Geographical distribution and population
It is a mountainous area with rough terrain, valleys are at 700 to 1400 m, the higher terraces being at 1600 m. Northern slopes are covered with forests of pine trees. The other slopes are covered by a variegated arboreal vegetation. In each district the land is divided into irrigated terraces, terraces for dwellings, drained fields, swidden land, cane land, private and communal forests.
The territory is 900 km2. Population density reaches 100 and even 250 inhab./km2. The Ifugao area includes about 150 agricultural districts. In the north-central Ifugao area (96 km2) there are 17 agricultural districts and part of 12 others ; each therefore covers a little less than 6 km2.
Land division in the Bontoc area :
swidden land : 6% ; irrigated terraces : 15 to 20% ; orchards : 30 to 35% ; cane land : 35%
(for swidden land) ; communal forests : 10 to 25%.
Habitat is divided into small dispersed hamlets (anything from 1 to several dozen dwellings). The house is built as close as possible to the biggest plots owned on a permanent basis.
Social organization is based on consanguinity. Kinship is reckoned bilaterally. The household includes the conjugal family and its children.
Private property applies to irrigated rice fields and orchards, both being cultivated on a permanent basis. But the swidden plot is only owned while in use, unless it is converted into an orchard or planted with useful trees. Children inherit from their parents.
Agriculture
The staple crop is rice from the irrigated fields, but swidden agriculture, mainly based on sweet potato, is absolutely necessary to supplement dietary intake when the rice crops are poor (crops of wet rice can be unreliable). All the Ifugao without exception use swidden agriculture to supplement permanent crops.
On the swiddened slopes and second and third year plots, maize, mongo beans, cajan bean and several varieties of taro (for the tuber and for its leaves), etc are cultivated.
75% of swidden land is taken from common forests and cane land. Each individual plot is less than 1/4 ha (average is 0,17 ha, ranging from 0,03 to 0,72 ha). Average cultivation period of swidden land is 3 years.
A man takes 80 to 90 days to clear and burn 1 ha, and longer in high altitude forest land. Most plots are next to each other on steep slopes and sweet potato is usually the first crop to be planted.
Permanent rice agriculture on irrigated terraces is an old practice.
days of work/year/pers.
| |
| 1
ha of irrigated terraces with rice : an average of 2.427 kg/ha
|
630
|
| 1
ha of swidden land with tubers
|
250
|
Example : a family of 5 cultivates about 1/2 ha of irrigated rice fields, 1,35 ha of orchards and woods, and 1/4 ha swidden land ; they must put in at least 400 days of work per year.
Domestic animals : fowl, pigs, some buffalo for ritual sacrifices and for consumption.
Fishing, hunting and trapping are dry season activities :
Large mammals such as wild pigs and deer ; also monkeys, civets, rodents, bats, birds, amphibians, reptiles and insects.
Seasonal gathering for personal use in private forests, cane land and secondary forests.
Medicinal plants (particularly bitter and astringent ones), timber and firewood, rattan. The products they collect are not traded for cash revenues.
The staple food is rice but they also eat a lot of sweet potato grown on the swidden. They are combined preferably with pork and also with vegetables (see table). Fruits are always eaten as snacks in between meals ; 48 different cultivated cereals, vegetables and fruits are eaten.
Craft work provides a few wooden objects and vessels for trade.
They are one of the more important ethnic groups with 36,9% of the total population of Abra province in 1975 (official census : 26,1% in 1975) ; 'Tinggian' municipalities (those including at least 66,7% of the population) own 79,1% of the total area covered by the province.
They live on the western slopes of the Cordillera Central, in the lowlands and the mountains. Lowland inhabitants are rice growers whereas those in the highlands grow dry and wet rice, using slash and burn techniques (kaingin), fish with traps and breed cattle on common land. Pine forests (Pinus insularis) predominate in the mountains ; they are exploited most excessively and the protection of the basin's slopes against erosion and of the Tinggian's traditional life-style are totally disregarded.
This company, the director of which is connected to the Marcos family, got hold of a concession over 95 565 ha on May 4, 1973. On Jan 11, 1974, a sister-company, Cellulose Processing Corporation, got the adjoining concession covering 99 230 ha. This second concession actually bypasses Philippine constitutional law that limits the concession of any single private forestry company to 100 000 ha. Thus, in less than two years, 'Cellophil' got control over 198 795 ha of pine forests covering the main watershed of North Luzon (47% of Abra province, 36% of Kalinga-Apayo province and 10% of Montagne province). These 198 795 ha are inhabited by approximately 145 000 people and this means that 'Cellophil' controls 145 000 people.
The company and government officials have tried to hide the facts from the people concerned. What is more, the Abra Tinggian were deliberately ignored as a cultural minority and excluded from the presidential decree ndeg.410 (11 March 1974) that aims at protecting the ancestral lands owned and cultivated by the cultural minorities referred to in the text.
62% of the paper pulp production is exported to Japan and then on to Europe.
In May 1974, Cellophil secretly signed in Switzerland a contract with European businessmen to finance 80% of the project's estimated cost : 1 357 billion pesos.
In 1975, Cellophil occupied 50 000 ha of lowlands that were used as pasture by the Tinggian in order to plant pine trees.
The Tinggian's increasing awareness of their situation and the development of communist guerrilla have meant that Cellophil has had to reduce its activities since 1981.
[47] CONKLIN.
[48] DORALL, 1990