Indigenous strategies have been practiced in the Philippine uplands and they have maintained the

sustainability of upland farming systems for generations. A collaborative activity among researchers,
extensionists and practitioners from UPLB, BSU, HARRDEC, ICRAF, DENR-CAR, DA-CHARM, and NCIP was
carried out to document and understand the indigenous strategies of farming systems in Bayyo, Mt.
Province. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) activities including transect lines, resource mapping, key
informant interviews, and mind mapping were conducted with selected participants from the
community.

Most households in Bayyo maintain three production systems: irrigated rice fields (payew), permanent
swidden (katualle), and shifting cultivation (uma) plots. All three production systems are essential for
their survival. Local people practice a variety of indigenous strategies to sustain productivity in these
production systems. These include terracing, crop rotation, mixed cropping, soil fertility management,
and the sweetpotato cropping system.

Payew fields are flat terraces built along the mountainsides with terrace sides fortified with stone walls.
These fields are irrigated with water from nearby spring water to grow paddy rice. Terracing is also
practiced in the katualle to reduce the steepness of the slope of the fields and to reduce soil erosion.
Different systems of crop rotation and mixed cropping of rice, sweet potato, and peanuts are practiced
in the three production systems to sustain crop productivity. Soil fertility in the payew fields is
maintained by the application of the indigenous species Tithonia diversifolia. Laying removed weeds
around sweetpotato plants as mulch is the main soil fertility management and weed control in the
katualle fields. Fallowing is an important component of the shifting cultivation cycle in the uma fields.
Sweet potato is the second staple food crop in Bayyo and farmers keep a collection of a diverse array of
sweet potato varieties suited to different growing conditions and with varying characteristics of growing
season length, herbage yield, drought tolerance and tuber storage longevity.

PRA results have shown that indigenous practices kept the upland farms in Bayyo sustainable through
the years.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J064v26n02_09
There have been several recent reviews concerning natural resource management in the Philippines.
These reviews examined government policy, the political climate, and the institutional framework and
made numerous specific recommendations for a major reorientation. In addition, the Master Plan for
Forestry Development (Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 1990) has recently been
issued by the Philippine government. It lays out a framework for forestland management over the next
25 years. It sets a detailed, optimistic agenda that adopts a strategy of reduced public management in
favor of increased private management of forest resources through people-oriented forestry.

Although this profile focuses on the dynamics of upland agricultural technology in relation to
deforestation, many factors other than agricultural technology have a stronger direct influence on the
rate and extent of forest depletion or conversion. These factors include inappropriate forest policy, poor
policy implementation, and the insecurity of land tenure among upland farm populations. Commercial
logging (legal and illegal) directly caused the majority of old-growth forest depletion during the past half
century, and it continues to do so today. The accessibility to remote forestlands brought about by the
opening of logging roads stimulated the settlement of small-scale farmers and resulted in the
subsequent conversion of depleted forests to farms.

The initial sections of this profile examine the present state of the natural resource base of the uplands
and past trends in resource degradation. The profile then reviews the importance of land and forest
resources to the political economy of the Philippines and the failure of development in the Philippines in
the post-World War II period.

The traditional weather forecasting methods (weather lore) used by the weatherwise folks (farmers,
fishermen and housewives) as guide in their farming and fishing activities and for self-help disaster
preparedness were documented. Weatherwise folks from the remote barangays [villages] of seventeen
municipalities of Ilocos Norte had almost similar indicators for the onset of rainy season or occurrence of
adverse weather condition. Among the documented weather lore, respondents claim that the unusual
behavior of ants, earthworms, dragonflies, dogs, frogs and birds like Himalayan swiftlet, lesser caucal,
plaintive cuckoo, heron or honeybees usually predict an upcoming rain, typhoon or bad weather. The
ripening and shedding of fruits of plants such as physic nut, bangkal and siniguelas were also considered
by farmers as reliable indicators of the onset of rainy season. A long parallel band of feathery clouds,
and moon with rings were also important clues to predict weather. For fisher folks, the visible seawater
evaporation and high sea waves were the most preferred indicators. These traditional weather
forecasting had been used by the respondents for many years as handed down to most of them by their
forefathers. These weather lore were more preferred than the information provided by PAGASA
[Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration] which to them,
PAGASA's information is oftentimes very general.

http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=PH2002001109

The connection between man and plants is enormously important because plants affect every aspect of
man’s existence by providing an incessant source of varying materials i.e. food, timber, fibres, dyes,
tools and many others. Medicinal plants have been used for treatment since ancient times and are still
in use all over the world. Of the 422,000 flowering plants found globally (Govaerts [1] as cited by Abe et
al. [2]) more than 50,000 are used for medicinal purposes [3]. The practices of plant-based traditional
medicine are based on hundreds of years of belief and observations which predate the development of
modern medicine [4].

Medicinal plants and herbs have been used for many centuries as a source of people’s medicines for the
prevention and treatment of diseases and still provide the first line of primary health-care even in the
present age to major segments of the population worldwide. According to the World Health
Organization (2003), it is estimated that up to 80% of the population depends exclusively on plants for
their health and healing.

Indigenous knowledge refers to the cumulative and complex bodies of knowledge, know-how, practices
and representations that are maintained and developed by local communities, who have long histories
with interactions with the natural environment. With the growing threat of losing traditional knowledge
in the modern time, many efforts have been made to record and publish this knowledge. In the past few
years, a renewed interest on the natural method of treatment or traditional medicine arose worldwide.
In recent years, work on ethnobotanical knowledge worldwide has dramatically increased especially in
some parts of Europe, Asia and Africa (Pieroni et al. [5] as cited by Balangcod [6]). Despite many ethno-
medicinal studies that were performed all over the world, a relatively few documentation on ethno-
medicinal plant is done in the Philippines, with some focusing only on well-known indigenous peoples
including the Pinatubo Negritoes and their use of plant resources; the Tasadays in Mindanao, who have
been a subject of various studies; the Itawes of Cagayan and the Ibaloi of Benguet province and their
utilization of forest resources [7].

The information and folk knowledge regarding the medicinal and therapeutic uses of these indigenous
plant materials have been handed down from generation to generation through verbal communication
[8,9]. Studies in the ethnobotany of cultural groups that rely on the oral tradition to pass on traditional
medicinal plant knowledge from generation to generation indicates that in addition to the great wealth
of knowledge of economically useful plants, these cultural groups also have an extensive knowledge of
economically useful plants and the traditional techniques used to manage, harvest and conserve these
species [10,11].

There is no specific history record as to how Santol got its name but tradition speaks of two accounts
which are tied up to a tree called Santol. The first version states that this place was once a favourite
hunting ground of people of the Ilocandia, notably the people from San Vicente, Ilocos Sur who were
very much interested in sculpture especially in the making of images. They came to see a big tree which
is now called as Santol tree and from then on made it their main material in making images. During
those days then, idols/images locally termed as “Santo” were made out mostly of said tree. In the same
manner that the tree got its name ‘Santol’, because of its common use as material for making “Santo”,
the municipality also got its name from that historic tree, hence, Santol.

According to the second version, the more popular one, it was during the Spanish-American war that
Santol got its name. It is said that when the Spanish soldiers pass by the place, they met women carrying
baskets full of ripe santol fruits. The soldiers asked the name of the place, but, the women did not
understand Spanish and just though that the soldiers were asking the name of the fruit they are
carrying. They answered, “Santol, Apo.” The soldiers did not understand the local dialect and all they
remembered was the word Santol, hence the name of the place.

During the early settlement of the Spaniards, the ancient inhabitants were Igorots and new Christians.
The Igorots lived in the formerly virgin forests along the deep streams when a group of new Christians
came. Slowly, they pushed the Igorots to the remote mountain sides. Intermarriages between Ilocanos
and Igorots soon followed. From this, more and more people adopted Ilocano as their dialect. As of 1995
census, 70% of the population speak llocano. Other dialects spoken are kan-kanaey by 31.20%, Bontoc
by 0.15% and Tagalog by 0.33%.

Santol considered being formerly a part of the municipality of Balaoan becomes a township in 1908
under the sub-province Amburayan, Mountain Province. In 1922, Mountain Province relinquished Santol
to become a part of the municipal district of La Union.

The town of Santol is considered a safe harbor for there had been no distinct destruction of lives or
properties during the historic events regarding wars and calamities. Such was true during the Spanish
regime and Japanese occupation. Evidence of this is that Barrio Mangan was set aside as the place of the
military emergency hospital. It was also here where the center of distribution of food supplies for army
personnel was located while Barrio Banbanaba was site of message center directly in touch with all the
barrios of Balaoan, Santol, San Gabriel and Sudipen.

Most of the residents are farmers who live near/on mountains, plains and farmlands. Based on the 2010
Census of Population and Housing, out of the 12, 007 residents, 5016 are considered to be indigenous
peoples of Kankaney and Bago origin. The indigenous peoples in Santol exhibit a remarkably high degree
of cultural and environmental interdependence.

The use of plants by indigenous peoples all over the world has been underreported and this prevents
the scientific community from benefiting from traditional knowledge which has taken centuries to
develop in the form we know them today. Nowadays, indigenous knowledge on medicinal plants is fast
diminishing because as more plants are lost, so is the knowledge of their value to humanity. In the
study, the relationship between the Kankanaey and Bago and plants will be demonstrated. This study
aimed to document the indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants among the indigenous peoples of
Santol in terms of the (a) plants they used to combat disease, (b) parts of the plant used, (c) modes of
preparation, (c) how such knowledge is obtained and transmitted, and (d) frequency of use. It also
defined the previous and current status and cultivation practices pertinent to the plant utilized for
medicinal purpose and provided insights on some possible threats to their traditional knowledge. The
conservation of ethnobotanical knowledge is becoming increasingly important; thus this research aimed
to document the use of medicinal plants and healing practices in Santol, La Union, identify the most
important species, determine the relative value of species and calculate the informant consensus
factors. Finding of this research will provide a data base for future research and potential source for the
development of new drugs.

https://ejbio.imedpub.com/ethnomedicinal-knowledge-of-plants-among-the-indigenouspeoples-of-
santol-la-union-philippines.php?aid=21461

People in rural communities in Ilocos Norte Province in the Philippines rely heavily on traditional
knowledge, particularly for predicting weather to plan and prepare their agroforestry activities as well as
disaster prevention. Farmers use this knowledge, derived from observations of atmospheric and
astronomic conditions, indicator plants and behavior of animals (insects, birds, and mammals) which
signal the onset of the rainy season. These indicators prompt farmers to prepare their upland farmlands
for cropping to ensure that vegetative ground cover is established prior to heavy rainfall and thereby
prevent erosion of upland soil and siltation of watercourses. Predictive knowledge of the timing of long
or short rainy periods enables farmers to plant suitable crops.
According to a traditional weather forecaster from the Philippines, a flood is believed to be coming
when wasps build their honeycombs high in the tops of trees, and strong winds are anticipated when
they build them near the ground ( Galacgac and Balisacan, 2009)

Galacgac and Balisacan (2009) mentioned that Philippine people used crustaceans, such as shrimps and
crabs, as indicators of upcom- ing typhoons, by observing them exhibit the behaviors of migrating from
rivers to brack- ish water or crawling out of the water to riverbanks.

Indigenous knowledge is often passed on from one generation to the other by the custodians and is not
widely documented. A combination of plants, animals, insects, meteorological, and astronomical
indicators were commonly used for assessment and prediction (Galacgac and Balisacan 2009, Chang'a et
al. 2010, Acharya 2011, Egeru 2012). The most common IK indicators in Lushoto are birds (swallows,
hornbills, owls, coucals, and golden orioles), animals (baboons, monkeys, and antelopes), insects (thrips,
ants, bees, locusts, and butterflies), shrubs and trees

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248428470_Traditional_weather_forecasting_for_sustainabl
e_agroforestry_practices_in_Ilocos_Norte_Province_Philippines

Galacgac, E.

Balisacan, C.