Banaue is a 4th class municipality in the province of Ifugao, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 20,563 people in 3,952 households. It is widely known as the site of the Banaue Rice Terraces. The rice terraces once stretched northeast to Cagayan and as far south as Quezon. However they are now slowly being abandoned and showing signs of deterioration. A severe 1990 earthquake damaged some of the terraces' irrigation systems, while El Niño triggered droughts that led giant earthworms to erode the terraces' soil. Furthermore, the rice variety most suited to the area's cool climate is not a high-yielding crop; because it takes so long to mature, some Ifugao families have abandoned their land in the rice terraces in favor of land that reaps faster rewards.
