Rice Paddies in the Philippines
These rice paddies gently slope down the side of a mountain in the Philippines, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean. The paddies were begun in the 1600s, and have been used for 400 years. They were dug from a steep, rocky mountainside by people who lived in the area—all before modern machines. WMF wants to preserve the paddies because they are examples of advanced engineering and building by farmers who had the simplest of tools. The paddies also show the smart ways that some people farmed hundreds of years ago.