Linking Market Intelligence and Remote Villagers: Innovative use of Rural Radio Networks in the Brazilian Amazon
Project Summary
The Center for International Forestry Research created a methodology to disseminate information about the production and marketing of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to improve the livelihoods of small, isolated landowners and promote biodiversity conservation in the Brazilian Amazon. Having a range of marketing data (e.g. research findings, innovative publications, market data) as a point of departure, this project was based on three main goals:
- To make market research available to small landholders interested in forest product commercialization, but are located far from markets and uninformed about prices.
- To give a practical application at the grassroots level to the available research and market data related to commercialization of NTFPs.
- To explore the enormous potential of communication tools such as local radio to disseminate relevant market information to and help improve the livelihoods of communities scattered throughout the Amazon basin.
Based on the new methodology, a template was developed to produce radio programs that support forest-based economies.
Project Objectives
- Develop a dissemination mechanism that makes practical market information available to forest dwellers who are excluded from the market by translating, filtering, processing, and broadcasting current scientific/market information through the local community radio.
- Support the generation of both livelihood (e.g. food security, health, shelter) and conservation (e.g. sustainable forest management practices) through improved marketing of NTFPs.
- Strengthen local capacity in community-based forest management practices in the areas that the “Forest Goods” radio programs have reached.
- Increase knowledge, awareness, and practice of sustainable forest management by the forest populations directly or indirectly affected by the radio programs.
- Improve negotiations for timber and non-timber forest products.
- Increase income generated through better-informed production and commercialization of NTFPs.