The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

7. World Heritage inscription and challenges to
the survival of community life in Philippine
cultural landscapes
Augusto Villalón
The 21st century continues to put pressure on the traditional practices that have always
maintained the delicate balance between culture and nature in many continuing cultural
landscapes in the Philippines. Balancing tradition and progress is the key issue that must be
answered by the two most significant Philippine cultural landscapes, the Rice Terraces of the
Philippine Cordilleras and the Batanes Protected Landscape and Seascape, in order for each to
determine its own path towards the sustainable preservation of its culture and the distinctive
landscape that it has produced.
Continuing cultural landscapes are the result of a long and continued interaction between
man and nature that persists to the present. The qualities that make each cultural landscape
unique are the physical manifestations of the indelible imprint of humankind on the environ -
ment. In other World Heritage cultural landscape categories, such as associative and relict, the
human factor is absent. The interaction of man and nature is completed and life has long left the
site. However, the preservation of organically evolved continuing cultural landscapes involves
the sim ultaneous preservation of both tangible and intangible heritage (see excerpt from the
WHC Operational Guidelines in Appendix 4). The process links the preservation of its resident
culture whose lifestyle must keep weaving tradition with the present. The challenge for
continuing cultural landscapes is to avoid mummifying present human activity to a specific
time in the past to protect the landscape. It requires finding a balance between the past, present
and the future that assure sustainability for the site.
Little awareness of cultural landscapes exists in the Philippines. Not many citizens know
that the national government passed the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act
(NIPAS) in 1992 to protect areas in the following categories: (a) strict nature reserve, (b)
natural parks, (c) natural monuments, (d) wildlife sanctuaries, (e) protected landscapes and
seascapes, (f) resource reserve, and (g) national biotic areas. Implementation of the NIPAS Act
is the responsibility of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources. Among the
sites protected by the NIPAS Act is the Batanes Protected Landscape and Seascape, which was
nominated to the World Heritage List as a continuing cultural landscape in 2004 and is
currently under review. The out standing cultural landscapes in the Philippines are located in
remote areas of the country that have by tradition experienced severe economic or environ -
mental hardship due to their geo graphic isolation. Harsh conditions have contributed in
preserving both culture and landscape, so it is understandable that, in the eyes of the residents,
traditional landscape and vernacular architecture symbolise the economic deprivation that they
have suffered for many generations. As soon as a rise in income occurs, their old houses are
immediately replaced with new constructions of concrete walling roofed by galvanized iron
sheets. Never mind that the new construction replaced a traditional house built of natural
materials that was completely in tune with its environment and climate. It does not matter that
the new low-pitched roofing turns houses into ovens during the summer or drives residents deaf
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