Our Approach
For NTFP-EP, non-timber forest products and low impact forest product enterprise development is a strategy for both poverty reduction and forest conservation. Though ensuring food and health security is important for forest peoples, going beyond subsistence to improve cash incomes is also important. We see community-based enterprises as a means to enhance livelihoods, increase economic benefits to households and to secure sustainable resource management in the communities' livelihoods.
EXCEED's training and advisory program is anchored on the following principles:
Community Adapted
Tools and methodologies strive to adopt traditional knowledge, where they are present, and are customized to the realities and capacities of communities and the operations of their enterprise.
Sustainable Resource Management Anchored
From the start to the end, sustainable resource management (SRM) is made a part of the enterprise development process. Through awareness raising, systems development, resource management trainings, and impact evaluation, SRM is embedded in the community enterprise. This is both to contribute to the sustainability of the enterprises through ensured raw material supply as well as to contribute to sustainability of natural resources.
Post-Training Follow Up
Experience taught us that post training support is crucial to the sustainability of community enterprises. Activities and strategies are incorporated in the design of the project to ensure that post-training follow up support is provided. This includes mentoring, income and impact monitoring and where applicable, market link-up through our country-based market intermediaries.
Market and Community Oriented
Enterprise development is based on market information and the possibility of links to value chain actors through intermediary support including product development, production, and distribution. Market needs are balanced with communities' capacities and realities through the exploration and application of varied marketing strategies to accommodate these issues.
