Ecological Knowledge and Muyung Management among Ifugao Living beyond Their Ancestral Domain

This study examined the Muyung-related knowledge, forest management practices, and challenges of Ifugao migrants who have settled in Quirino Province. Using an exploratory qualitative design, key informant interviews were conducted with 20 elders aged 60 to 80 who had direct experience with forest management practices before and after migration and who had resided in the community for more than 10 years. Forest observations were also conducted to complement the interview data. Findings revealed that migrants continue to retain substantial ecological knowledge, particularly of forest flora, and some practice selective cutting and conservation-oriented resource use. However, traditional systems of muyung inheritance based on primogeniture, spiritual regulations governing forest use, communal forest governance, and youth participation have weakened amid increasing pressure from commercial agriculture and market-oriented livelihoods. These pressures have contributed to the abandonment and conversion of some muyung areas. The findings suggest that the continuity of Ifugao indigenous forest knowledge is not simply a matter of preservation or loss, but a layered process in which knowledge and practices persist, adapt, or erode depending on responses to changing socio-economic conditions. Thus, the need to intensify intergenerational knowledge transmission and develop locally grounded forest stewardship initiatives that support Ifugao communities living beyond their ancestral domain.

forest management, Ifugao, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP), migration, muyung,

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