A global initiative which aims to conserve "remarkable land use systems and landscapes which are rich in globally significant biological diversity" including that of the Ifugao Rice Terraces (IRT) has been approved for implementation by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Together with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), GEF initiated a wide program on conservation and adaptive management. Called the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS), it involves the use of biological resources that harmonize with traditional cultural practices and sustainable use requirements in agricultural systems.

Aside from the Philippines, other pilot areas of GIAHS include Peru, Chile, China, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria. The GIAHS will be implemented for the next six years, implementing dynamic conservation managment approaches aimed at helping local and national stakeholders in protecting the systems and their components.

Proposed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the IRT project components identified for the preservation and dynamic conservation of the rice terraces agricultural system include the following: land and water improvement, watershed management, community-based natural resource management and agricultural industry development, biodiversity restoration and conservation, revenue sourcing for project activity maintenance and sustainability, resource-mobilization institutionalization, sustainable tourism industry, social services enhancement, revival of cultural foundation, and indigenous knowledge management.

GIAHS described the rice terraces as "the country's only remaining highland mountain ecosystem featuring ingenuity of the Ifugaos and a remarkable agricultural farming system which has retained the viability as well as the efficacy of the 2000 year-old organic paddy farming."

With the IFT conservation project, the government believes that such will bring about significant environmental benefits to national heritage areas.

The GEF, a global partnership among 178 countries, international institutions, non-government organizations (NGO), and the private sector, aims to address global environmental issues while supporting national sustainable development initiatives.