Month: March 2013

All 13 of us were dozing off on the bus, as we had slept or sat on airport benches the night before. As the bus started its uphill climb to Ooty, however, one by one we woke up with a start as we saw the drastic change in scenery. From concrete and dry mud and farm lots, we were suddenly surrounded by lush vegetation, with mist-covered trees, rocky cliffs with waterfalls, and Bonnet macaques lining the road. We were in the Blue Mountains, and the view was mesmerizing.

For the next four days, 43 participants representing 24 organizations and communities coming from 6 countries exchanged views, experiences, and practices in their conservation work with indigenous communities, particularly with NTFP monitoring. The NTFP Exchange Programme, together with Keystone Foundation, gathered its network partners for this meeting on “Community-Based Monitoring Systems for NTFP Resources” in Tamil Nadu, India. It was emphasized that while the organizations work in different countries with different contexts, the network should try to see where it can make connections as it faces similar issues and similar politics in terms of forest conservation. The Participatory Resource Monitoring system was explained by Dr. Mary Stockdale, who has been testing the system in different sites in the Philippines with NTFP Task Force.

Participant from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia also shared their monitoring efforts for NTFPs such as honey, rattan, fish and small game, wild food and fruits, and resin. In small groups, they made plans on how to start or continue monitoring work for these NTFPs in their communities. Among the eye-opening discussions was the sharing on traditional knowledge and how our enterprise interventions not only affect the environmnt, but also the culture of the communities where we work.

The meeting involved a trip to a nearby medicinal garden and shopping at he Greenshop, Keystone’s retail market featuring products form their communities. The venue was set for Udghamandalam (popularly known as Ooty), the capital of the Nilgiris district, a hill station in the Nilgiris Biosphere reserve at 2,300 meters above sea level with forests and tea estates. This set a perfect backdrop for learning about Keystone’s inspirational conservation work in the nearby villages. As one participant commented, it was the right place to talk about NTFPs and conservation as the surroundings reflected the topics discussed in the meeting.

The participants went on a field day visiting various Keystone projects where they witnessed how the communities protect their sacred forests, gather NTFPs using established harvest protocols, and engage in enterprises and ecotourism. Some groups were able to see how honey and other NTFPs are monitored. Despite the chilly evening, everyone enjoyed the sharing of the day’s experiences and learning’s over bonfire, with traditional music and dancing from the Kurumba tribe.

“Yes! We made profit! We can continue with the business!”

This was the shout of relief and pride of Ibu Rahmatiah of Kendari, Southeast, Sulawesi.

Ibu Rahmatiah attended the Value Chain Analysis (VCA) and Community Enterprise Development (CED) Trainers Training conducted by NTFP-EP Indonesia for ASSPPK (Association Supporting Women in Small Business). NTFP-EP was asked by ASPPUK to assist in their new project entitled “Facilitating Women in Small Business towards Sustainable Production”. This is a 3 year project supported by Hivos Netherlands intended for women entrepreneurs in 5 different provinces across the country.

The women that joined the training were mostly seasoned entrepreneurs as this training was catering to leaders of women in small business networks in the various provinces. These women and their NGO support groups would then be trainers for the hundreds of women entrepreneurs in their various localities. Apart from Kendari, other women participants came from Ngawi, East Java, Sukoharjo, Central Java, Pontianak City and Pontianak district in West Kalimantan and finally Padang in West Sumatra . The products varied from crispy banana chips to tuna flakes, to peanut based sauces, fish chips, sticky rice, and special tofu!

The first session covered collecting industry information and drawing the value chain map of various actors and functions. For the first time, these women were able to analyze the cost -benefit of different decisions across the value chain. They were also able to analyze internal and external factors to arrive at an assessment of bottlenecks and opportunities. Finally they were able to arrive at a set of strategies for addressing challenges and maximizing identified market trends or potentials.

The second training focused on community enterprise development covered some of the main components of a business such as marketing, production management, and financial analysis. The women assessed their market segmentation, learned tools for inventory management and finally computed for break even point!

The executive director, Mia Ariyana said it herself, “ It was a difficult and tiring experience but we are now armed with tools that are not difficult to apply with the women in various local areas”.

The women also appreciated the various interactive tools used to enhance learning namely simulation exercises and guessing games.

The women look forward to the opportunity to analyze their businesses with the new tools, and to help their sisters in small business improve earnings and reduce costs with these tools too.

Forward we go Nimo banana chips and sweet black peanut sauce!

The Indonesian REDD+ Task Force, together with The Faculty of Economic Studies at the University of Indonesia organized a one day symposium on ‘Social-Environmental Enterpreneurship’ Through NTFP Management”.

The symposium was designed and developed to recognize the importance of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in Indonesia and to provide a motivation for student creativity to begin to work and develop small entreprises based on non-timber forest products. The specific goals of the symposium were to introduce community and social-environmental entrepreneurship knowledge to students and to build awareness of students to activities that support the reduction of deforestation.

During the symposium, JT from NTFP-EP Indonesia was invited as one of resource persons for The Talk Show to deliver the NTFP-EP Indonesia experience on developing social entrepreneurship through the Craft Kalimantan network. Two others speaker were Mr. Johnny Utama from Niaga Niaga and Mrs. Aulia from Indonesia REDD+ Task Force.

The Talk Show was an effective vehicle for highlighting the importance of NTFPsand to influence students on reducing emissions from forest deforestation and degradation issues.

A total of 60 individuals participated in the symposium consist of students, lecturer, businessman and CSO.

At the Symposium, many participants reported that they had gained useful information and knowledge that they planned to implement for their future activities.

She was a mild mannered woman with a sweet smile and she never got tired of our questions. She was a great cook and over two days we got to know her.

10 representatives from the Ecosystem Alliance Indonesia descended on her home in Baning Pendek, Sintang, West Kalimantan last March 12-13, 2013. She asked us to call her Linda.

She had come here to the land of the Dayak Desa years ago to marry her husband, a Dayak Desa, Lipan. She was fortunate enough to have attended a trade school while growing up, her trade was “catering” and we all benefitted from the wonderful food she served from fresh bamboo shoots to a tasty chicken liver dish mixed with tofu.

But her new found hobby and passion was weaving. She said if she could go to the trade school all over again, she would take up sewing instead of catering.

She had learned the trade of the Dayak Desa women to weave the tenun ikat only 6 years ago. Though the process can take months with the intricate steps involving knotting, dyeing, pounding and weaving, to make one piece of cloth, Linda persevered because she knew she could earn additional money to cover the family’s needs. She knew that the Dayak tradition of weaving would also live on.

She said they were only 10 women in the 40 households of Baning Pendek that still practiced the weaving tradition. When asked why she said with a smile that “It is because my husband is able to help me with the cooking and other housework if I have orders for weaving”.

Tradition and culture are not as evident in Baning Pendek. Not like the neighboring village Ensaid Panjang which still boasts of a long house that has 93 weavers! But the efforts of Linda and other women are keeping the tradition going. Now Linda’s young daughter also helps in the knotting of the cloth before it is dyed. Soon she will be weaving too!

Linda also showed us the group’s natural dye nursery. It was planted 3 years ago and in two years they will be able to source their own natural dye without having to purchase it from outside. Currently most of the woven cloth is made with synthetic dyes. Linda knows natural dyed cloth fetches a higher price. Linda’s cooperative, Jasa Menenun Mandiri (JMM) assisted Linda and 10 other women in Baning Pendek with the planting of the plant mengkudu. Mengkudu delivers the color red. It is becoming scarce in Banging Pendek with the conversion of remaining forest into agriculture.

In the evening we spoke with more men and women in the community. They feared that too much forest was converted to agriculture. There wasn’t enough forest to obtain wood to build homes even. This is why the community agreed to dedicate part of their village as a protected forest to make sure they protect the water source as well. They are undergoing planting of hardwood species to address this concern.

In parallel, the community is very concerned about the conversion of Dayak lands around Baning Pendek into oil palm plantations. They have seen no benefit to communities in surrounding areas. The trucks of the company are also ruining the roads and they are not interested to fix any of them. The neighboring village just stopped 31 oil palm trucks and demanded for road repair.

Linda’s Dayak brothers and sisters have a resolve to keep oil palm OUT of their area. The spirit of solidarity and brotherhood is still alive for even without much assistance from the local government, they are able to build their own church through communal work.

It seems, though the world in the small village of Baning Pendek is changing, Linda and her fellow Dayak, have it better off than in other villages. They still own their lands. They keep one hectare at least to feed their families and the proceeds of the hectare goes to providing schooling for their children. Linda’s gardens with rubber, sago, pepper, mengkudu, paddy also shows how she is experimenting and innovating in changing times. And if ever they are in a tight spot, Linda and other women members of the community have JMM where they can borrow money. There is access to other credit unions as well.

Meanwhile, we benefited from Linda’s sharing, her hospitality, her good cooking. Their ikat weaving production is still on a small scale and they are still struggling with their production, but the fact that it contributes to maintaining the weaving tradition, to re-greening the land (with natural dye planting) and to income (one woman makes close to USD 65 / month just from woven cloths which is 55% of what they make per month on rubber harvesting!), it is an important part of their livelihood and their culture. It was our simple learning from our short visit.