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UNIVERSITY OF THE CORDILLERAS

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

PLANNING 2

3:30 PM- 6:30 PM (MonTue)

Development Controls: A Case Study of Banaue Rice Terraces

PADILLO, MAYLENE N.
ROMIN, KHAYZEKIEL G.
MESA, KENNETH C.

ARCH. IRENE FLORENDO

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I. INTRODUCTION

The Ifugao people created

the Banaue rice terraces, a system
of irrigated rice terraces in the
mountains of north-central Luzon,
Philippines, more than 2,000
years ago. Although they are
spread across several villages,
they are collectively referred to as
the Banaue rice terraces.
UNESCO designated various
sections of the decks as a World
Heritage site in 1995, describing
them as "a living cultural
landscape of unparalleled beauty."

The rice terraces are

located on the island of Luzon's
Cordilleras. The Ifugao, wet-rice
agriculturalists who began
building the decks around the 1st
century CE, have long lived in the
remote area, about 220 miles (350
km) from Manila. Despite having
only essential tools, the Ifugao built an engineering marvel: a vast network of rice terraces supported
by an intricate irrigation system. According to reports, the balconies, which look like steps carved into
the mountainside, cover approximately 4,000 square miles (10,360 square km). Their total length is
about 12,500 miles (20,100 km), or roughly half the Earth's circumference. While the rice terraces
were essential to the Ifugao economy, they also served a cultural function, necessitating extensive
community cooperation.
However, by the early twenty-first century, the number of Ifugao in the area had significantly
decreased as many had migrated to more urban areas. As a result, a large portion of the terraces
deteriorated. The decks were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage in Danger six years after
sections were designated a World Heritage site in 1995. In addition to neglect, officials expressed
concern about unregulated development and a lack of solid management. Major restoration and
conservation efforts were undertaken, and the terraces were removed from the list in 2012. During this
time, officials also began to promote sustainable tourism, as the decks, particularly those in the village
of Batad, became an increasingly popular tourist attraction.

II. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

II. A. Profile of the Area

Ifugao is situated on the eastern flank of Luzon's Central Cordillera Mountain ranges.
Mountain Province borders it on the north, Benguet on the west, Nueva Vizcaya on the south, and
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Isabela on the east and southeast. The province comprises eleven municipalities with a total land area
of 251,778 hectares. The nine upland municipalities containing the rice terraces clusters occupy
198,246 hectares (79 percent) of the total land area, while the two lowland municipalities of Lamut
and Alfonso Lista occupy the remaining 53,532 hectares (21 percent).

Rugged mountains and valleys define the province's topography. Except for the rolling
lowlands toward the municipalities of Lamut and Alfonso Lista, the forest is massive. The terraces are
located at high elevations ranging from 800 to 1,500 MASL, with slopes ranging from 50% to 100%.
The municipality of Banaue has the most significant number of rice terraces but the fewest terrace
cultivators.
II.B. Socioeconomic Characteristics of the Province of Ifugao
Ifugao is the country's fourth poorest province (NSCB 2000), with the highest poverty
incidence in the Cordillera Administrative Region. According to the Philippine Human Development
Report (2000), Ifugao had the sixth-lowest Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.4480 in 1987,
ranking sixth out of 78 provinces. Its HDI improved slightly to 0.512 in 2000, but it remains the
lowest in the Cordillera region. Many terrace farmers consider themselves to be impoverished.
Despite their poverty, they have a positive attitude toward work and believe themselves to be
employed, with the majority of them engaged in farming, wood carving, and weaving. Despite their
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employment claim, their average annual income remains below the poverty line of Php 85,245.00
(Ifugao Poverty Map, 2007). (NSO 2000).

II.C. Population and Demographic Profile

Ifugao has a population of 161,623 (NSO 2000), with 82,528 males and 79,095 females, a
1.67 percent annual growth rate, and an average household size of 5.1. In terms of educational
attainment, the majority have completed primary school (22 percent), secondary school (30 percent),
and college (41 percent). The increased literacy rate may impact the overall implementation of the
GIAHS-IRT initiative at the local and community/site levels.
II.D. Sociocultural Characteristics
Culture has influenced local management and governance of the rice terraces, which are
embodied in customary laws based on social taboos and customs passed down from generation to
generation. Because the Ifugao do not have a written language, they do not have a written
constitution. In the absence of written law, the Ifugaos had honed their skills as consummate
diplomats, surviving and prospering through generations by remaining in harmony with nature and
avoiding severe conflict with their neighbors.
Several principles guide the application of the Ifugao customary legal system. For starters, the
legal system has a personal character, which means that a person can be held liable for harm done to
others. Second, it is guided by collective responsibility, which means that not only the person who
committed the act is responsible but also kin and relatives. However, the extended responsibility is for
the individual who caused the injury rather than the kin. Third, the Ifugao legal system is guided by
collective procedures in which families and clans participate.
The collective procedure gives families the ability to resist and make intense demands. The
collaborative nature of Ifugao customary laws is the most potent tool for reaffirming family
commitments to natural resource conservation and appropriate treatment. Unfortunately, due to the
pressures of modern living that lead to commercialization, collective decision-making is losing its
relevance.
Previously, an Ifugao placed a high value on their terraces and would not part with them at
any cost. However, many Ifugao have become more pragmatic in recent years, mortgaging or selling
their ancestral landholdings and using the proceeds to purchase rice fields in the lowlands.

III. Challenges, Issues, Or Problems

The rice terraces are now in a critical state of decay. The IRT's survival is threatened by a
variety of factors, including environmental degradation, unregulated development, and neglect caused
by urbanization and changing values.
Biodiversity loss. In the last 50 years, commercial timber extraction in the woodlot and
public communal forest to support the thriving woodcarving and construction industry has reduced the
number of timber species from 264 to 200. The IRT's continued use of pesticides and other synthetic
products endangers biodiversity. Some species are becoming extinct as a result of human activities,
making them difficult to find in their natural habitat. The factors putting pressure on biodiversity in
the IRT are the low level of people's awareness of the value of biodiversity, the lack of policies, the
commercialization trend, and the increasing needs of the household.
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The Watershed has been destroyed. Erosion and landslides are common in the terraces
during heavy rains. As a result, eroded soil is carried downstream and deposited on rice terraces,
irrigation canals, and bodies of water, polluting them. The erosion problem is exacerbated further by
earthworm infestation, which causes the collapse of rice terrace walls and dikes.
Farm labor has been reduced. Massive out-migration from Ifugao villages has depleted the
population needed to cultivate and maintain the rice terraces. Out-migration stems from a perception
of a lack of economic opportunities associated with terrace farming. Younger Ifugao refuse to return
to the decks, leaving only their elderly parents to care for them. As a result, there is a mismatch
between the available workforce and the decks' labor requirements. Family labor is insufficient to
meet the decks' high labor requirements. Similarly, the traditional system of labor sharing no longer
exists. As a result, many farmers rely on hired labor to tend to their terraces. Terrace owners with
children working abroad are fortunate in that they can hire paid labor, but many others cannot.
Significant damage to decks caused by natural disasters is left unrepaired due to a lack of work. The
shift in economic activity from terracing to handicrafts also contributes to the ongoing decrease in
farm labor. Some families have re-invested their excess earnings in the terraces, but others are hesitant
due to the perceived low economic returns.
Cultural Disinterest and Rice Terracing Ifugao youth are losing interest in their
traditional culture and rice production system. Terracing is seen as too labor-intensive by younger
Ifugao, with low economic returns. The disrespect for culture separates younger generations from
their cultural roots, leading to commercialization and resource exploitation.
Conversion/Abandonment of Land-Use. Built-up areas are gradually consuming portions of
the rice terraces. Woodlots are also cleared to make way for residential and agricultural areas. Some
balconies have been converted into commercial vegetable farms. Other rungs are dropped in favor of
more lucrative jobs within or outside the province.

IV. Recommendation/ Solution

1. Zoning restrictions must be prioritized as the centerpiece of land use regulations.

2. Suggests relocating houses that obstruct views of the Banaue/Ifugao rice terraces.
3. Examine existing plans, policies, ordinances, and regulatory frameworks affecting or relating to the
dynamic conservation of the World Heritage Agricultural System (GIAHS).
4. Harmonization of national policies and actions, as well as modifications to key sectoral policies and
plans in agriculture, forestry, water, environment, land use, culture, and tourism to support GIAHS
dynamic conservation.
5. Integration of national and local policies to capitalize on new opportunities created by GIAHS
designation, such as incentives and a benefit-sharing system for agricultural biodiversity conservation,
market access, payment for environmental services, green fees, end-user fees, and so on.
6. Examine and improve local institutions and norms governing resource access and use, decision-
making, and public participation in order to empower GIAHS communities, mobilize their positive
contributions, and provide incentive packages to enable them to conserve and sustain their agricultural
biodiversity and systems.
V. Case Studies
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 The Impact of Urbanization on Agriculture Sector: A Case Study of Peshawar, Pakistan

Pakistan has a large population and a scarcity of land per capita. This determines the societal
value of cultivated land. The rapidly expanding economy has resulted in increased urbanization
and an influx of migrants from rural to urban areas throughout the country. The growing
population and its needs, particularly in urban areas, necessitate more fixed-supply land. To meet
the growing demand for land, city development is expanding to areas with fertile agricultural
lands. This trend results in extensive land conversion in urban areas. Agricultural land conversion
is viewed as a natural byproduct of population growth and economic development, and it has been
overlooked as an avoidable byproduct of the development process. As a result, urbanization is
viewed as a threat to agricultural land, as the financial structure shifts from an agricultural to a
non-agricultural-based economy with rapid economic growth. Aside from the direct loss of
production capacity, land has also had an impact on agriculture's current state. It imposed an
additional burden on the current farming conditions, potentially worsening the situation. The
findings show that both agricultural value-added percent of GDP and agricultural value-added
annual percent of growth have a negative relationship with urban population, implying that as
urbanization increases, more agricultural land is converted to non-agricultural uses, reducing
agricultural production. To discourage this conversion, policymakers should concentrate on this
critical issue.

 The Impacts of Urbanization on the Agricultural Land Use: A Case Study of Kawempe
Division, Kampala Uganda
This study found that when cities grow rapidly, there is a scarcity of development land. The
characteristics of urban growth, such as the rapid transition from one economic activity, such as
agriculture, to another, such as commerce, necessitate more land for investment. Users compete for
the most accessible locations in response to increased demand for land. In a city, the majority of land
is used for residential purposes. Although urban expansion cannot be stopped, it can be limited and
directed to protect fertile agricultural lands through proper management and planning. As a result,
realistic, long-term planning goals that account for the benefits and drawbacks of agriculture are
critical. A comprehensive system of land use, economic policy, and political strategies can be used to
save agricultural lands.
This strategy relies heavily on land-use policies. They save actual lands by separating
incompatible land uses, allowing farmers to continue farming even as development pressures increase,
and providing economic incentives to stay in the agricultural industry. The strategies outlined below
must be implemented as part of a comprehensive planning system that takes into account current
urban uses as well as how the developing metropolitan area affects agricultural land use. Such broader
efforts should be accompanied by efforts to adopt land use and zoning regulations; land use planning
is one tool that can be used in conjunction with other strategies to help save vital agricultural lands
and ensure that the benefits of farming are realized in our communities in the future.
Furthermore, zoning restrictions must be prioritized as the centerpiece of land use regulations.
Zoning entails allocating land to related land uses and establishing land-use rules in those areas. It is
occasionally used in conjunction with regional urban containment planning. Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) are used to help with agricultural zoning. This includes mapping land for urban
agriculture, registration, and improving land use monitoring and evaluation. Because of the variability
in the land cover textures of open space, rangeland, farmland, and urban areas, GIS use in conjunction
with remote sensing is appropriate for investigating urban and agricultural land conversions (Warner,
2005). It should be noted, however, that local governments cannot enact land use and zoning
regulations that violate private property rights; thus, several legal issues must be considered when
developing an agricultural preservation strategy.
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References:

Tikkanen, Amy. (2017, July 11). Banaue rice terraces | Definition, History, & Facts. Encyclopedia
Britannica; www.britannica.com. https://www.britannica.com/place/Banaue-rice-terraces

Avtar, R., Tsusaka, K., & Herath, S. (2019, November 5). Land | Free Full-Text | REDD+
Implementation in Community-Based Muyong Forest Management in Ifugao, Philippines | HTML.
MDPI; www.mdpi.com. https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/8/11/164/htm

Department of Environment and Natural Resources. (2008, March). The Ifugao Rice Terraces 
Philippine Project Framework. https://www.fao.org/3/bp814e/bp814e.pdf

Malik, R., & Ali, M. (2015, 0 0). The Impact of Urbanization on Agriculture Sector:  A Case Study of
Peshawar, Pakistan. Www.Iiste.Org. The Impact of Urbanization on Agriculture Sector: A Case Study
of Peshawar, Pakistan. https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JRDM/article/viewFile/22811/22876

Namara, H. (2011, 0 0). The Impacts of Urbanization on the Agricultural Land Use: A Case Study Of
Kawempe Division,  Kampala Uganda.
https://uia.brage.unit.no/uia-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/135217/Harriet%20Namara
%20oppgave.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y