Festival Panen Raya Nusantara (PARARA) is going to be celebrated on 6 and 7 June 2015 in Lapangan Banteng, Jakarta. Twenty civil society organizations from all across Indonesia work together to celebrate PARARA. We can find hundreds of high quality community products such as woven bags of Kalimantan, natural forest honey and local food products from various regions in Indonesia in the festival.

The Head of PARARA committee; Jusupta Tarigan - also serves as the Director of the Non Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme (NTFP-EP Indonesia) states that the festival aims to support local community livelihood in a fair and sustainable manner. We expect that local product will be able to provide an answer for community livelihoods without threating the environment.

Various local products are already on sale exclusively in national and international outlets; one of them is organic coffee. Indonesian Organic Alliance (Aliansi Organis Indonesia) stated that Indonesia organic coffee is currently dominating the world market of organic coffee."Beside coffee, local rattan and woven clothing products from Kalimantan have been also marketed worldwide through Borneo Chic brand, launched by NTFP Indonesia", JT added.

However, community products are still facing challenges e.g. clarity in area management, production and marketing. Not to mention the unjust benefits sharing; community as the producer earn very small despite the high price of their products in international market.

JT added; PARARA is beyond celebration; it's about improving local products' image and eliminates the poor quality image attached in our local community products. Also, we are pursuing to integrate previous overlapped regulations and policies in relation to local production and marketing. Further, we strive to encourage synergies among sectors to improve marketing. Most importantly, PARARA aims to drive community forward and be recognized as the producer, instead of the CSOs.

One way to improve marketing is better branding and packaging. We have involved more than 200 university students majoring on visual communication in BINUS and UNTAR to design local products' brand and packages. Toto Mujio Mukmin of Visual Communication Design UNTAR states that the students play an important role in making the product to be more appealing and have increased value in the market.

Beyond sustainable production and market, community sovereignty over natural resource management is equally important to be strived for. Recognition and protection of the indigenous people, who manage natural resources in a sustainable manner, should be highlighted. This serves as a basis for the efforts to achieve Equitable and Sustainable Livelihoods for Local Communities.

Let's celebrate PARARA!

PARARA is supported by: NTFP-EP (Non-Timber Forest Product Exchange Programme Indonesia), Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI), World Wide Fund (WWF), Jaringan Madu Hutan Nusantara (JMHI), Telapak, Rumah Organik, Kehati, Yayasan Anak Dusun Papua (Yadupa), Yayasan Riak Bumi, Yayasan Mitra Insani (YMI), Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN), Aliansi Organik Indonesia (AOI), FKKM, GEF-SGP, Kemitraan, Perkumpulan Indonesia Berseru, JMM, Recoftc, Samdhana Institute, Warsi, and Yayasan Dian Tama.