Caring for heritage, protecting culture

Maria Galeon currently lives in Kiangan Poblacion, Kiangan town center, but she grew up and raised her six children in a small village in Nagacadan. Before Maria retired, she worked as an elementary school teacher in Hungduan and Nagacadan (both are part of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Initiative). For some years, during her childhood, Maria lived in a traditional girls’ dormitory in her community. The young girls were fascinated to hear stories and wisdom told by the elder women from the village; who taught them about the history of their ancestors and their cultural heritage.

When Maria tells her stories the listener is plunged into another era. Maybe her life as a teacher, constantly being surrounded by children, has kept her young at heart because, despite her 75 years, she has retained an innovative mind and critical spirit. As an active member of the local farmers’ association, Maria is helping her community develop.

Maria is one of forty-seven GIAHS tour guides who have been accredited by the local tourism council after participating in a five-day training and workshop evaluation. She offers her knowledge and experience to foreign tourists interested in her culture, traditions, and way of life because she is convinced this will help her community move into the future. Maria is not worried that tourists taking pictures and walking through rice fields will bother the local farmers, her main concern is that expanding tourism may cause possible loss of values.

“We, the older people here in Nagacadan, we care for our heritage, we want to protect our culture, we fear that too much tourism will provoke a change of values in the community”, Maria shared.

Local farmers’ deeply rooted hospitality can easily switch to that of competitive business spirit. Without price regulation for traditional goods, there may be under and overbidding between farmers, which may affect all involved. Another issue is that children are being taken out of school to work in tourism. This has been observed in other tourist destinations in the Philippines.

To tackle these issues, the GIAHS Initiative, is collaborating with the local tourism council. Together they are working to establish tourism guidelines to ensure this sector develops smoothly and sustainably. Competition will be supplanted by a system based on sharing that is mutually beneficial to the community.

With community-based activities, such as the establishment of a community-based Open Air Museum, GIAHS focuses not only on the promotion of tourism but also on transferring and sharing the benefits to the local population. Besides the tour guides, GIAHS is collaborating with the local tourism council to train all actors directly or indirectly involved with the tourism sector.

An example is the tricycle drivers, who are among the first people arriving tourists meet. They have been trained by local historians about the history of Kiangan and Ifugao, which they share with their passengers. The same training is organized for owners of bed and breakfasts, massage-groups and community store-owners.

GIAHS has helped strengthen the institutional and social structures necessary to sustainably entrench Agro-Eco-Tourism within the community. Today, with this enhanced capacity for tourism, the town is ready to receive increasing numbers of arriving tourists and the economic and social benefits they will bring to the community.  

(note: Philippines is one of the 6 pilot countries of the global project “conservation and adaptive management of GIAHS” implemented by FAO with funding support from the Global Environment Facility)

By Lena Gubler and Mary Jane dela Cruz