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Local
Economic Empowerment
for
Sustainability and Equity of Natural Resources
Management
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EMPOWERING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, they who
live in or near natural resources, can not be separated
from their economic empowerment. The on-going development
and exploitation of natural resources by the state and
private companies have caused the ruination and
alienation of local economics systems. Telapak believes
that local communities have the capacities and
institutions for sustainable economic activities. Some
examples are: Pala Producers Association in Tapaktuan,
Aceh, The Indigenous Non Timber Forest Product
Association in Jambi, Lampit Producers Association in
East Kalimantan, and many others. Unfortunately, those
who are already producing now facing the same threats
from the national and global economics scheme.
Needed now is a strategy to accommodate
the local reality, a strategy that puts local initiatives
as the main subject of economic development in their
region. Telapak is preparing a Local Economic Resource
Center who will play the central role in assistance and
facilitation for local economic enhancement and advocacy,
to enable them integrate to the national and global
market, enrich the existing local institutions and
management systems.
The main components of the project, Local Initiatives
on Timber and Non-Timber Economic Empowerment or
Pro-LITTLE, are summarized bellow:
- In-depth studies and mapping of local economics'
potency, problems, and opportunity, and their
ecological-social-cultural values, in relation of
sustainable local natural resource management.
- Assistance and facilitation of the existing local
economic activities, enable them to integrate to,
and survive in, the national and global market
and economy, and
- The setting up of a Local Economic Resource
Center to ensure that local economic initiatives
be supported and assisted in the future.
eof/wd/98
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N~LINE