Month: October 2008

More than a basket, the tingkep is a reflection of the life and culture of the Pala’wan, an indigenous community of the Philippines. This handicraft combines the artwork of humans and their forest. Now that there are threats to the forests of Palawan island, the Pala’wan people are also threatened by the potential loss of their homes and their traditions.

After four years, the NTFP-Task Force finally launched the Tingkep book through the support of Doen Foundation. At a Crafts and Coffee featuring Pala’wan Crafts last 31 July, authors Norli Colili and Nola Andaya presented the book to the public and to the Pala’wan People through Lito Lingaw, one of the resource people for the book. The book highlights the strong link between the community and their forest which is reflected in this traditional craft. Featured in the book are tingkep makers, Nolita and Sumbia.

During the launch, Lito Lingaw and Norli Colili shared stories about the culture of the Pala’wan to the people who came to join the celebration. Lito also shared his talent in playing the kusyapi.

The book and the tingkep baskets are now being sold at the CustomMade Crafts Center. Proceeds from the sales of the tingkep book will support the tingkep makers of Amas and Ransang, Palawan as well as fund other initiatives to document traditional crafts of other indigenous communities. To order a copy of the book, email sales@cmcrafts.org.

By RIDZKI SIGIT, Gekko Studio-Telapak

Saturday, 12 April in the afternoon. The lovely Bogor Botanical Garden became witness of the big day to promote Dorsata Brand, a new innovative honey product. Organized by Telapak, the Jaringan Madu Hutan Indonesia (JMHI) and NTFP-EP, this coalition has been working to save the Indonesia forest by promoting the use of non-timber forest products.

Although the rains fell in Bogor, it did not dampen the spirits of the children who prepared their special dance for this event. This group of International Elementary School students turned out to be the stars of the show, in their bee costumes, shaking their heads and their hips to the rhythm of music to the delight of about 50 people who attended the reception.

Pak Johnny Utama of Dian Niaga then explained why this coalition has been working for a couple years to establish the honey business line. “We are not only looking for profits from the nature. We established this business to protect the natural forest by developing an incentive scheme for the people. This business is very unique, because the profits from honey selling are being shared – one-third for the community, one-third for assisting NGO and one-third for marketing (Dian Niaga).” One for all, and all for one!

The packaging of Dorsata brand has a professional touch, with its attractive logo and the background story of the honey – the honey is from the forests, harvested by forest-dependent people, and is of the best quality. Dorsata honey also has an edge, having received organic certification from BioCert, a National Food Certification body. Moreover, unlike honey from ‘bee plantations,’ the taste of forest honey is unique and depends on the flower and other forest species consumed by the bees. So honey from Danau Sentarum differs from Sumbawa honey, as well as Sulawesi honey.

All of the Dorsata brand honey is produced by the indigenous people of the preserved forest, including Sentarum Lake National Park in West Kalimantan and other places in Indonesia. For four tons in each harvest, PT Dian Niaga – sole distributor – sells a 300 gram bottle of honey for Rp 75,000 (US$7.89). “We focus on selling to the national market, but we have started to receive orders from Korea and Japan,” said Johnny Utama.

The launching of the Dorsata brand in Bogor Botanical Garden has opened up promotion channels in Bogor areas for JMHI. With a population of nearly one million residents, Bogor is a good distribution point for the brand. “This is the big chance to open people’s minds that honey is a health food with no chemical ingredients,” said Heri Valentinus, the coordinator of JMHI.

A honey talk show

Hosted by Ms. Riyanni Djangkaru, a popular Indonesian television artist, the discussion welcomed speakers from different stakeholder groups: Heri Valentinus (JMHI), Johnny Utama (Dian Niaga), Suwignyo (the Head of Danau Sentarum National Park) and Surianto (a honey collector from Danau Sentarum).

Following the statement of Heri Valentinus, Pak Surianto, a member of Apis dorsata honey collectors group in Sentarum, said they harvested honey from the forest from October and March while relying on freshwater fishing to make a living the rest of the year. Previously the tribe had cut trees down to harvest the honey.

“Local environmental group Riak Bumi taught us how to take honey without destroying the ecosystem … We rely too much on the forest for our livelihood, so we are keeping it safe,” Surianto said.

In response, Pak Suwignyo said the 132,000-hectare forest is the biggest wetland ecosystem in Kalimantan and home to the indigenous Iban and Malay tribes. “We support the environmentalists in training residents on the best way to harvest honey and how to make and install beehives in tree tops … they have an approach of ‘saving the forest through honey production,” Pak Suwignyo said.

Riak Bumi and the NTFP Exchange Programme initiated the formation of the network which has currently expanded to work with honey collectors, cooperatives, local non-governmental organizations and the regional administrations in Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Sumatra islands and Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara, Valentinus said. During the discussion, a short video clip was shown to demonstrate the real condition of the national park and the honey farmer activities. This video was produced by Gekko Studio, a filmmaker group based in Bogor, and is used by JMHI/Dian Niaga as a promotion tool for scaling-up their marketing, through the AMWAY network.

Honey tasting

After discussions, the time for honey tasting came. All participants were enjoined to taste the various honey from Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumbawa. Which is the best one? Depending on your preference, according to one guest that I interviewed, she said that “All honey has its characteristic, and I want to buy all the bottles!” For those of you who stay in Bogor, the Dorsata brand is already being sold at Telapak Café, Jl. Pajajaran no. 54.

To close the event, Jenne de Beer, Executive Director of NTFP-EP said, “This initiative is a good model for gaining public attention. We can use what the forest has to offer but we should take care of it. We need to give incentives to the community people to start a business model without forgetting the very heart of the business – the forests.”

It’s five o’clock in the afternoon and we must close the celebration with a new spirit in the heart; the starting point is already there, and we will continue to make it bigger and bigger. Congratulations to NTFP-EP, JMHI and its members! Let’s keep this spirit.

Ridzki Sigit, Gekko Studio
Jl. Palem Putri 3 No. 1, Taman Yasmin 5
Bogor, West Java, Indonesia 16112
Tel. +62 251 843151 Email: rrsigit@gmail.com
With some citation from the article titled ‘The Sweetest Way to Save Forests’ written by Theresia Sufa/the Jakarta Post. All photos for this article by Wahyu Widhi.]

Sam Ly and Phan Channa join Femy Pinto as NTFP-EP’s country programme support team, opening a project and network office in Phnom Penh last June. This coincides with the project partnership implementation of NTFP-EP, WWF & Community Forestry International on sustainable honey harvesting and marketing in Cambodia supported by the Netherlands Committee IUCN.

Femy Pinto, NTFP-EP Cambodia Facilitator, shares “While our space is limited, we hope that the office can serve many functions – a meeting and work area especially for our province-based network partners while they are in Phnom Penh, a display and consignment area for our partners’ NTFPs like honey and indigenous crafts, and a place to stop by for information and resource materials on NTFP livelihood development. This can only boost our networking and cooperation further.”

Welcome to the Cambodia NTFP-EP team and congratulations!

By PANDURANG HEGDE, Appiko/Prakruti

In the month of May, two unique festivals were celebrated under the canopy of green trees in the coconut and mango orchards of Tyagali and Golikai villages near Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district. These festivals were none other than Jenu Habba or the Festival of Honey.

Jyothi, a young girl who participated in the festival said, “I never knew that it would be such fun. It has helped me learn a lot about honey bees and it has also removed the fear of bees in me.”

Like Jyothi, many children and adults enjoyed the taste of fresh honey and the honey comb.

This festival was part of the activities of Prakruti (an offshoot of Appiko or Chipko movement), a non-governmental organisation based in the tropical forests of Western Ghats in Sirsi, Uttara Kannada district, to propagate bee keeping and create awareness about the importance of honey bees. In the true spirit of the festival, the entire village and people from the surrounding villages participated in the festival.

The festival was launched with a discussion on the importance of honey bees for nature. Who does the pollination without payment? How important is pollination? Can it be done manually as it is done for vanilla beans? These were some of the queries that were answered in the festival.

The invaluable service provided by the honeybees was brought to the notice of the participants, especially children and youth. The participants discussed the different kinds of honey bees like rock bees (Apis dorsata), thudavi (Apis cerana) and stingless bees (Apis floraea). The festival that kick started with questions and discussions was followed up by practical work with honey bees and bee boxes. After the initial introduction to honey bees, the participants were taken to the bee box. Deepak, a young bee keeper, explained about bee keeping and how the bees are kept in the bee box. The box was opened and the participants were shown the way bee colonies work. They were shown the worker bees, those who go and collect the pollen and honey, and how they keep the entire box clean, dividing work among them. They were also shown the drones which just eat and do no work! Eventually, they were shown the queen bee, the central figure in the bee box, which lays eggs to develop the bee colony.

How do queen bees survive for two to three years laying eggs and oozing pheromone to attract the other bees? The entire life of bees was explained to all the participants who were even allowed to handle both the bees and the honeycomb. Though bees do sting when they are hurt, fortunately during the festival, they were very cooperative and did not sting at all! The participants also got an opportunity to see honeycomb in the upper chamber of the bee box called super. The sealed honey comb was cut and honey was extracted by the hand machine. The fresh honey thus collected was distributed to all the participants along with honeycomb. For first time tasters of finger-licking good fresh honey and the honeycomb, it was indeed a moment of ecstasy.

The participants were also shown products made from bee wax. There were candles that were naturally made from wax paper or foundation sheet. The difference between the candles made of petroleum product that are available in the market and the candles made from bee wax was discussed. There were also products like the bee wax balm and cream for cracked lips. The high potential of bee wax as a source of alternative livelihood was also discussed.

Dr. S. T. Prabhu, an Entomologist from the Forestry College, Sirsi requested the participants to take up bee keeping. According to him, each farmer should keep a bee box to produce honey as this not only provides fresh honey to the family, but also increases his crop yield by pollination.

The youngest participant was two-and-a-half-year-old Govardhan, son of Dharmendra, a bee keeper, who handled the bees without any fear or hesitation! He was the centre of attraction in the festival of bees.

After the taste of fresh honey, participants were keen to know how honey bees could be propagated, how bee colonies in the wild could be located, how diseases that affect the bees could be tackled and how they could become bee keepers. As questions kept mounting, the organisers felt the purpose of the festival was achieved!

Bee keepers Deepak and Ganesh were honoured for their silent service to propagate bee keeping in the region.

The villagers of Tyagali, thrilled by the positive response the festival received, said, “We want to make this festival an annual event and next year we are planning to celebrate it on a grand scale.”

Pandurang Hegde
Appiko/Prakruti, Hulemalgi Building
Chowkinath, Sirsi 581401
Uttara Kannada, Karnataka, India,
Tel: 08384-225139
Email: appiko@sancharnet.in

By Heang Sarim, CANDO

A great opportunity was given to nine NGO staff and community people from Cambodia to learn from the experiences of the Custom Made Crafts Center (CMCC) in the Philippines. The learning visit on crafts enterprise development took place last 9-13 June. Three staff members of the Cambodian NTFP Development Organization (CANDO), two from Village Focus International (VFI), and four Kreung indigenous people were eager to find out how CMCC helps their community people and how well the community people themselves manage their crafts enterprise.

With a willingness to learn from the crafts enterprise development experiences, we all had a lot of questions to ask our colleagues. And fortunately, we got valuable information and knowledge from their presentations, clarification and discussion. After returning from the learning visit, we now have a Road Map on Community Crafts Enterprise development in which staff know what and how to fulfill the needs of their community enterprises, while community people got ideas on how to improve their crafts enterprise. The fruitful five-day learning visit was done with effective activities and methodologies including lecture, presentation, group discussion, field visits, and community exchanges.

Day One: 9 June
That first morning, we received a friendly welcome from our colleagues Crissy Guerrero (NTFP-EP), Nola Andaya and Beng Camba (CMCC/NTFP-Task Force) and Arnie Ocampo (NTFP-EP). As soon as we entered the NTFP-EP office, we were so interested in CMCC’s Crafts and Coffee shop. We all looked carefully at the crafts products, organic coffee and honey for sale. And we appreciate the designs of their crafts which integrate both traditional and modern styles.

After self introductions and explanation of our expectations, our CMCC colleagues made a presentation on the CMCC’s Crafts Enterprise Development Program. CMCC is the marketing arm of NTFP-Task Force that provides enterprise development services to indigenous community-based crafts enterprises in different parts of the Philippines. CMCC not only provides trainings, but importantly mentoring, technical assistance and market access support to community enterprises. More importantly, we learnt that while CMCC provides the same things to all community crafts enterprises, they provide services in accordance with the real need, capacity and growth of the community enterprises. So their methodologies are flexible.

We ended the day watching the sunset from a boat cruising on the Manila bay, and continued discussions with Jenne de Beer, NTFP-EP director, and Arnie.

Day Two: 10 June
It was a long trip from Manila to Mindoro province to visit two community-based crafts enterprises. It took a day-long travel starting from early morning to evening, and we all experienced traveling by van, ship and motorbike. We first visited Bait Community in Mansalay. As soon as we arrived in the community, we saw some people waiting for us at their community entrance, and they gave us such a warm welcome that we felt like we were old friends. Before taking a rest, we had a short meeting with community members in order to introduce one another, and expressed our expectations of our visit. During dinner that night, we shared our stories and traditional songs.

Day Three: 11 June
The next morning, we met with the enterprise group called Sakahama led by Mr. Gerry Tupaz of KPLN, a partner organisation of NTFP-EP. We learned that Sakahama has grown from 11 members to 48 members. Sakahama is the common enterprise that emerged from three crafts groups from Bait, Mansalay and Bante. Representatives of Sakahama presented their organizational structures, production management and quality control, sale and marketing, and key points of regulation of the community enterprise.

Sakahama has a lot of experience in production, marketing and enterprise management. They have good systems in production, selling, and enterprise management. For instance, they have a clear organizational structure comprised of three main committees: finance, production, and marketing and sales.

They have also developed numerous products combining traditional designs with modern styles. However, they still face problems in product quality and late delivery. They have also encountered difficulties in sourcing local raw materials such as buri and thread and have thus resorted to buying those materials from the market.

There was also a presentation on Value Chain Analysis for community crafts enterprises in order to set appropriate and fair values for local community enterprise members and ensure environment and socio-cultural welfare. We also had a lot of discussions on community crafts enterprise management, production management, and sales and marketing. “They are also indigenous people like us, but they have done well for their enterprise management, and good system in quality control. They produce any product in accordance with order from buyer,” Mr. Ghiv Mao, Village NTFP Enterprise Facilitator, said. “We should learn from their experiences in order to improve our product quality and our enterprise performance,” Mao added.

Day Four: 12 June
On the fourth day, we had a chance to meet Maat Crafts Enterprise members. After a friendly welcome, representatives of the enterprise presented their enterprise background, organizational structure, production management, sales and marketing, and problems they have been encountering. Maat Enterprise’s products are mostly traditional baskets made of rattan, and bamboo furniture such as chairs. Some members showed us how they weave their traditional Tabud basket. While most of the enterprise members are men, the leader is a woman. Maat was established in 2006 with support by KPLN and NTFP-EP.

We noticed that Maat is not yet a strong enterprise. They used to have a problem in managing their money and their current major problems are product quality and late delivery. They need more support for equipment to produce better bamboo furniture. In addition, they do not have permission from the government to harvest rattan from their forest.

Day Five: 13 June
On the last day, we had a meeting with bamboo expert, Ms. Carmelita Bersalona from the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) and NTFP-EP colleagues at the NTFP-EP office. We learned a lot from her presentation on bamboo biology, bamboo trends, bamboo potential, bamboo products, bamboo’s market share in the world, and product development for the 21st century. We were surprised to hear that bamboo can also be used to produce oil and T-shirts. In particular, we had a good discussion on bamboo development and biology, especially on bamboo nursery and plantation.

We also had a chance to visit her Bamboo Show Room where there were many excellent bamboo product designs such as chairs, desk and bamboo flooring. Ms. Bersalona was very friendly and even welcomed our questions at lunch time.

This is a very good study visit that we have ever had before. We have learnt much from these five days, from both the indigenous community people who are the crafts enterprise producers and staff who provide support to community enterprises. We have learnt from community enterprise people how they organize and manage their enterprise operation including organizational management, product quality control and sales and marketing. We have also learnt a lot from CMCC’s experiences on how to support the development of community-based crafts enterprises, especially from their experiences in product design and development, and market access support for community enterprise’ products. We are starting our indigenous crafts enterprise development in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri so these experiences and lessons will serve as a Road Map for us to move forward in the next three years and beyond. We all would like to appreciate and thank the efforts of NTFP-EP colleagues and community enterprises members for this fruitful study visit.

Heang Sarim, Executive Director, Cambodia NTFP Development Organization
Village Three, Labanseak, Banlung, Ratanakiri province, Cambodia
Tel: 855-75-974 819, Email: candontfp@camintel.com