by Vo Thanh Liem and Luu Hong Truong
Center for Biodiversity and Development, Vietnam
We arrived at Danau Sentarum National Park (West Kalimantan) on 28 October after departing from Vietnam on the 25th. On the second day of the trip, we gathered together with the other EP partners in Pontianak in East Kalimantan. It was an unforgettable 10 hours in the two buses from Pontianak to Sintang where we witnessed huge oil palm plantations and large degraded forests. This was the first time we saw the Kalimantan forests, which are well known as the world’s second largest tropical rainforest. Human impacts could be reflected in Kalimantan forests along the way. Local communities were scattered and looked like small clusters of villagers along the road.
The six hours on the high speed boats, which each consisted of one driver and four passengers allowed us to take photos of small villages and rubber plantations along the Kapuas River banks. Although our boat driver was very skilled, the nervousness could be seen on every face of the passengers, especially at every time we passed wavy lines which were often generated by other travelling boats. For Liem, this means of travelling is extremely strange as he has not used to work in a wetland area.
Finally, we arrived at the venue of the annual NTFP Regional Meeting – a field station with two boats of the Riak Bumi project located at a hill surrounded by interconnecting lakes and swamp forests of Danau Sentarum National Park. Our first view of the national park from the hill top at sunset was spectacular.
The presentations of the Upland Marketing Foundation Inc., Keystone Foundation, Riak Bumi/Dian Niaga, LP3M and others provided us, the Vietnamese partner CBD, with different lessons in the field of community-based enterprise development, especially those marketing local products directly to end users and international markets. Although the potential of products in the market is very important for the project’s success, even more important is the role the organisations playin helping communities approach the market and fetch fair prices.
With suitable support, the production of local communities has really improved. The field trip around Danau Sentarum has shown the success of the Association of Periaus of Danau Sentarum in mobilising themselves to apply the Internal Control System for their natural honey. This is obviously the key factor for getting the BIOCert organic certification for their honey.
In a local household ,we saw how honey was collected from the tikung that hang in the swamp forest; it looked very high quality and clean. We were impressed with the peaceful local livelihood that should be sweetened and enriched partically by their forest honey and that appeared to be better than that of the minority Raglay at Nui Chua National Park and the Cham at Ta Kou Nature Reserve in Vietnam. This success of the periaus was possible particularly because they got valuable support by Dian Niaga and Riak Bumi. We believe that Dian Niaga, whose office is located in Jakarta, has overcome many challenges to be able to act in this remote area. This reminds us of the discussions with Sneh of Keystone Foundation in Kotakiri two years ago about the advantages of their headquarter’s location right in the Nilgiris, not far away from the communities they were working with.
The Custom Made Crafts Center opens another window for NTFP development. It is successful in adapting traditional material/products into modern-styled products which are favoured by the high-end market. This dramatically contributes to add value to traded products and to improve the income of producers. Although each product may occupy its own section of the market, it was still concerned with the not-accepted traditional products with cultural value which may become partially ignored as the high-end products are favoured in the market and prioritised in production and trading.
Community-based enterprise development is a field new to CBD. As this is a must-do for the forest-dependent minority communities Raglay and Cham, as a consequence many questions and challenges are ahead. What are their needs? What are the “right” products for them to develop: charcoal, Sterculia gum, Cyclea liana, honey, bamboo, dragon’s blood, crafts? Marketing issues? Their self-mobilisation? And many other questions.
In a recent project supported by the Cordaid (Project 300/10017 D9), CBD worked with the Raglay communities in Nui Chua National Park, Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam to identify and rank their needs based on community and stakeholder workshops last December. The results from the workshops are the basis to develop a follow-up proposal which will assist the minorities and the local government to jointly develop more sustainable forest-based livelihoods in and around the park. A similar project may be developed for the Cham minority as results from CBD’s coming IUCN-supported project at Ta Kou Nature Reserve. Sharing the experience from the EP partners, including experience in community-based enterprise development, is crucial for CBD in preparing and implementing the proposals. The meeting in Danau Sentarum has generated issues that CBD and its local partners will meet and address in the near future.
We left Kalimantan with many learnt lessons and memorable notes, especially remembering the friendly local people with nice dances, sweet honey and the tasteful sago mixed with fish that we enjoyed for the first time!
CONTACT: Luu Hong Truong at hongtruongluu@yahoo.com