How it began
The terraces were built by the Ifugao people in the mountains of what is now Ifugao province on Luzon. UNESCO describes them as built 2,000 years ago and passed on from generation to generation, and National Geographic likewise says the mountains have been cultivated with terraced fields for 2,000 years. No individual builders are named. The work was done by hand by whole communities, and the knowledge needed to farm and maintain the fields was handed down within them.
How it works
The builders used stone and mud walls to carve terraces that follow the natural contours of the mountains and hold flooded pond fields for growing rice. They also set up a system to water the plots by harvesting water from the forests on the mountaintops. The fields climb thousands of feet up the slopes. Entire communities cooperate on a seasonal cycle of planting, pest control and harvest that is tied to the lunar cycle and sometimes accompanied by rituals.
What lasted
The terraces have long been central to the survival of the Ifugao peoples and to their culture. National Geographic describes them as an example of a sustainable relationship between people and their environment, maintained for centuries with hand labor. UNESCO inscribed the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras as a World Heritage site, calling them an enduring illustration of an ancient civilization.
Where it stands today
Young people have been leaving the region for cities, and with fewer people to work the fields some 25 to 30 percent of the terraces were reported abandoned and beginning to deteriorate, along with their irrigation systems. The site was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2001 and removed from it in 2012. The terraces at Banaue, about 216 miles from Manila, are the best known, and the value of the region as a tourist destination likely exceeds that of its rice.
