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Ifugao as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Ifugao rice terraces were placed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) list of World Heritage Sites in 1995, and were the first living cultural landscape to be inscribed. Under the official title of the “Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras,” Ifugao is placed in the category of cultural sites, which make up slightly more than three-fourths of the total 1073 sites. Appropriately, the rice terraces were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site not only to preserve the astonishing physical landscape, but also the cultural traditions of the Ifugao peoples. The listing gave the terraces recognition for the blending of the cultural, physical, economic, religious, and political environments. The rice terraces were nominated and declared a World Heritage Site using three of the ten UNESCO World Heritage Centre criteria: criteria III, criteria IV, and criteria V. For criterion III, the rice terraces represent “a dramatic testimony to a community's sustainable and primarily communal system of rice production, based on harvesting water from the forest clad mountain tops and creating stone terraces and ponds, a system that has survived for two millennia." For criterion IV, the rice terraces are “a memorial to the history and labour of more than a thousand generations of small-scale farmers who, working together as a community, have created a landscape based on a delicate and sustainable use of natural resources” . Lastly, regarding criterion V, the rice terraces embody “an outstanding example of land-use that resulted from a harmonious interaction between people and its environment which has produced a steep terraced landscape of great aesthetic beauty, now vulnerable to social and economic changes."

Connection to the 2000 Year Old Hypothesis

The classification of Ifugao as a World Heritage Site emphasizes the longstanding 2000 year hypothesis by Barton and Beyer. The recognition as a World Heritage Site highlights the idea of the longer existence of both the labor-intensive landscape and the passing down of rice-terracing traditions for at least two millennia. This “long history” model is currently being refuted by the Ifugao Archaeological Project (IAP), which has found extensive evidence proving the creation of the rice terraces was much closer to 200 years ago. Stephen Acabado argues that although the 2 millennia interpretation may not be accurate, the value of Ifugao as a World Heritage Site is not diminished. He believes the younger dating actually sheds light on the cultural and technological sophistication of the rice-terracing peoples in the Philippines.

Conservation and Restoration

The rices terraces were placed on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger in 2001 at the Philippine government’s request. They were threatened by several factors including: neglected irrigation systems, deforestation, migration, unregulated tourism, climate change and globalization. The Philippines utilized danger listing as a way to rally national and international support of the restoration and preservation of the deteriorating landscape. Ifugao was finally removed from the list of sites in danger in 2012, recognizing the success of the Philippines’ restoration and conservation efforts.

The Hudhud Chants of the Ifugao

The Hudhud Chants of the Ifugao peoples are also protected by UNESCO. They were inscribed in 2008 onto the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity to preserve the oral tradition. The narrative chants are thought to have originated before the seventh century and are practiced during rice sowing season, harvest time, funeral wakes, and rituals. They are usually narrated by women, and specifically elderly women who hold key places in the community. There are over 200 chants and they reflect the importance of rice cultivation through the use of ancestral heroes, customary law, religious beliefs, and traditional practices.