THE United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization always mentions it, so does many other international groups focusing on agriculture and food security. We're referring to farm families and agricultural heritage systems their role in sustainable development.
Just recently, the FAO added 13 new landscapes to the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GHIAS) to pay tribute to the "ingenious ways that human needs and nature's resources have been combined to create mutually sustainable livelihoods and ecosystems."
Among them are rice terraces just like the ones in Banaue, which today is getting less and less interest among locals and the centuries-old hand-hewn terraces are crumbling.
In recognizing these GHIAS, FAO notes that these are systems that showcase the harmony between humanity and nature, very much like the indigenous knowledge systems that our indigenous peoples still practice.
But look what the Banaue Rice Terraces is suffering from and how we treat our indigenous peoples and their knowledge systems.
Many a time among those residing in Metro Manila, those who have not met any indigenous group except those they see in rallies organized by the leftist organizations, and those dancing during festivals in Northern Luzon, they even interchange the words indigenous and indigent.
This reflects lack of knowledge, even ignorance, of the vast ecosystem of knowledge and sustainable practices of the old. It's like, if you cannot even distinguish the difference between what is of the land and what is poverty, then we have indeed a long way to go to make the most of the old ways that have made our environment survive for as long as it is until today.
"The sites are not about a nostalgic past but offer solutions for the present and the future," said FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo said at an international forum in Rome. "GIAHS is also about innovation and opportunities, including broadening access to new markets and businesses such as eco-labelling, agri-tourism, youth empowerment to add value to our agricultural patrimony."
The writing on the wall is saying, let us go back to our roots and learn from the people whom we have brushed to the margins of society for so long. They have a lot to teach us.
Davao itself is teeming with indigenous knowledge systems that the 11 tribes can bring over for better understanding of the land. Let us learn from them and not regard them as the unschooled and the indigent. By doing otherwise, we are wasting valuable resources and schools of thoughts that would have ensured that we can bushwhack our way against the changing of the climes.