Title: Changes in the GIAHS designated IFUGAO Rice Terraces in the Philippines

Reporter: Nadia Bergamini

Traditional agricultural systems in Ifugao, Philippines, recognized as world cultural and agricultural heritage, are changing very quickly. Among the identified challenges to this heritage site are the unregulated land use changes and the shift to modern agriculture, the integration to markets and increasing trade opportunities. Furthermore, the introduction of the giant earthworm, golden snail and the swamp eel are also reported to cause widespread destruction of the rice terraces.

All these changes have caused substantive impacts on this fragile agro-ecosystem as well as the suite of ecosystem goods and services it provides. More importantly, these unfortunate changes have also increased vulnerability of the Ifugao farmers to problems and perturbations that they will inevitably be subjected to. Assessing the level of vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity of these socio-ecological systems (SES) has been, therefore, imperative in identification of management strategies to ensure their sustainability and improve their ability to adapt to current and future pressures This speech will report on research findings of an IFAD funded project to increase the resilience of GIAHS in different countries with special reference to GIAHS sites in the Philippines.

Nadia Bergamini, Research and Grant Manager, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy. She was trained as an ecologist receiving a master’s degree from Tor Vergata University in Rome working on benthos communities of the Adriatic Sea of Italy.

Time: 14:00-15:00 Sep. 6, 2017

Venue: Room 2209, IGSNRR, CAS