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Add to Preferred SourcesSlow Food and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, hosted by FAO, have signed an agreement to improve the livelihoods of mountain people, with a special focus on Cordillera’s mountain community in the Philippines.
The agreement comes ahead of the International Mountain Day – a day celebrated each year on 11 December to highlight the importance of mountains to people’s lives and livelihoods.
The two organizations committed to creating stronger synergies between mountain food products and sustainable tourism services. This includes promoting high-quality, indigenous, mountain food products and helping vulnerable mountain communities to tap into the rising demand for sustainable, fair-trade, quality food.
At the centre of the new agreement signed lies a pilot project – “Food & Tourism for Mountain Development” – developed by the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, Slow Food and the Department of Tourism in the Philippines.
“The project will connect small-scale producers with tourism service providers, help promote high-quality mountain products from Philippines’ Cordillera region, and allow visitors to discover and support unique biodiversity, like heirloom rice,” said FAO Project Coordinator Giorgio Grussu.
“It will help safeguard indigenous foods whilst boosting the local economy, promoting climate-resilient agriculture and generating more income for Cordillera’s mountain communities,” he added.
The project builds on the voluntary labelling scheme for mountain products (MPP) developed by the Mountain Partnership Secretariat and Slow Food in 2016. The scheme promotes access to markets for small mountain producers in developing countries, enabling them to obtain a fair price for their products, and helps customers make more informed purchases. It also draws from the Slow Food Travel initiative, which creates travel itineraries that promote local culture and gastronomic diversity.
Food and tourism for mountain development in the Philippines
The Cordilleras is the most mountainous region of the Philippines. It is also one of the poorest and most marginalized, with poverty levels above 40 percent – twice as much as the national average.
The new project, funded by Italy, will be implemented in Cordilleras’ Benguet and Ifugao provinces, for the benefit of more than 800 000 people.
The region’s mountains host unique rice terraces, including the Ifugao Rice Terraces – recognized as both a UNESCO World Heritage site and an FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS).
The project will help identify high-quality mountain products, such as the Ifugao rice, enlist them in the voluntary labelling scheme for mountain products, train small-scale producers in agro-ecological and Slow Food practises, and support them to market their products, by connecting them to tourism service providers, chefs and specialised food businesses and outlets across the country.
Original source: FAO
Published on 10 December 2018