Unique and traditional land use

The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are a product of tradition with emphasis on the agricultural cycle of the indigenous Ifugao people and the role of cooperative systems in creating and maintaining the rice terraces and the forests. Local communities are the drivers for the conservation of the site's outstanding universal value and for securing sustainable development. The seamless and organic human interaction and adaptation to the environment, and the evolution of a unique land-use system over two millennia by the Ifugao, constitute the essence of the steep terraced landscapes. They are aesthetically appealing and testimony to a predominantly communal system of rice production through small-scale farming. Harvesting water from the forested mountains above is integrated with the management of an irrigation system of stone terraces and ponds. The challenge is to sustain the continuity of the landscapes in the face of social and economic change.

In the rice terraces of the remote areas of the Philippine Cordillera mountain range on the northern island of Luzon, the local Ifugao communities are the primary stakeholders in the five clusters of terraces that comprise the World Heritage site:

1. the Nagacadan terrace cluster in the municipality of Kiangan, manifested in two distinct ascending rows of terraces bisected by a river;

2. the Hungduan terrace cluster that dramatically emerges into the shape of a spider web;

3. the central Mayoyao cluster which is characterized by terraces interspersed with traditional farmers' houses (bale) and granaries (alang);

4. the Bangaan terrace cluster in the municipality of Banaue that backdrops a typical Ifugao traditional village; and

5. the Batad cluster of the municipality of Banaue that nestles in amphitheatrelike semi-circular terraces with a village at its base.