Conservation for Whom? Archaeology, Heritage Policy, and Livelihoods in the Ifugao Rice Terraces

This paper examines the Ifugao Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordillera as a living archaeological landscape whose conservation poses ethical questions about heritage, livelihood, and community agency. While UNESCO has designated these terraces as a World Heritage cultural landscape, conservation policies and tourism discourses often prioritize preserving their iconic rice cultivation for external consumption. Such approaches risk overlooking the dynamic social, economic, and environmental pressures facing Ifugao communities today. Using frameworks from archaeology, and historical ecology, this paper argues that conservation must move beyond aesthetic or static models to support local livelihoods, intangible heritage, and adaptive strategies. We analyze the terraces as a product of communal labor, indigenous engineering, and ritual systems, while also documenting the contemporary shift from heirloom tinawon rice to commercial crops under market and climate pressures. We also critique unequal tourism economies and explore models for equitable stewardship, including community-based tourism and environmental service fees. Finally, we call for an ethical conservation practice grounded in shared responsibility and local agency, recognizing that heritage landscapes are not relics to be frozen but living systems to be sustained in partnership with the people who maintain them.