Rice Terraces of the Philippines

Source Picture: CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3036218

In 1993, I first landed in the Philippines. After hearing from many travelers that, in addition to diving, the rice terraces in Central Luzon were an absolute must-see, I hopped on a bus and traveled the nine hours overnight to Banaue... and I was not disappointed. The terraces are already beautiful in Banaue, but they are outstanding in Batad. I decided to do a tracking tour with an overnight stay in Batad. It was extremely strenuous, but the track itself was amazing. The photos are from 1993, digitized from slides.

Source Pictures: by H. Rufer

The Banaue Rice Terraces are a significant tourist attraction in the Philippines.

They are in a mountainous landscape about 1,500 meters above sea level and cover almost 10 km² of mountain slopes. About two thousand years ago, the Austronesian inhabitants of this area began cultivating rice paddies. To this day, cultivation continues slopes with gradients of up to 70 degrees. Some fields are barely two meters wide. The Bontoc, other inhabitants of the region, continued the construction by reinforcing the earth with stone walls. The terraces are considered the oldest structures in the entire Philippines.

To this day, locals cultivate rice and vegetables on the terraces, although a growing number of younger Ifugao people are finding farming unattractive and are opting for the more lucrative tourism industry that has developed through the rice terraces. This is leading to a gradual erosion of the characteristic terraces, which require regular cultivation and maintenance.

In 1991, the rice terraces were declared a national treasure, and the Ifugao Terraces Commission was established in 1994 to preserve them. In 1995, UNESCO declared five individual areas as World Heritage Sites:

• Two areas in the municipality of Banaue (Batad and Bangaan),
• in the municipality of Mayoyao,
• in the municipality of Kiangan (Nacadan),
• and in the municipality of Hungduan.

Source text translated from: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reisterrassen_von_Banaue

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