This
episode contains five reports:
Cat's Claw - Peru,
The Perfect Pod - Madagascar, Pepa da Oro - Ecuador,
The Bamboo Business - Indonesia, and Bamboozled - Colombia
Cat's
Claw - Peru
For centuries, the Aguaruna people living in the
Peruvian Amazon have used natural forest medicines
as a cure for diseases and illnesses. Historically,
one of the most important medicinal plants in Peru
is the Cinchona, commonly known as quina
or cascarilla, which has been used
since pre-hispanic times as a cure for different illnesses.
Jesuit Missionaries introduced this natural medicine
into Europe around 1640 as a cure for malaria and
it became one of the most important export products
in the Peruvian Amazon between 1880 and 1990. Nevertheless,
the Peruvian presence in the market decreased as competitors
appeared in the market and quinina started
to be processed in laboratories. Quina trees
started to lose importance and the old forests that
produced the famous bark were used as coffee or cocoa
cultivation sites. Today, in Peru the quina species
is almost extinct.
Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG),
an international development agency, is working with
the Aguaruna people on a micro enterprise scheme to
encourage a revival in the use of medicinal forest
plants without harming the forest and repeating the
fate of the Quina.
The
Perfect Pod - Madagascar
The forests of Madagascar are renowned for their
unique plant and wildlife. They are also full of vanilla.
Vanilla has always been the main export from the Republic
of Madagascar. It used to account for 80% of the world
vanilla production, and now accounts for 60%. The
main problem is in the quality of the vanilla. Up
to 15 years ago, the exported vanilla was high quality,
long and black or red in colour. The quality has declined
in recent years and, today, 40% of exports are made
of "cuts" which are small immature plants.
Recognising the potential of vanilla, the European
Commission developed a project to ensure that in the
future, the exported vanilla would meet the demands
of the international market, as well as provide jobs
and help combat deforestation.
Pepa
da Oro - Ecuador
Ecuador has 60,000 cocoa farmers who devote approximately
300,000 hectares to cocoa cultivation. 54% of these
cocoa farms are smallholdings of less than 10 hectares.
Ecuador produces two types of cocoa - CCN51 and National
Cocoa. National Cocoa trees are low yielding and are
mostly restricted to small and medium sized farms.
CCN51, by contrast, is a high yielding hybrid and
is mostly produced on large-scale plantations. Ecuador's
local cocoa processing and chocolate manufacturing
industries prefer CCN51 because it has high cocoa
butter fat content and suffers no mould problems.
Ecuadorian cocoa is marketed without government interference.
Local prices are driven by international prices and
by local supply and demand. Most producers are located
far away from exporters' yards and are unable to sell
directly to the exporters. Transport costs and intermediaries'
margins bite significantly into export yard prices,
leaving producers with a much smaller share of the
export price. In the more remote areas, growers with
limited quantities of produce to sell have even less
bargaining power because of the scarcity of buyers.
The
Bamboo Business - Indonesia
In Indonesia in the mid-1980s, nearly 37 million
people lived in absolute poverty with incomes below
the equivalent of 320kg of rice per year. Millions
of small-holders, farmers, farm workers and fishermen
were materially and financially unable to tap into
the opportunities offered by 20 years of economic
growth in the country and, with no collateral, there
was no hope of obtaining a bank loan.
P4K is an income-generating project for marginal
farmers and landless people in Indonesia. It operates
as a credit scheme which is run by the Ministry of
Agriculture and supported by the International Fund
for Agricultural Development. P4K invests in people
to develop their skills, widen their choices and improve
their productivity. P4K's Human Development strategy
is to develop, through participatory guidance, the
basic human assets of confidence, organisational skills
and knowledge.
Bamboozled
- Colombia
In Colombia, the poor build with bamboo while the
better off build with cement. As a result of the earthquake
in January 1999, vast areas of middle class housing
collapsed, but the bamboo houses remained standing.
Yet despite bamboo's proven resilience to earthquakes,
it still lacks credibility as a building material.
Bamboo grows to such magnificent heights and strengths
that bamboo forests can produce enough 30 feet poles
to build cities. To overcome the prejudice of bamboo
being for "poor" housing, in Colombia, houses are
being built to look like high quality surburban homes
with thin concrete-covered wire mesh walls and tile
topping. The difference is that the walls, first floors
and roof are not supported by concrete but by strong
and flexible bamboo that will ride out even the most
violent earthquake. The attraction for the government
is that a three bedroom house costs £1,000 which is
half the price of a concrete one.
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