Agri-Ecotourism Village in Davao Essay

Davao City, a modern metropolis bursting with life, verve and color, located in a land area of 244,000 hectares touted as the world’s largest in land area. This city, teeming with a vibrant populace, is bustling hub of commerce, education, tourism, arts, culture and wellness in Southern Philippines. (Department of Tourism 2013). It is one of the fastest developing cities in the Philippines. Because of the vastness of its area, the city has within it a series of different ancestries and cultural communities. This fast-paced urbanization has caused many of our cultures to become victim of neglect. The indigenous communities continue to grow smaller and smaller every year bringing with them some of the old practices that we have long forgotten. Culture is no longer of importance in our society unlike modernization. The more we develop, the more we push these Indigenous people farther from our society and farther from their origins resulting in poor living environments and the loss of our own culture. Agriculture is a significant factor in the growth of our country. It produces 17% of our GDP and involves 33% of Philippine Labor. 66% of countries poorest population is composed of the agriculture sector and 33% percent of this contributes to the greenhouse emission. Organic agriculture is a contributor to the city’s economy and the attainment of food security, ecological sustainability and the wellbeing of the people of Davao City. Organic agriculture cannot co-exist with genetically-modified crops, chemically produced crops and related organisms. The demand for organic products produced by these indigenous communities increase every year. Global demand for organic products is estimated at 15. 6 Billion Dollars, while RP organic exports have only reached 18 Million dollars. (Avila 2013) The preservation of our cultures is important as well as helping the indigenous community. Other than helping preserve our culture, we can also benefit from the old practices and harness from it, other resources found within the Indigenous Community. This study was conducted so as to find ways on how not to saturate but to improve this community’s way of living without the use of highly extractive resources but the use of sustainable resources instead. It hopes to find way in improving the agricultural sector as well as promote it to the public. The design shall adapt to the indigenous peoples way of living without necessarily using modern Architecture but of using Indigenous Architecture. It shall be a model for any future developments on indigenous villages.