It was a great opportunity for us, on behalf of our indigenous peoples, to join the invaluable 3rd Crafts Conference in Manila, Philippines.
The title of the conference alone – Bridging Culture and Commerce 2006: Strengthening the Crafts Enterprises of Indigenous Communities – made me eager to join. It is true that we are starting our indigenous handicrafts development for forest-based communities in Cambodia. We have found the conference useful for our crafts development initiatives for the indigenous communities who live in the forests.
Before coming to this conference, I realised that we just woke up in Cambodia, and now we have got up and been moving with a tough commitment towards crafts development in order to improve the livelihoods of the marginalised and disadvantaged communities, particularly indigenous people in Cambodia. We fortunately have learnt a lot from experiences and lessons of the NTFP-TF/EP and participants who attended the conference.
For instance, I appreciate that Salay Handmade Paper Industries has progressed from a 10-member handicrafts group in 19 years. Speakers made their excellent presentations in plenary sessions and group discussions in which we have learnt from experiences and consultations on production system, product development, marketing, entrepreneurial enterprise development, leading and management. We have not only learnt from successful stories and opportunities, but also tips for overcoming barriers and difficulties. More importantly Ms. Nola, Crafts Coordinator and Ms. Crissy, Deputy Director of NTFP-TF/EP friendly shared with us a lot of their experiences in indigenous crafts development, especially Customade and Modi, including community-based enterprise development, crafts production and development, and marketing. These are absolutely useful for indigenous handicrafts development in Cambodia.
We appreciate the excellent organization of this crafts conference. Not only the local participants who can benefit from it, but also participants from Cambodia and Malaysia can understand the process with friendly and good interpretation. This is really unforgettable. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank all NTFP-TF/EP for their collaborative and friendly communication in both personal and professional manner. Mr. Samnol and I felt like we had never left our country and was working with our own colleagues in Cambodia because of their goodness and friendliness. We returned home with inspiration and much knowledge and experiences regarding crafts development.
Attending the crafts conference, we have created more useful relations among participants including community leaders, speakers, crafts makers, cooperatives, peoples organisations, and NGOs. We do hope that this relation will bring us to work together for the benefits of communities in the future. And I expect that our indigenous crafts makers will have an opportunity to attend the 4th Crafts Conference next year.
What CAN-DO can do:
CAMBODIAN NTFP DEVELOPMENT ORgANIZATION (CAN-DO) “Towards sustainable forest-based livelihoods in Cambodia“
We are pleased to introduce CAN-DO, a local Cambodian non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious organisation established in June 2006 by a group of Cambodian development workers. CAN-DO is committed to promote NTFP-based livelihoods development in Cambodia through sustainable integration between forest, particularly NTFP conservation and economic development. Marginalized and disadvantaged forest-based cormmunities, particularly indigenous ones are our targeted beneficiaries.
Our Vision: Rural communities of Cambodia live in prosperous and dignified condition through sustainable forest resources management, community economic development and promotion of social well-being.
Our Mission
– To contribute to strengthening the capacity of local communities for the sustainable forest resources management, in particular, NTFP management, and to socio-economic development.
– To promote the rehabilitation of social culture, tradition and structure of Cambodia, particularly in local communities.
– To increase local products of NTFPs using community-based NTFPs sustainably
– To promote appropriate market opportunities and strategies for the sustainable NTFP products.
Strategies
– Empower local communities by strengthening their capacity to sustainably manage their forests, particularly NTFPs, through NTFP processing, production and marketing
– Promote community-based NTFPs by providing market access services undertake community-based economic development means linking with forests conservation that are appropriate for the local communities in which self-help groups, local small NTFP-based enterprises are encouraged and promoted
– Link and network with local communities, NGOs, relevant government institutions, the private sector and other stakeholders in implementing the overall process to ensure that local social culture and structure are promoted, local communities have access to tenure rights, local forests and NTFPS are managed and used in a sustainable manner, and local products have market access
Present activities: CAN-DO is currently focusing on bamboo, rattan, forest honey and malva nut development in order to improve forest-based livelihoods development. We are starting an indigenous handicrafts development aiming to promote the livelihood and preservation of cultures of local communities.
Partnership and cooperation: We are now working closely with NTFP-EP, Traidcraft and other local partners. In order to run our forest-based livelihoods development in sustainable manner, CAN-DO encourages and promotes the networking and cooperation with international, regional and local NgOs, funding agencies, experts, academic institutions, and private bodies to transform the local initiatives into the sustainable development.
Contact: Sarim Heang
CAN-DO, Village Six, Labanseak, Banlung, Ratanakiri province, Cambodia
Tel: 855-75-974 819
Email: candontfp[AT]camintel.com, candontfp[AT]yahoo.com (replace [AT] with @)
