24 Mar, 2024
Authors: Neha Bisht, Kunal Bharat & Aashima Negi (Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystem Services Project, GIZ)
Hansa, a resident of Pathrevi village, eagerly stated in 2019, “I had been considering setting up a household business to become independent for many years and tried agriculture and knitting. But with limited knowledge, funds and experience I could not succeed. I was delighted to sign up for the intensive training on making pine needle products organised by the project. I look forward to continuing by exploring new designs of making pine needle products and becoming a proud, self-dependent lady”.
Nestled on a picturesque hillside in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh(HP), Pathrevi village is surrounded by a diverse forest landscape, featuring pine, deodar, oak, and rhododendrons. Hansa, along with 23 members of the village participated in a 17-day training to effectively use readily available pine needles from the nearby forests and convert it into products for daily use such as trays, baskets and katoris (small bowls). The use and removal of pine needles from the forest floor serves multiple functions – prevents the spread of uncontrolled fire during dry months (dependent on the volume of needles gathered), enhances the growth of grass required for fodder and adds extra income for communities through its use in craft making.
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Pathrevi village, District Mandi, Himachal Pradesh | ©GIZ India/ Kunal Bharat
This training was one of the several steps towards integrating forest ecosystem services (FES) approach into participatory forest planning for Pathrevi by the Indo-German Development Cooperation Project on forest ecosystem services in Himachal, with this measure focussed on gender responsive livelihood diversification. In September 2018, Pathrevi Village Forest Development Society (VFDS) was registered under the HP-Participatory Forest Management Rules of 2000, with the objective of managing the Demarcated Protected Forest (DPF) Pathrevi jointly with the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department (HPFD). These objectives were translated to a Micro Plan for the village with zone-wise management of FES prioritised by local communities.
The women at Pathrevi sold many of the products they made after receiving the training and were also given the opportunity to present few as gifts to several dignitaries, “we were so happy that our products were highly appreciated and presented to the Forest Minister, the Additional Chief Secretary, Forest and our Member of the Legislative Assembly”.
However, this initial excitement was curtailed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as they could not participate in further trainings or access any markets for their products, “Following the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to participate in any training sessions, and there was no market demand for our products which is why we were unable to produce any items throughout the pandemic”, said Hansa. Even after the restrictions were lifted, the lack of a business strategy and regular marketing opportunities made it a challenge to bring any momentum to the newly learnt craft of making pine needle products.
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Pine needles based handicraft products by women artisans at Pathrevi ©Ecociate
In 2022, the ‘Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystem Services’ (FES) project decided to address this challenge and brought onboard Ecociate, an agency specialised in developing markets for sustainable products. This time the focus was on identifying potential markets, developing market strategies, strengthening the community institutions around production and value addition, and creating market linkages for the women artisans.
A milestone along this path for revival of the craft with renewed efforts by the local artisans and project was a market linkage with an NCR-based social start-up supporting small producers. The start-up provided a commitment to purchase orders worth Rs. 50,000 (555.82 EUR) from Pathrevi and, more importantly, list these products on their e-marketplace platform designed to be a bridge between Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and urban consumers. The women artisans spread this over two orders with an average of Rs. 15,000 (166.75 EUR) each given the production capacities of interested women.
It is important to note that these orders of pine needle products serve as a supplementary income source for the women in Pathrevi as they’re primarily engaged in daily household chores, agriculture, and other allied activities. Pine needle handicrafts require exclusive time and effort, and considering schedule of agricultural activities, women like Hansa can only dedicate two months throughout the year between November-December and June-July full-time for the craft. Rest of the year, time available per day for pine needle handicrafts activities is restricted to around 2 hours only. To make it attractive as a primary activity, the return should be at least Rs 6000 (66.70 EUR) per month, considering existing wage rates for forest work is Rs.229 (2.55 EUR) per day.
Fulfilling these two cycles of orders, provided confidence to Pathrevi artisans on their skills. Seamlessly and with natural camaraderie, they worked as a group to jointly met the orders with the few with superior skills supporting the others. Now with an intent to undertake larger orders, there was a need to structure this natural group into a supporting structure to ease business operations and take advantage of opportunities as a group.
With support from the project, the women artisans decided to establish the ‘Dev Bhumi Pathrevi Producer Group’, formulating their resolutions, rules and unanimously appointing office bearers. These forest producer groups offer a great place for networking, establishing support structure and leverage economies of scale with access to a wide range of services. It provides a platform to share resources, take part in skill development, negotiate better prices and collectively market their products.
Officer bearers and members of the Dev Bhumi Pathrevi Producer Group ©GIZ/ Kunal Bharat
Even though inclusion of women in governance of natural resources yields positive effects on forest conservation and development initiatives they tend to have lower active participation and role in resource governance (FAO, 2022). As women comprise 50% of the global population that is dependent on forest landscapes for subsistence and employment, it is only fit to facilitate economic empowerment, recognise them as right-holders with the ability to influence change and decision making (Bolin, 2020). With women taking a lead in entrepreneurial opportunities, existing gender inequalities in the society can be addressed. Over the next few months, the Dev Bhumi Pathrevi Producer Group will connect with a regional women-led group in Himachal, which is a federation of producer groups from different villages managing significant orders.
Export houses and agencies regularly procuring pine needle products from Himachal and Uttarakhand have expressed interest and provided a catalogue for Pathrevi artisans to provide samples for a new collection. An advanced training is now being planned with the producer group to design higher value products and ensure standardised quality. With much anticipation the women artisans from Pathrevi look forward to their peer-to-peer exchange, advanced training and creating more products!
“We would be delighted to receive market-oriented trainings for crafting these products and eagerly look forward to taking on more orders in the future”, Hansa expressed her optimism with a warm smile.
More about the project here
References
Bolin, A. (ed.). 2020. Women’s empowerment through collective action: how forest and farm producer organisations can make a difference. Rome, FAO and London, IIED. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8713en
FAO. 2022. The State of the World’s Forests 2022. Forest pathways for green recovery and building inclusive, resilient and sustainable economies. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb9360en
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