Lao Bamboo & Rattan Products

Welcome to the Lao Rattan Handicraft Website!

Vila — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:19:57 +0000

Welcome to the Lao Rattan Handicraft Website! You will find here beautiful handicraft products with unique Lao designs ranging from small office items to furniture. The products are made by the small producer groups and well-established companies. Importantly, the products are partially made of rattan that is bought from the sustainable community-managed forests.

Established under the Forest Connect Initiative and maintained by the Enterprise & Development Consultants Co., ltd in Lao PDR, the website aims at bringing these products closer to the world market. More info about Forest Connect Initiative can be found in About Us.

For more info about a particular product, please look for the telephone number or email of the contact person(s) in the Contact Us session in the respective company’s website.

Working Together in the Forest Connect Project

Vila — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:54:37 +0000

For the past few weeks, two American Interns, Tyanne Benallie and Pema Domingo-Barker have been working with EDC. The interns accompanied Mr. Visay Sayyavongsa on a field assignment to the Nalongkhoun Village in the Phon Hong District in the Vientiane Province. The field assignment allowed the interns to see how EDC works in partnership with local villagers who produce handcraft bamboo/rattan products. Mr. Visay Sayavongsa and the interns talked with a local salesman in the Nalongkhoun Village. The local salesman took them around the village to see how the bamboo/rattan products are made. EDCs role in the whole process is to help prepare a website for the local salesman’s business in the Nalongkhoun Village. Intern Pema took various pictures for the local business upcoming website; these pictures will be used to advertise the local bamboo/rattan furniture products. This activity is within the frame of the Forest Connect Project in Lao PDR. For more information about the project.

First Web 2.0 Course for SMFEs

edcanela — Sat, 02 May 2009 05:00:07 +0000

EDC has recently completed the first Web 2.0 course for the SMFEs in Vientiane. The course aimed to demonstrate the basics of the internet technology to the participants and to introduce the use of websites in marketing their products.

In the course, the participants learned how to develop the bamboo and rattan SMFEs in other countries like Indonesia (case of the Trangsan Village), Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Hongkong and Singapore. Then the participants visited interesting sites including FAO Forest Connect, International Bamboo and Rattan Network (INBAR), Solo Business as well as a new rattan design product called EggSofa.

The participants also learned how to post in the Lao Connect Website. Everyone got excited in the process of preparing their own website. It appears that they will continue working on their sites even after the course. The Danlao SMFE presented its own existing Web 1.0 type of site. The site was functional but not complete yet. The Danlao participants claimed that they will improve their site in the future. Both Bila and Visay were asked by Buakhai to follow-up the participants and assist them in developing the sites.

SMFEs Diagnostic in Laos

Vila — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:28:43 +0000

Small and Medium Forest Enterprises Diagnostic has been completed because of the actively collaboration among the Steering Committee (FAO, IIED, WWF, SNV, NAFRI and EDC).

The objectives of the diagnostics are:

To draw a comprehensive picture of the current status of SMFEs in Laos, particularly Bamboo, Rattan and Paper Mulberrry or Posa, regarding governance, access to market and finance, labor, enterprise link, threats, opportunties and recommendation for the facilitation interventions.
To contribute inputs to the toolkit that is being developed by Global Forest Connect

The understanding of the current situation of SMFEs in Laos illustrating the constraints and opportunities, some recommendations have been pointed out in order to improve the SMFEs business performances as well as local communties living conditions.

Download the full report, click here, more download report