Ecologist Dr Manju Vasudevan and her team started Forest Post in 2017 with the aim to create livelihood opportunities for basically three tribal communities near the Chalakudy and Karuvannur river basins in Kerala. Let’s take a look at the story of Forest Post.
The communities – Kadar, Malayar, and Muthuvar – are entirely forest dependent. Dr Manju who was in touch with them wanted to develop a livelihood solution for them based on the knowledge and wisdom of these indigenous communities. The programme started as an offshoot of some of the work Manju and her team were doing on forest rights with the World Wildlife Fund.
Forest Post is a network of minor forest produce harvesters and makers of handmade goods including beeswax, oils, bamboo baskets, and cloth bags.
The three tribes had been selling non-timber forest products for a long time; however, there existed a vacuum of an organised venture. This is where Manju and her team stepped in. The Forest Development Agency of the State Forest Department buys the products made from leaves, roots, tree bark, honey, resin etc…
Manju’s venture Forest Post works around their native wisdom of sustainability. In the beginning, they received funding from Keystone Foundation in the Nilgiris. It existed for three years. Keystone taught the women in the community to make products using beeswax and cosmetics.
Manju who is trained in Ecology often goes with them for field visits and gives them input about potential possibilities near them. It was during one of such trips she learned about the abundance of wild asparagus in the locality. And, they started making pickles out of it.
The initiative respects the communities’ sustainable way of life although that poses a challenge to the venture. Arranging larger quantities for bigger orders is out of the question. Also, some of the forest food products have really narrow window.
They sell the products through local events and the website of the Forest Post. The group recently won the Outlook Sustainable Leadership Award for Conservation.
