Jordan Times
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Festival of Jordan
attracts 1,500 visitors
By Sheila M. Dabu
AMMAN — Fawzieh Hassanat, the manager of the Noor
Al Hussein Foundation's Wadi Musa jewellery project attended to customers
admiring the handcrafted silver jewellery during the “Festival of Jordan” on
Friday and Saturday at the Wild Jordan Centre.
Hassanat, along with about 80 local producers from throughout the Kingdom and
roughly 1,500 customers gathered at the first Fair Trade Jordan (FTJ) event in
2006, during which producers showcased organic fruits and vegetables, ceramics,
recycled paper and handicrafts.
According to its advocates, fair trade as an alternative market not only has the
goal of protecting nature but also carries with it the socio-economic objectives
of combating poverty and unemployment and empowering women.
“Our project helps women because it gives them independence and also assists
women to help their families,” Hassanat told The Jordan Times.
Aside from raising awareness about fair trade and environmental conservation,
the event also sought to raise the profile of local producers and enhance
capacity building.
“Fair trade will help artisans and producers to market their goods,” Omar Tahat,
told The Jordan Times. Tahat owns a small shop in Amman and his niece, Nisreen
Zawhrah, designs and produces the ceramic art.
“Most of the fair trade products are supposed to be environment-friendly or
organic and fair trade teaches capacity building for individual communities to
learn how to manage businesses and market their products,” Canadian Ambassador
to Jordan John Holmes told The Jordan Times.
The Canadian International Development Agency and OXFAM Quebec, through their
project with the Small Business Development Centre at JOHUD, supported the
event.
As for the feasibility of fair trade in Jordan, Chris Johnson, Development
Manager of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), said during
a presentation that effective marketing is key to eco-tourism and ecofriendly
businesses.
For instance, RSCN's projects in protected areas have generated income for the
local community through environmentfriendly activities, Johnson added.
“Our approach is business-like. We need protected areas to stand on their own
feet economically and ecologically,” he said.
Furthermore, Johnson said that if the local community sees environmental
conservation as a viable source of income, then it would have an interest in
protecting nature.
Meanwhile, Zaid Hamzeh, manager of the Ammarin bedouin camp near Petra, said
their camp faces an environmental problem.
“People go and picnic in our area then dump their garbage. Some cut trees,”
Hamzeh told The Jordan Times.
“This environmental damage affects our community,” he added.
Even with this difficulty, the camp adopted fair-trade like practices such as
eco-tourism, offering camel rides, in addition to marketing handmade,
eco-friendly goods such as rugs made of goat hair and wool.
FTJ is in the process of identifying fair trade products for certification,
which should take about one year, JOHUD Deputy Executive Director Eman Nimri
told The Jordan Times.
Although FTJ has not yet established a certification process for fair trade
goods, criteria would include environment-friendly goods by local producers and
fair wages, according to Lianne Romahi, coordinator of Fair Trade Jordan.
Regarding the options for small producers in Jordan to start fair trade
businesses, some advocate micro-credit programmes.
Mohammad Hmoud, marketing and product development manager of the National
Microfinance Bank, said the Bank is specifically geared to provide micro-credit
loans from JD200 to JD5,000 to women for existing small and microbusinesses.
But according to Reem Fariz, acting secretary general of the Jordanian National
Commission for Women, microcredit in its present form is not the best way to
assist women in fair trade enterprises.
She added that grassroots associations such as rotating credit and savings
associations are more beneficial for women because they are low-cost and are run
by women.
“From my 10 years of experience in the field, the way it is practised now,
microfinance is good only for existing profitable businesses but not small
producers,” she added.
Fariz added that women sometimes borrow loans for their husbands and then are
left to pay off the loan and interest.
FTJ is a consortium of NGOs including the Jordan Hashemite Fund for Human
Development (JOHUD), the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) and
the World Conservation Union.
The next FTJ event will be held in May, according to event officials.