Friday, June 09, 2006
Lessons in the rattan business
I get my first taste in the practical aspects of bringing rattan from the mountains to the buyers in Cebu. Rattan is classified as Minor Forest Products and there are rules and regulations governing their cutting and transport. Not everyone is allowed to cut rattan. One needs to have a cutting permit. This is usually granted to indegenous peoples organizations. While this is meant to provide livelihood to the indegenous peoples living in the area where rattan is being harvested, what really happens is a far cry from what the laws intended. Cutting permits can be bought from whoever has them, It is therefore a fact that those who have cutting permits never cut any rattan in their lives. They just sell thes permits to anyone who wants them.
Transcporting rattan needs another permit. While a permit is used only for one trip, because it is so hard to get a permit to transport minor forest productrs, it is secretly recycled so that it can be used over and over again. The trick is to pay off the forestry officials who man the checkpoints. Transporting the rattan poles by water gives the other government agents another chance to make bribe money. Upon reaching Cebu, the cost would have gone up dramatically. While it may appear lucrative on paper, the actual experience of going to the mountains, regotiating with the cutters, transporting the rattan poles, is so tedious and dificult it was not worth the money you get once you bring the poles to the market.
Cool blogs basking in the BlogPark. Visit these pages:
Transcporting rattan needs another permit. While a permit is used only for one trip, because it is so hard to get a permit to transport minor forest productrs, it is secretly recycled so that it can be used over and over again. The trick is to pay off the forestry officials who man the checkpoints. Transporting the rattan poles by water gives the other government agents another chance to make bribe money. Upon reaching Cebu, the cost would have gone up dramatically. While it may appear lucrative on paper, the actual experience of going to the mountains, regotiating with the cutters, transporting the rattan poles, is so tedious and dificult it was not worth the money you get once you bring the poles to the market.
Cool blogs basking in the BlogPark. Visit these pages:
