Bohol may be best known for the famous Chocolate Hills, Loboc River, century-old churches, and the iconic tarsier, but a small town within this pristine province proves that it goes beyond the typical must-sees listed in travel guidebooks.

Following its commitment to bring Philippine tourism beyond the usual destinations and attractions, the Department of Tourism (DOT) is strongly pushing for sustainable, community-based travel, increasing employment and boosting grassroots-led tourism efforts that enjoin everyone in the whole locality.

Secretary Ace Durano commended the endeavors initiated by the people of Danao, appreciating what they have, and actively promoting eco-adventures in their area.  "Danao is a fourth-class municipality with first-rate leadership and first-class tourism experience.  Bohol’s natural beauty, matched with adventurous, creative minds, is reason enough for their huge growth potential in ecotourism.”

Imagine an egg, which weighs one and a half kilo and hatches into a chick as large as a full-grown hen. Imagine its long-necked mother, taller and heavier than most men, with powerful legs running as fast as a car. Imagine 600 of these creatures huddling as a herd in a farm nestled on the mountain. Fascinated yet scared, visitors of the farm are relieved to know that ostriches don't fly.

Raised as livestock animals weighing over 100 kilos each, around 600 ostriches - descendants of several pairs brought from Australia and the United States - found a home in the 10-hectare Philippine Ostrich and Crocodile Farms, Inc., an upland ranch owned by the Filipino-Chinese Limketkai family in Barangay Malanang. In the nearby Cagayan de Oro City, the Limketkai family owns one of the oldest and most familiar shopping malls.

The playful giant birds, unafraid of shorter humans, stretch their necks above the seven-foot barbed-wired fence to mingle with fascinated tourists. While they delight tourists simply by showing their huge form and round unsuspecting eyes, they are kept in the farm, primarily not for tourism, but to supply low-fat meat to fine diners in Metro Manila and other urban centers.

Cebu City - Lilo-an, a second class municipality located north of this city, has shown the way to other coastal tourist towns on how to treat wastewater flowing to the sea. The town is the site of a decentralized wastewater treatment facility, a pilot project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has significantly reduced the coliform cell counts in the seawater near the beaches.

Laya Valley, a fertile land overlooking the Cordillera mountain ranges, is fast becoming the hybrid rice seed capital of the Philippines, as farmers in this area embraced new rice varieties more enthusiastically than farmers elsewhere in the country. 

Located more than 500 kilometers north of Manila, Laya Valley, which is fed with waters from Chico River, has over 800 hectares allocated for hybrid rice seed (F1) production, rivaled only by Roxas City in Isabela province. It also cultivates 5,700 hectares for the actual planting of hybrid rice (F2).