems. The funding requirements of the Master Plan are huge, as shown in Appendix
1. As proposed, the first year of implementation (which should have been in 2003)
requires P 47.6 million, more than half of which will be used for the support systems,
primarily infrastructure support (P 20 million), community-based agri-industry (P 5
million), sustainable tourism development (P 2.675 million), social welfare and
development (P 2.15 million), and resource mobilization and institutionalization (P 0.1
million).
In response to the request of the 29th session of the World Heritage Community
in July, 2005, a joint UNESCO World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/IUCN Reactive
Monitoring Mission to the Ifugao Rice Terraces in April 2006 was commissioned. The
mission aimed at assessing the steps taken by the state party towards the
implementation of the recommendations of the 2001 and 2005 missions, and also
evaluated the feasibility of the 2004 Conservation and Management Plan of the Rice
Terraces in the Philippine Cordilleras. The 2004 Plan had been developed by the
Provincial Planning and Development Office with assistance from the World Heritage
Fund, and was based on the 10-year Master Plan.
The 2006 mission found, among other things, that local government units
(province, municipal) had provided short-term funding from their revenue allotments.
Likewise, the national government had funded the repair of some irrigation systems and
terraces. The mission noted, however, the need for more coordinated, long-term
funding and a more sustained local resource generation mechanism which would
include tourism revenues and the marketing of local products. The mission
recommended that a financing mechanism both at the provincial and municipal levels
be established between 2006 and 2008, and stressed the need to make available the
human and financial resources required to implement the Conservation and
Management Plan.
Ms. Rebecca Bumahit, Coordinator of the Ifugao Cultural Heritage Office
(ICHO), confirmed that fund generation has been piecemeal at best, and sees the need
to take a unified approach (personal communication, August 3, 2007). The 10-year
Master Plan (2002) and the Conservation and Management Plan (2004) will remain
plans on paper unless funds are generated for their implementation. Our evaluation of
the financing plan is that it depends heavily on external donors and local government
allocations. The potential of engaging tourists in the conservation of the terraces by
capturing their willingness to pay appears to have been overlooked. The Master Plan
itself is very grand and ambitious, which perhaps it should be considering the scale of
the rice terraces and their problems. From our point of view, however, the Master Plan
was overly ambitious in the sense that it targeted 2003 as the first year of
implementation when the funds needed had not yet been secured.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that the conservation of the Ifugao Rice
Terraces depends not only on plans for the physical repair/restoration of the terraces
and the provision of livelihood to the Ifugaos, but also on the development of a viable
financing mechanism that will sustainably finance all conservation efforts.