History of ecotourism sites

Ifugao Rice Terraces

The terraces were created by Ifugao natives some 2,000 to 6,000 years ago, predating the
Colosseum of Rome and Hadrian's Wall in the U.K. The Ifugaos, the oldest mountain
tribe in the area, carved the terraces using only primitive tools and animal power.

The terraces are considered one of the most striking and enduring examples of the
ingenuity of an ancient civilization in adapting to the difficulties posed by their natural
environment, without the use of sophisticated tools or technology. Faced with the
challenge of farming rice on sloping mountain terrain, the Ifugaos carefully carved a
system of terraced pond fields following the natural contours of the mountains, and
developed intricate irrigation systems to harvest water from the mountaintop forests. The
terraces, and the agricultural methods used to farm them, have remained virtually
unchanged for thousands of years.

La mesa Eco park

As the primary source of drinking water of Metro Manila, the La Mesa Watershed is of
utmost importance. The forest in the surrounding area is the only remaining forest of its
kind in the metropolitan, providing necessary clean air. However, it came into disrepair
because of mismanagement, lack of funding, illegal logging, deforestation and illegal
settling.

To save the forest, the ABS-CBN Foundation established Bantay Kalikasan. To reforest
1500 hectares of land, the foundation got corporate sponsorship and public involvement
thru the Adopt/Protect a Tree/Hectare Project, wherein funding was raised one tree or
hectare at a time. A person can adopt a tree for as little as P250. Today, less than 200
hectares remain to be reforested.

The park in the watershed is one of the oldest parks in Metro Manila as it has been in
existence since the Marcos administration. The La Mesa Watershed was renamed La
Mesa Ecopark and reopened to the public in 2004 to generate income for the maintenance
of the area. Solicitation for donations is on going.

Today, the Ecopark is a popular outdoor destination for school field trips, corporate
groups and for families to enjoy several outdoor activities.
Marikina River Park
In the Spanish years, the area alongside the Marikina River was used as a recreational
park and the site of religious fiestas. It was also used as a thoroughfare for water vessels.
Heavy industrialization of the City in the 20th century led to the eventual pollution of the
river.

It came into disrepair in the 1970s due to heavy domestic and industrial pollution. There
were also many illegal settlers and structures built on the riverside that further
contributed to its deterioration. As a result, the river became notorious for annual
flooding in the city.

In 1993, “Save the Marikina River Project” was spearheaded by Marikina Mayor Bayani
Fernando. Flood mitigation was the primary objective and this was achieved by
constructing proper canals, drainage and sewage systems. The rehabilitation of the river
also included structural clearing, dredging of the river and the relocation of the illegal
settlers. A massive information campaign was undertaken to teach the residents in the
area about proper waste disposal and their impact on the environment. City ordinances
were created declaring an easement of 96 meters on either side of the River centerline
and clearing the space around the river.

In less than a decade since the project’s conception, the River was rehabilitated. Flooding
has been significantly mitigated. In place of the garbage and illegal settlers, there is now
a park that can be enjoyed by its City’s Residents.

During the 2009 “Ondoy” Typhoon, massive flooding occurred once again in the City
and most of the park was damaged or destroyed. However, the local government has been
working to restore the park to its former glory.

Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National

Park
The area of the Subterranean River has long aroused curiosity. Since the middle of the
XIX century it attracted attention of visitors to the area. The national park was
established in 26 March 1971 under Presidential Proclamation No. 835 and was
managed by the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources. In
1992 the boundaries of the site were inscribed with a Presidential Proclamation
under the Republic Act 7586 (NIPAS Act of 1992), and the actual management of the
national park was transferred to the City Government of Puerto Princesa, which has
Management Board of the national park. The territory of the park forms part of a
core zone of the Palawan Island Biosphere Reserve, recognized under the UNESCO
MAB Programme in 1990, and a core zone of the Ecologically Critical Area
Network (ECAN), the central element of the Strategic Environmental Plan for
Palawan Province. It was chosen as one of the protected areas for the Debt-for-
 Nature Swap Program in 1989. In 1992 the St. Paul Subterranean River National
Park won an award of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) in the
Environmental Enhancement Category. In 1993 Protected Area Management Board
based in Puerto Princesa suggested to extend park's area up to 86,000 hectares (ha).
Inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1999.

Vigan Heritage Village

The village was established in the 16th century, when trade and community activity
started to flourish along the Mestizo River, lasting up to the 19th century. The name
"Vigan" was derived from a giant taro plant "biga" that grew abundantly along the
riverbanks. Most of the materials -- such as adobe, pebbles, bricks and posts -- were
brought from Europe through the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. The
construction work was done by Chinese laborers. Thus, the village's architecture
reflects a unique fusion of Spanish European and Chinese culture.

Mount Pinatubo
The word pinatubo means "grown" in Tagalog and Sambal, which may suggest a
knowledge of its previous eruption in about AD 1500, although there is no oral tradition
among local people of earlier large eruptions. Pinatubo might instead mean a fertile place
where crops can be made to grow. An indigenous group of people, the Aetas (also spelled
as Ayta), had lived on the slopes of the volcano and in surrounding areas for several
centuries, having fled the lowlands to escape persecution by the Spanish. They were a
hunter-gatherer people who were extremely successful in surviving in the dense jungles
of the area. These people also grew some staple crops such as wheat, barley, and rice.

Before the catastrophic eruption of 1991, Pinatubo was an inconspicuous volcano,

unknown to most people in the surrounding areas. Its summit was 1,745 m (5,725 ft)
above sea level, but only about 600 m above nearby plains, and about 200 m higher than
surrounding peaks, which largely obscured it from view. Philippine President Ramon
Magsaysay, a native of Zambales, named his C-47 presidential plane "Mt. Pinatubo". The
plane crashed in 1957, killing the President and 24 others onboard.[8]

In total, about 30,000 people lived on the flanks of the volcano in barangays (villages)
and other small settlements. The dense jungle covering most of the mountain and
surrounding peaks supported the hunter-gathering Aeta, while on the surrounding flatter
areas, the abundant rainfall (almost 4 m annually) provided by the monsoon climate and
the fertile volcanic soils provided excellent conditions for agriculture, and many people
grew rice and other staple foods.

Aetas living near Pinatubo worship the creator named Apo na Malyari who lives at the
peak. According to them, this creator caused the 1991 eruption because of displeasure
toward illegal loggers and Philippine National Oil Company executives who have drilled
into the mountain for geothermal heat. Some of the Aetas stayed on the mountainside,
hiding in caves; only three people survived. However after the quake, they felt as if their
god had betrayed them.[9]

Taal Volcano
Taal Volcano is part of a chain of volcanos along the western side of the edge of the
island of Luzon, which were formed by the subduction of the Eurasian Plate underneath
the Philippine Mobile Belt. Taal Lake lies within a 25–30 km caldera formed by four
explosive eruptions between 500,000 and 100,000 years ago. Each of these eruptions
created extensive ignimbrite deposits, reaching as far away as where Manila stands today.

Since the formation of the caldera, subsequent eruptions have created another volcanic
island, within the caldera, known as Volcano Island. This island covers an area of about
23 km², and consists of overlapping cones and craters. Forty-seven different cones and
craters have been identified on the island.

El Nido Marine Reserve

El Nido has been inhabited by humans as early 2680 BC, or even up to 22,000 years ago.
[9]
This was confirmed by the fossils and burial sites, dating back to the Late Neolithic
Age, that can be found in many caves and excavation sites surrounding the municipality,
particularly the Ille Cave in New Ibajay. Chinese traders had been regularly visiting the
area of El Nido for its edible birds' nests during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 BC). In
fact, El Nido is specifically mentioned in Chinese records as far back 1225 BC. Caho Ju-
Kua, a member of the Chinese Royal Family, Trade Commissioner and Superintendent of
Customs of the Port of Chuan How wrote about the island, Pa-Lao-Yu or Land of
Beautiful Harbors in his book Chu Fan Chai.[4]

The town traces its roots from a small Tagbanua village called Talindak. Some time in
the 16th century, waves of migrants from Cuyo Islands came here to settle. In the 1800s,
the Spaniards arrived, and they moved to the part where the present-day Población and
Mabini are located.[4] The first Spanish families were the Canovas, Vázquez, Ríos and
Rey. In 1890, the Spaniards renamed it as Bacuit. At the time, the center of the town was
Cabigsing, then known as Inventario. Chinese families moved into the area about the
same period, first settling in Langeblangeban. The first Chinese settlers were named Lim,
Chin, Liao, Edsan, Ambao, Que-Ke, Lim Piao, Yu His, Pe Phan and Pe Khen.[4]

During the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, the town was under the jurisdiction of
the Municipality of Taytay, which was the capital of the former Province of Calamianes
from 1818, and the Province of Castilla, the area of what is now known as northern
Palawan, from 1858. It remained part of Taytay until 1916 when it formally became an
independent municipality.[4] The new municipality was then known as Bacuit.

On June 17, 1954, Republic Act no. 1140[10] was approved changing the name of the town
from Bacuit to its present name, El Nido, after the edible nests of swiftlets, collocalia
fuciphaga, found in the crevices of its limestone cliffs. These nests, "nido" in Spanish, the
main ingredient for the gourmet nido soup, are being sold at approximately US$ 3,000
per kilogram.[3]

Because El Nido was quite remote from most of the inhabited islands in the Philippines,
its pristine beauty was hidden to the world until 1979 when a sea accident happened in
Bacuit Bay. As the story goes, "a tuna line disabled a dive boat's propeller in the middle
of the night forcing it to drop anchor in an inlet. The following morning, the divers woke
up to an amazing scenery of skyscraping dark cliffs, thick green forest, white sandbeach,
sparkling water and, rising above it, a series of magnificently sculpted jade islands."[4]

In 1983, a dive station was established in Miniloc Island by a group of divers who were
on board the diveboat M/V Via Mare. In the same year, major tourism commenced in El
Nido, when the Ten Knots Development Corporation, a Filipino-Japanese joint venture
company, opened a divers' resort on Miniloc Island, and an airstrip (Lio Airport) at Villa
Libertad on the mainland. In 1992, the company set up a second resort on Pangulasian
Island, and in 1998, the third and largest Ten Knots resort on Lagen Island. The opening
of the third resort coincided with the destruction of the Pangulasian Resort by fire.
During this period several other tourism establishments were developed, paving the way
for tourism to become a thriving economic sector.[4]

El Nido is a showcase of the Philippines' geological and biological diversity. In

recognition of the importance of its unique ecosystem, the Philippine government made
the entire area of El Nido first to a turtle sanctuary in 1984, then to a marine reserve park
in 1991[11], and finally in 1998, to that of a managed resource protected area.[12]

Malapascua Island
The name of the island dates back to the arrival of the Spaniards, who landed on the
island on a stormy Christmas day. Hence the name Malapascua, from the Spanish for
“unfortunate Christmas.”

During World War II it was known as Logon, after the dominant southern community, by
the Japanese and Spaniards who fought over the island. Some relics from that time
remain on the island and in its waters.