YTrip - Philippine Youth promoting responsible tourism
Speaking engagement as part of Bluewater Consultancy for YTrip - a group of Philippine Youth advocating for Responsible Tourism through the outdoor group R.O.X. Philippines.
Crafting Change through Fair Trade
Written and photographed by Cherie McCosker
June 2008
It was 8am on a radia
nt, sunny morning, the first one the sleepy province of Antique had seen in days. Jesse Natan, owner of Natan Muscovado Mill, was relieved. Now the rain had stopped he was finally able to light and stoke the mill’s oven with dry bamboo lumber and prepare the vats for one of the final muscovado productions of the season. The mill, like most of the other mills in Antique is rudimentary, using age-old technology passed down between the generations. So too is the recipe. With no additives or preservatives, muscovado is the healthiest sugar on the market.
nt, sunny morning, the first one the sleepy province of Antique had seen in days. Jesse Natan, owner of Natan Muscovado Mill, was relieved. Now the rain had stopped he was finally able to light and stoke the mill’s oven with dry bamboo lumber and prepare the vats for one of the final muscovado productions of the season. The mill, like most of the other mills in Antique is rudimentary, using age-old technology passed down between the generations. So too is the recipe. With no additives or preservatives, muscovado is the healthiest sugar on the market.This scenario is common in the Philippines - backyard production using time-honoured technologies to make sublime, world-class products. The Philippines is a prime destination for the handicraft and food connoisseur, with each region showcasing handicrafts and food products unique to the natural resources at hand. Filipinos are adept in innovation, finding ways to make exquisite artefacts from ordinary materials. Nito vines, found in backyards and jungles, are made into attractive lamps; harsh pineapple fronds are stripped down to fine threads and hand-loom woven into exclusive piña cloth used for formal wear.
The growing Philippine homemade industry is defying a dying global trend, largely due to the support being provided by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and non-government organisations such as the Advocate of Philippine Fair Trade, Inc (APFTI). For almost 14 years APFTI, working alongside the DTI, has provided technical support to small enterprises across the Philippines to create and market highly competitive, sought-after products using fair trade principles.
Fair trade encourages artisans and producers to observe socially and environmentally just practices, such as paying fair wages to workers, providing safe and healthy workplaces, giving equal employment opportunities to women, not employing child labour and using environmentally-friendly production processes.
Natan Muscovado Mill is one such producer being assisted by APFTI. In fact, Jesse Natan is just one of eight muscovado producers in Antique who are incorporating fair trade practices into their businesses. The island province of Marinduque, located 2 hours south of mainland Luzon, is another province that has availed of assistance through APFTI.
The growing Philippine homemade industry is defying a dying global trend, largely due to the support being provided by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and non-government organisations such as the Advocate of Philippine Fair Trade, Inc (APFTI). For almost 14 years APFTI, working alongside the DTI, has provided technical support to small enterprises across the Philippines to create and market highly competitive, sought-after products using fair trade principles.
Fair trade encourages artisans and producers to observe socially and environmentally just practices, such as paying fair wages to workers, providing safe and healthy workplaces, giving equal employment opportunities to women, not employing child labour and using environmentally-friendly production processes.
Natan Muscovado Mill is one such producer being assisted by APFTI. In fact, Jesse Natan is just one of eight muscovado producers in Antique who are incorporating fair trade practices into their businesses. The island province of Marinduque, located 2 hours south of mainland Luzon, is another province that has availed of assistance through APFTI.
Marinduque, best known for the annual masked Moriones Festival, is home to artisans using materials such as butterflies, and renewable nito vine and buntal – a fine fiber from the leaves of unopened talipot palm. Rico and Laura Sanchez, producers of ‘Butterflies from Paradise’ by Text and Images make attractive crafts, such as lamps, candle holders, clocks and jewellery using a combination of all three materials.
Rico advocates for fair trade as he knows the challenges facing farmers given he used to also share that profession. He sources butterflies as surplus from local butterfly farms at above-market rates, nito, ferns and bamboo are collected from nearby jungles, and buntal is purchased from local weavers. Prototypes are designed by the Sanchez’s; however the production is outsourced to poor communities, who are given the flexibility to balance work with familial commitments.
Turning unwanted materials into works of art is one of Rico’s passions. Tired of removing washed-up coconuts from the fragile coral reef during scuba dives, Rico started transforming them into beautiful household accessories with butterfly designs. Similarly, Rico encourages a local furniture maker to turn waste material into butterfly-shaped potholders.
Rico advocates for fair trade as he knows the challenges facing farmers given he used to also share that profession. He sources butterflies as surplus from local butterfly farms at above-market rates, nito, ferns and bamboo are collected from nearby jungles, and buntal is purchased from local weavers. Prototypes are designed by the Sanchez’s; however the production is outsourced to poor communities, who are given the flexibility to balance work with familial commitments.
Turning unwanted materials into works of art is one of Rico’s passions. Tired of removing washed-up coconuts from the fragile coral reef during scuba dives, Rico started transforming them into beautiful household accessories with butterfly designs. Similarly, Rico encourages a local furniture maker to turn waste material into butterfly-shaped potholders.
Another producer group in Marinduque finding value in fair trade is the charming Riverside Handicraft Association. It was an unlikely place to find chic floor lamps and baskets made from nito vine, and brightly coloured, playful parrot mobiles made from soft-wood. The backdrop was quintessentially Filipino; towering coconut palms, clear streams flowing past mod
est huts, whilst chickens ran as freely as the children played.
Yet, the members of Riverside Handicraft Association have known the benefits of fair trade since the early 1990s. Originally assisted by SAFRUDI, another non-government organisation advocating for fair trade, members of this small community have found ways to remain self-sufficient by looking back to their heritage and continue an age-old tradition of hand-crafting, yet they look to the future by incorporating stylish modern designs. In such a rustic setting of simplicity, by talking to the people behind the products, it was easy to understand how the altruistic aims of fair trade tangibly help uplift the lives of Filipinos across the country.
Note about the author: Cherie McCosker is living and working in the Philippines as a volunteer through VIDA – Volunteering in International Development from Australia. She advocates for fair trade, particularly in how fair trade principles can be applied to tourism.
est huts, whilst chickens ran as freely as the children played.Yet, the members of Riverside Handicraft Association have known the benefits of fair trade since the early 1990s. Originally assisted by SAFRUDI, another non-government organisation advocating for fair trade, members of this small community have found ways to remain self-sufficient by looking back to their heritage and continue an age-old tradition of hand-crafting, yet they look to the future by incorporating stylish modern designs. In such a rustic setting of simplicity, by talking to the people behind the products, it was easy to understand how the altruistic aims of fair trade tangibly help uplift the lives of Filipinos across the country.
Note about the author: Cherie McCosker is living and working in the Philippines as a volunteer through VIDA – Volunteering in International Development from Australia. She advocates for fair trade, particularly in how fair trade principles can be applied to tourism.
Fair Trade Philippines - Moving Towards Tourism
Published in TravelMole, 25 August 2008
By Cherie McCosker
Fair trade is an international movement of growing support and awareness. Many fair trade consumers are aware of fair trade tea from Sri Lanka, bananas from the Caribbean, cocoa beans from Ghana and coffee from East Timor, but the Philippines as a fair trade destination is less familiar.
The Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands and a rapidly growing population upwards of 86 million. Whilst rich in biodiversity, culture and history, roughly a third of all Filipinos live under the poverty line.
Aiming to combat poverty, the Advocate of Philippine Fair Trade, Inc (APFTI), who chair the Philippine Fair Trade Forum, has spearheaded the fair trade movement since 1994. Working with food and craft producers, APFTI provides fair trade enterprise development to micro, small and medium marginalised entrepreneurs.
By Cherie McCosker
Fair trade is an international movement of growing support and awareness. Many fair trade consumers are aware of fair trade tea from Sri Lanka, bananas from the Caribbean, cocoa beans from Ghana and coffee from East Timor, but the Philippines as a fair trade destination is less familiar.
The Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands and a rapidly growing population upwards of 86 million. Whilst rich in biodiversity, culture and history, roughly a third of all Filipinos live under the poverty line.
Aiming to combat poverty, the Advocate of Philippine Fair Trade, Inc (APFTI), who chair the Philippine Fair Trade Forum, has spearheaded the fair trade movement since 1994. Working with food and craft producers, APFTI provides fair trade enterprise development to micro, small and medium marginalised entrepreneurs.
The result is an increase of empowered Filipino entrepreneurs producing world class fair trade products handcraf
ted from native fibres derived from pineapple leaves, vines and palms; coconut products and bi-products; delicacies from pili nut, mangoes and muscovado sugar.
Whilst European traders account for a large percentage of the Philippine fair trade market, one of the main barriers is the inability for small producers to attain internationally-recognised fair trade labels. Given the financial constraints of these producers, few can afford the accreditation fees.
As such APFTI has looked to other options of connecting buyers with producers. Firstly, APFTI are in the planning stage for the creation of Philippine recognised fair trade label and accreditation system. This is part of a new campaign to develop the domestic fair trade market amongst the growing middle class.
Secondly, APFTI have started linking fair trade with tourism. Since 2007, APFTI has run ‘Meet the People’ tours through TraidCraft Exchange, a UK-based trading company and charity that has been empowering fair trade producers for over two decades. The Meet the People tour takes European guests on a 2 week tour across the Luzon Island, visiting fair trade producers, availing of eco-tourism products and staying in locally-owned accommodations and homestays.
Learning through experience about the impacts of consuming fair trade has proved to be invaluable for both tourists and producers. APFTI is now embarking on a tourism program that will incorporate the fair trade enterprise development framework to be applied to service providers in the tourism industry.
Piloting the framework in Antique, one of the Philippine’s more economically-disadvantaged provinces but richly endowed with history, biodiversity and cultural livelihoods, APFTI envisages the program to be rolled out across the country.
According to APFTI’s Executive Director Rommel Agustin: ‘We feel that experiencing fair trade is paramount in market development for our producers. Our tours have been well-received, however we wanted to create an experience where tourists know that it’s not just the product that is fair, but also accommodation, food, guiding and transport.’
Looking globally, the fair trade in tourism market has great potential, with more and more tourists wanting personal connections in their holidays. The fair trade brand has proved to be widely respected; it is time for that trend to follow into tourism.
Agustin added: ‘TraidCraft’s approach of bringing consumers to meet the producers is a wonderful model; however, we need to take it that extra step and provide fair trade enterprise development to tourism stakeholders.
‘This is where the travel industry could step in and provide the necessary tourism training skills. Fair Trade NGOs, such as APFTI, are experienced in food and craft development, but less so with tourism. Partnering up with sustainable tourism organisations, I believe, is vital for the success and sustainability of the fair trade in tourism brand’.
Visit APFTI’s website on www.apfti.org.ph
To book a ‘Meet the People’ tour, contact TraidCraft at
http://meetthepeople.skedaddle.co.uk/holiday/111/view.rails
About the author: Cherie McCosker is living and working in the Philippines as a volunteer through VIDA – Volunteering in International Development from Australia. She advocates for fair trade, particularly in how fair trade principles can be applied to tourism.
ted from native fibres derived from pineapple leaves, vines and palms; coconut products and bi-products; delicacies from pili nut, mangoes and muscovado sugar.Whilst European traders account for a large percentage of the Philippine fair trade market, one of the main barriers is the inability for small producers to attain internationally-recognised fair trade labels. Given the financial constraints of these producers, few can afford the accreditation fees.
As such APFTI has looked to other options of connecting buyers with producers. Firstly, APFTI are in the planning stage for the creation of Philippine recognised fair trade label and accreditation system. This is part of a new campaign to develop the domestic fair trade market amongst the growing middle class.
Secondly, APFTI have started linking fair trade with tourism. Since 2007, APFTI has run ‘Meet the People’ tours through TraidCraft Exchange, a UK-based trading company and charity that has been empowering fair trade producers for over two decades. The Meet the People tour takes European guests on a 2 week tour across the Luzon Island, visiting fair trade producers, availing of eco-tourism products and staying in locally-owned accommodations and homestays.
Learning through experience about the impacts of consuming fair trade has proved to be invaluable for both tourists and producers. APFTI is now embarking on a tourism program that will incorporate the fair trade enterprise development framework to be applied to service providers in the tourism industry.
Piloting the framework in Antique, one of the Philippine’s more economically-disadvantaged provinces but richly endowed with history, biodiversity and cultural livelihoods, APFTI envisages the program to be rolled out across the country.
According to APFTI’s Executive Director Rommel Agustin: ‘We feel that experiencing fair trade is paramount in market development for our producers. Our tours have been well-received, however we wanted to create an experience where tourists know that it’s not just the product that is fair, but also accommodation, food, guiding and transport.’
Looking globally, the fair trade in tourism market has great potential, with more and more tourists wanting personal connections in their holidays. The fair trade brand has proved to be widely respected; it is time for that trend to follow into tourism.
Agustin added: ‘TraidCraft’s approach of bringing consumers to meet the producers is a wonderful model; however, we need to take it that extra step and provide fair trade enterprise development to tourism stakeholders.
‘This is where the travel industry could step in and provide the necessary tourism training skills. Fair Trade NGOs, such as APFTI, are experienced in food and craft development, but less so with tourism. Partnering up with sustainable tourism organisations, I believe, is vital for the success and sustainability of the fair trade in tourism brand’.
Visit APFTI’s website on www.apfti.org.ph
To book a ‘Meet the People’ tour, contact TraidCraft at
http://meetthepeople.skedaddle.co.uk/holiday/111/view.rails
About the author: Cherie McCosker is living and working in the Philippines as a volunteer through VIDA – Volunteering in International Development from Australia. She advocates for fair trade, particularly in how fair trade principles can be applied to tourism.
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