A Dialogue for the Future: Indigenous Entrepreneurship – Success and Challenges

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Presentations

Held at the United Nations Headquarters on 23 May in conjunction with the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues the Equator Initiative is honored to have hosted this dialogue in partnership with Aveda, Tribal Link Foundation, the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Small Grants Programme, and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).  The dialogue focused on indigenous entrepreneurship with participation from indigenous representatives, the private sector, business leaders, academics, donors, and policy-makers.  The discussion shed light on the diverse contexts of indigenous entrepreneurship through the sharing of existing business cases and capacity development initiatives.  Six main challenges for indigenous entrepreneurship--political, economic, social-cultural, technological, legal, and environmental—were discussed, as well as global directions and trends for indigenous business ventures. The event also focused attention on potentials for longer-term plans for capacity development programs for indigenous entrepreneurs, and the opportunities and challenges indigenous entrepreneurs face in partnering with donors, lending institutions, business development agencies, and private corporations.

Over the coming decades the negative effects of climate change will fall disproportionately on indigenous communities.  Building capacity to adapt to these impacts through innovative community based initiatives and partnerships among indigenous communities, NGOs and business communities is critical to environmentally sustainable solutions. It is important to raise awareness within indigenous communities and their partners of common issues and adaptable models while raising the public profile of the critical role of indigenous knowledge in ensuring the health of some of the planet’s most unique and critically endangered environments. 

The dialogue was co-facilitated by Mr. John Scott, Policy Officer for Traditional Knowledge, at the United Nations Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity and Mr. Sean Southey, Manager of UNDP’s Equator Initiative.  Between them they bring decades of dedication and diverse perspectives to the unique issues of indigenous people.  Mr. John Scott is a descendant of the Iningai people – the Aboriginal people whose traditional territories included the area around the upper reaches of the Thompson River near Barcaldine, Australia.  Throughout the 1980’s and 90s John worked as an advisor on many issues within the Aboriginal communities of Northern Australia.  Since 2000, John has held positions with the United Nations including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and worked to establish the United Nations Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. 

Mr. Sean Southey as the Manager of UNDP’s Equator Initiative contributes his comprehensive experience with environmental governance issues, program management, biodiversity conservation and partnership building.  He has held positions as Development Worker with the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in India, an Economist and later Policy Advisor with the Canadian Ministry of Environment and Energy, an Environment Programme Officer with UNDP Malawi, Environmental Specialist with Capacity 21, and Secretary General of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives in Toronto.

The panelists included: Veneranda Xochitl Juarez-Varela from Café La Selva, Mexico, Manuel Quezada IX from Community Tours Sian Ka’an, Mexico, Ole Petenya Y. Shani from the Shompole Community Trust in Kenya, Dr. Richard Walley of the Nyoongar people in Australia, Tashka Yawanawá, Chief of the Yawanawá tribe, Laura Yawanawá  from Brazil and Dominique Conseil, president of Aveda,

Café La Selva is a community based cooperative raising livestock, vegetables, and coffee that they market from farm to retail market in Chiapas, Mexico.  Veneranda Xochitl Juarez-Varela noted that Café La Selva’s mission is to improve the quality of life for the community.  She believes that to be successful indigenous entrepreneurs need to discover niches in which they have comparative advantages, articulate the importance of investments for productive processes (not just aid to subsidize consumption), develop community protocols that support democratic processes, initiate vocational training programs, and pursue alliances with external actors.  She sees the challenges for indigenous entrepreneurs as being a shortage of human capital assets, macro-economic instability, social disintegration, as well as migration abroad and to urban centers. The most important needs she sees for indigenous peoples are to strengthen internal cohesion and for greater educational opportunities.

Manuel Quezada IX represents Community Tours Sian Ka’an located on Mexico’s Caribbean coast south of Cancun.  A small ecotourism and education center, it serves as a model for sustainable development in sensitive tropical ecosystems. The revenue generated through tours, fishing, beautiful accommodations, and various on-site activities is used to fund conservation and education programs within the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve.  Manuel Quezada noted that the model for successful indigenous  entrepreneurship needs to be updated to focus upon cooperative efforts; the need to create experiences that encompass both environmental and cultural assets; the need to establish a system of permits and regulations to avoid environmental degradation and enterprise failure; the need for capacity building; and the need for small scale funding.  He sees the issues for indigenous entrepreneurs as being population growth and the associated need for economic expansion, limited access to funding/loans and limited access to business knowledge.\

Ole Petenya Y. Shani represents the Shompole Community Trust that operates, in partnership with a private company, an ecologically sensitive lodge in Kenya’s rift valley. This partnership is aimed at encouraging the conservation of the wildlife and habitat of the area while enhancing the wellbeing of the Shompole community.  Shani believes that the partnership reduces poverty, facilitates skills transfers, encourages joint ventures and related enterprise spin-offs, and has markedly improved the environment.  He believes that ensuring a larger portion of tourist revenues stays in local communities remains a long-term goal and challenge.

Dr. Richard Walley represented the Nyoongar people of Western Australia who formed a partnership with the cosmetics company Aveda three years ago for the provision of sandalwood.  Dr Walley emphasized that business is not new to indigenous peoples, that they have been in business with each other for a very long time.  To successfully work with indigenous peoples, companies need to have respect and patience—respect for the richness of indigenous knowledge and patience to learn their cultural norms.  Protocols and contract language particularly targeted for the facilitation of indigenous and non-indigenous partnerships need to be further developed.

Tashka Yawanawá, Chief of the Yawanawá tribe and his wife Laura Yawanawá  from Brazilian Amazonia echoed Dr. Walley’s comments that indigenous peoples are not poor—they are rich in knowledge of the medicinal plants and biodiversity of their land.  They both described the challenge of countering the false stereotype that indigenous peoples are not worth investing in and urged non-indigenous companies to follow Aveda’s example in thinking beyond the bottom line—to embrace a business model that encourages economic profit while ensuring cultural preservation.  They emphasized that their partnership with Aveda, which began in 1992 to sustainably harness the richness of their land, has brought the Yawanawá culture back from the brink of extinction

Dominique Consei, President of Aveda, brought the panel discussion to a close. He warmly thanked the panelists and expressed his deepest appreciation for their innovative work and special role in protecting our global biodiversity resources. Dominique emphasized the imperative for businesses to adopt the models articulated by the panelists—models that are mindful of the communities with which they partner and are appreciative of the value that indigenous people bring to commercial partnerships. Aveda has a rich history of working with indigenous communities, and Dominique underscored the incredible learning that he, personally, and Aveda, in general, has gained from working closely with indigenous partners.  In closing, he reiterated the observations of the other panelists, and noted his optimism, that developing innovative niche markets is an essential strategy for the survival of biologically diverse environments and culturally rich communities.

Dominique also noted the importance of collaboration among community members to achieve the long-term goal of economic development through sustainable business; the critical contribution of community-based initiatives; the need for capacity building in business operations, and the desirability of elective strategies that identify niche markets.

Mr. Conseil additionally commented that success is about relationships that are value-based and that success cannot happen without purpose-sharing.  Taking note of the limits of the traditional business approach in partnerships with indigenous peoples he counseled for a wiser approach with a sense of balance.  In closing he stressed that Aveda learns from indigenous peoples.

The Equator Initiative remains indebted to the gracious and generous commitments of its partners in support of the Initiative’s mission to enhance community livelihoods while preserving biological diversity in the equatorial regions.  The strength of these partnerships, exemplified by Dominique Conseil of Aveda, Tribal Link Foundation, WIPO, and the GEF’s Small Grants Programme, is the keystone of effective partnership and advocacy. 

The Equator Initiative also remains singularly in debt to the inspiration of the Equator Prize Winners and Equator Prize Finalists who continue to inspire those of us who are privileged to work with them.

Going forward, Aveda, Tribal Link and UNDP’s Equator Initiative will explore how the insight of these exciting panelists and the knowledge garnered from participant survey responses can inform efforts to deepen support to indigenous entrepreneurs. 

Over the next two to three months the Equator Initiative team and its partners will follow up with the participants via email and seek partners to move this work forward.  A meeting to continue this dialogue and present lessons learned will be organized for the next three to six months.

We are excited to include this important issue of indigenous entrepreneurship in upcoming community dialogue spaces we will host in Papua New Guinea (Oct 2007), and at CBD COP9 (Bonn, Germany, May 2008) and the 4th IUCN World Conservation Congress (Barcelona, Spain, Oct 2008).

Please contact us if you wish to support this important body of work at: Sean Southey: +1 347 276 1354 or equatorinitiative@undp.org