The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

7. WH inscription and challenges to the survival of community life in Philippine cultural landscapes
Batanes was a series of astonishing discoveries, one after the other. Its archaeology speaks of
an old civilization, probably one of the oldest in the Philippines, whose roots stretch back to the
Austronesians who migrated from Southern Taiwan 3,500 years ago, using the Batanes islands
as the first stepping-stone in their migratory wave through the Philippines that eventually
reached Indonesia and Micronesia to the west and Madagascar to the east. Reinforcing the
remoteness of the site, the islands were the farthest outposts of Spanish colonial rule from
Manila that itself was the colonial capital city farthest from Madrid in the Spanish Empire.
Within seaside towns laid out in the traditional Spanish grid of streets are still found plazas,
Spanish colonial churches, parish houses, lighthouses and stone bridges.
The Batanes house is unique to the islands. Unlike any other architecture found in the
Philippines, low-slung, strong and sturdy Ivatan architecture responds to its severe environ -
ment. The typical Philippine house of bamboo and thatch raised on stilts above the ground does
not do for the harsh and windy Batanes environment where stone houses cluster tightly in
villages, their steep thatched roofs aerodynamically deflecting the wind and resisting strong
rain.
The universal significance of Batanes was obvious, but the Ivatans could not see it. They
wanted to be like everyone else in the country, living in modern houses built of cement with
galvanized iron roofs even if it was totally inappropriate for their climate. They allowed their
traditional houses to deteriorate and let their rolling hills erode. The Ivatans took their unique
cultural beautiful landscape totally for granted.
The Ivatans understandably wanted change, and the typical big city stereotype for progress
was what they looked for: the old must give way to the new. Progress meant that the centre of
their capital town of Basco should look exactly like other Philippine towns, to the point of even
importing the urban blight and pollution that those towns suffer from. They were looking at the
wrong development models and taking nature for granted. Natural formations and rocks were
being mined for construction. Garbage was appearing in the once pristine landscape. Cows
were grazing on archaeological sites, disturbing artifacts and kicking around stones that
marked boat-shaped burial grounds.
In the year 2000, a campaign to make the Ivatans understand the unique significance of their
natural and cultural heritage was established by a member of Congress and the Governor. They
saw that without the preservation of Batanes heritage, the future growth of the province could
not be sustainable. Since 2000, a series of consultations have been regularly held with the
Batanes community. The first meetings were conducted with sceptical political authorities and
with the community that refused to believe that the Batanes culture and landscape was unique in
the Philippines and possibly in the world.
A team of heritage and environmental consultants, led by the Congressman and Governor,
kept on with a series of meetings with community leaders that lasted for a period of three years,
eventually convincing them that Batanes was indeed special and that its heritage should be
protected. A programme was then developed for community training in environmental and
waste management, in architectural preservation, and in preserving local heritage traditions.
Most importantly, government authorities and local residents agreed on a Management Plan
that jointly empowered local government and the community to oversee the maintenance of
both natural and cultural properties, guided by a provincial technical working group and the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources. As part of the Management Plan, the team
103