All’s Fair In Trade & The Environment

Eating durian is a much-awaited ritual in Davao when the fruit comes into season around July and August. It’s also an adventure, reserved for the strong of nose and stomach, but one is not truly a part of Davao without a taste of the fruit. For outsiders who dare to eat and find that it "tastes like heaven" even if it "smells like hell," it’s a sure way to guarantee one’s return to the city.

But there’s a bit of a downside to the durian season in Davao–the eating frenzy leaves mounds of durian husk everywhere, especially around the fruit stands near Magsaysay Park at the corner of Uyanguren Street and Aurora Boulevard, as well as along C. M. Recto, San Pedro, Ponciano and Anda streets in the city center when tourists come to Davao in droves for the annual Kadayawan Festival.

For a long time, no one seemed to know what to do with the waste product, except maybe use them as basins for water to wash off the smell from one’s fingers and lips (an effective method attested to by many a durian lover). This, until a group advocating women empowerment and the protection of the environment hit on the idea of processing and recycling durian husks into paper.

This is KATAKUS, Cebuano for "skillfull ability" and acronym for the Kababayen-an alang sa Teknolohiya nga Haum sa Kinaiyahan ug Kauswagan (women for technology that is appropriate for the environment and development). Katakus is a non-government organization that promotes "sustainable agriculture through integrated systems of organic agricultural production and use of technology among subsistence farmers" in Davao City and the rest of the province. It engages women from poor and marginal communities in an enterprise that extracts fibers from cogon, banana and abaca and processes them into paper products.

In the course of research and development, Katakus workers discovered durian husks as a better raw material. According to Katakus executive director Betty M. More, durian husks provide 75 percent fiber compared to other materials that yield only 20 percent. Aside from this, supply is abundant especially during the durian months of July and August when an average of ten truck loads of durian husks per day is collected in Davao City alone.

The use of durian husk for paper production has provided Katakus with the proverbial "two birds-with-one-stone" solution. One, it has come up with a do-able solution to the problem of durian waste-disposal. And two, its women partner-producers have an abundant source of raw material for handmade paper-making livelihood projects.

One such project is Womenkraft, which employs a group of women in the production of handmade paper in Barangay Katipunan, Panabo, Davao Oriental. The group turns out 100 sheets a day for Katakus, which then converts the paper to greeting cards, stationery, albums, picture frames, lampshades, decorative boxes and other gift and novelty items. Katakus also handles product development and marketing. Half of the products make their way to Japan and the Netherlands while the rest are sold in Davao City.

The project is one of a few that provides women with job opportunities in remote impoverished places like Barangay Katipunan, Panabo City. Unlike many income generating projects that fold up after three years (the average funding cycle of foreign donors), this one bloomed from a small project in 1994 to a village enterprise.

Devlink, a now defunct NGO, introduced the women of Katakus and Womenkraft to the art of paper-making.

"Devlink was then looking for communities to supply raw materials for handmade paper," recalls Katakus’ More. "Because we had no funds then, Devlink gave the women P5,000 to start the project. Devlink also became the project’s first customer."

Initially, production was on-and-off and technology was crude. The women beat the raw fibers (cogon and banana bracts) using mortar and pestle, and dried the paper under the sun. "It was hard work, we were always wet," says Veronica Mahinay, "but we hoped to earn so as not to be totally dependent on our husbands."

The project developed into a joint project between the mothers and Katakus: Womenkraft focused on making the paper, while Katakus handled product development, marketing and financial management. The enterprise has its own marketing officer, purchaser/admin staff and production staff.

Katakus tapped its growing network of partners to develop a market for the paper. Canada Fund, the Philippine Global Exchange in Manila and Handmade Treasures, a cooperative of handicraft producers in Davao, provided enough business to enable the women to earn and roll over the funds.

From this network, Katakus brought in other forms of support such as cement and gravel to improve Womenkraft’s workplace, which was then just an open shack that the women "borrowed" when it was not being used as a meeting place. A local legislator donated a washing machine for washing paper pulp. Other donations enabled the group to procure a dryer (P32,000) and a beater (less than P10,000).

Such support was extended not merely out of charity but in recognition of the group’s determination to make the project work, says More. Womenkraft has been featured six times on local and national television. The local government in Panabo is proud of the project; it brings visitors to the area to showcase the handmade paper as a product of Panabo. Furthermore, the group has bagged several regional and national awards.

More also attributes the success of Katakus projects like Womenkraft to the fact that these are small and medium enterprises run the Fair Trade way, respecting human rights in the workplace, paying fair wages to workers, avoiding the unscrupulous use of child labor, empowering women and promoting gender equality, and protecting the environment by employing safe, healthy and ecologically friendly production processes.

 As Fair Trade enterprises, Katakus and Womenkraft have earned the strong support of consumers particularly in the U.S. and Europe where the advocacy first took root after World War II, when concerned citizens of rich nations began lobbying their governments to establish a just and fair world trading order as a way to achieve lasting peace and stability.

"We didn’t know anything about Fair Trade before," says More. "All we knew was that we were carrying out a socio-economic project." In the early 1990s, Katakus interfaced with another NGO called the Advocate of Philippine Fair Trade, Inc. (APFTI).

According to More, "Our concepts deepened when we were exposed to what fair trade means. For us, this means that we give fair wages, that the work must be conducive both for the workers and the environment. The enterprise should be empowering for the workers and whatever proceeds we make, we plow back to the project in terms of services."

Aside from providing instructions in Fair Trade, APFTI has a continuing partnership with Katakus to provide the latter with assistance in business planning and development, packaging and design, as well as accessing local and international markets by facilitating the entry and participation of Katakus in local and international trade fairs.

There is also the added advantage for Katakus of being able to access the international Fair Trade network, which provides a ready and very lucrative export market for the products of Fair Trade enterprises.

"Being part of the Fair Trade network has made a difference for us," More says. "Iba ang tatak when you’re a member of the Fair Trade forum. The Philippine support group (from abroad) for fair trade organizations is negotiating with us. If they know that you are a fair trader, they appreciate you more."

Locally, the Fair Trade movement is conducting a "buy local, buy fair" campaign to encourage local consumers to emulate their foreign counterparts in embracing the advocacy and patronizing the products of Fair Trade.

"In the end, it is the support of local consumers that will spell the long-term success of local industries that practice responsible and ethical trade," says Ronald Lagazo, advocacy promotion officer of APFTI.

 For Katakus and its project partners, it really pays to be fair, not only in terms of income but also the more lasting benefit of communities of people that live in peace and stability among themselves and with the rest of the world.