On the 24th – 25th of November 2022, MCNV organized an exposure visit for a group of ethnic women and representatives of the local authority and community to the processing facility of Nhien Thao Quang Tri Co. Ltd. – a linked enterprise in Quang Tri province, Vietnam.
This was part of the “Promoting Sustainable Partnership between CSOs and Enterprises for Sustainable Forest Management in the Context of Climate Change” (PROSPER) project that is co-funded by the EU and MCNV. One of the the project’s focuses is to promote market-oriented linkages between enterprises with strong corporate social responsibility and indigenous communities in the area.
Contract signing between enterprise and community on the supply of NTFPs
The visit was aimed at concretizing mutual understanding and building trust for a win-win business cooperation. The ethnic poor women in Huong Viet commune took a journey in an entire Custody of Chain, from their supply of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to the stages of material processing and product finishing. Both sides discussed about quality requirements and developed an action plan for future cooperation.
An ethnic woman processing raw material of black locust before delivery
Beside materials of wild pomelo and black locust presently supplied by the women group in Huong Viet commune, the enterprise would expand their material areas with other other kinds of NTFPs such as lime and lemongrass to the other ethnic communities in the province. The stage of processing raw materials would be handed over to the communities to decrease transportation cost for the enterprise and increase the added values of NTFPs for the community suppliers. The nursing of NTFPs seedlings was also taken into deep consideration.
It is the fact that growing demand for NTFPs in the recent decades evokes a special concern over sustainable use, preservation and development of the forest resources in particular and the eco-system in general. To this end, the exposure visit was going on the right track and reached the set goal./.
