Banaue Rice Terraces investment, rehab, tourism plan in the works
The participation of Dalipog’s team to the 35th Economic Forum primarily aims to seek European support in saving the BRT
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The participation of Dalipog’s team to the 35th Economic Forum primarily aims to seek European support in saving the BRT
Invasive giant earthworms are a menace to Ifugao’s famous Banaue Rice Terraces (BRT), a National Cultural Treasure. Their burrowing makes the soil more porous and their tunnels make the rice terrace walls and dikes prone to collapse and erosion.
For damaged rice paddies carved into the mountainside by the ancestors of the indigenous Igorot people, the provincial government does patch-up repairs or stonewalling using funds from the annual budget of the province, according to Ifugao Governor Jerry Dalipog.
A bigger funding is necessary though as Dalipog estimated that 40 percent of the BRT needs to be rehabilitated.
The governor revealed that he is working for the preparation of a master plan that will restore the BRT and market it to investors and tourists to sustain the “8th Wonder of the World.” The preparation includes the mapping of the 1,600-hectare BRT.
“After the survey is completed by our provincial engineer, I will be calling a provincial inter-agency meeting to come up with the plan as the basis of this restoration and the basis for this investment,” Dalipog told DAILY TRIBUNE in a press briefing on 15 September in Makati City.
He clarified that the plan is different from but complementary to the Ifugao urban master plan drafted by the Palafox architectural firm and presented to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in August as a long-term framework to conserve, revitalize, and sustainably develop the Ifugao Rice Terraces and their surrounding communities.
The Ifugao Rice Terraces is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and includes only the rice terrace clusters in Barangays Battad and Bangaan in Banaue, in the towns of Mayoyao and Hungduan, and in Barangay Nagacadan in Kiangan town.
Dalipog also revealed that the Ifugao provincial government is working out a sisterhood pact with Karpacz, Poland.
The Polish town hosted the 35th Economic Forum, Central Europe’s largest socio-economic conference. The governor led a delegation from Ifugao to the annual gathering held on 8 to 10 September and met key academic, businessmen and government leaders of Poland.
The talks were about establishing students exchange between Banaue and Karpacz, and cooperation on cable car investment, agriculture, energy and tourism. Dalipog said Ifugao agricultural products like rice and vegetables can be marketed to Poland.
Talks were also held with Polish entrepreneurs for a possible legal labor exchange and with the deputy minister of sport and tourism to open cooperation in protecting UNESCO sites like the Ifugao Rice Terraces.
The participation of Dalipog’s team to the 35th Economic Forum primarily aims to seek European support in saving the BRT which the provincial government of Ifugao described as a “moral obligation of our generation.”
“Every day, tourists from all over the world admire the rice terraces of Ifugao and see with their own eyes how this Filipino national treasure is cracking and deteriorating. Alarming analyses show that without immediate action, these legendary terraces will turn into wild forest within 20 to 30 years,” a statement from the Ifugao provincial government’s office read.
