The project will be overseen Christina Dollhausen, a Peace Corps volunteer, who has raised money from friends and family in the US for this project.
Peace Corps Panama Friends might kick in funding as well, but that probably won't be decided for some weeks.

-----Original Message-----
From: Christina Dollhausen
To: jlutesPCPF@hntb.com
Subject: Proposal for Colon Project

Dear PCPF,
I am sending you this project proposal in order to have funding channeled through PCPF as you mentioned in your email. I already have donors waiting to send me money to start this project. Please contact me a.s.a.p. If this is something you feel appropriate for your group to handle so I can go forward with donations. Thank you in advance for your consideration of this proposal.

Christina Dollhausen
Peace Corps Volunteer
Panama

Tagua Project Proposal History:

Caño Quebrado, a small community in the Province of Colon, Panama, was started in the late 1940's by farmers immigrating from other provinces. The community has grown to a population of about 140 today. It has grown slowly and remained isolated due to the lack of transportation and the lack of resources available to develop the community. Located in between three other communities of similar or slightly larger size, and being the closest via to the highway, Caño Quebrado has the potential to be an economic and social center of the area.

The main activity is subsistence farming, growing only what the family needs and not much more. What small income they do have comes from their coffee farms. Each family has a coffee farm of a couple hectares which they sell during harvest season for a profit of about $300-$400 per year, when the market is good. Many families also own a few head of cattle, up to ten in larger families. The cattle seem to act much like a savings account, dipped into only during emergencies. Only one cattle may be sold a year for a $250-$300 addition to their income.

The style of living in Caño Quebrado is very simple and rural. The majority of houses are made of wood with dirt floors and tin-sheet roofs. Some of the houses, especially those in the low areas, are built on stilts to endure the flooding during the rainy season. And still other may have thatched roofs made of leaves from the tree Palma Real. There is no electricity, although a couple houses a times use gasoline generators for occasional power.

The Proposal:
Over the last year I have been working with the communities of Caño Quebrado and La Tagua to improve the production of their coffee farms. However, the type of coffee produced in the area, because of the low elevation, is not of export quality. Therefore, as we have seen this year, the market price paid for our coffee fluctuates greatly from year to year. It is no longer a reliable source of income for the families in these communities. This year the price paid for one lata (a 5-gallon container) of ripe and dried coffee was $6, down from three years ago when it was at $13/lata.

As a result, we have been looking for alternative sources of income that go beyond the traditional agriculture. What we have found is a relative abundance of the palm tree tagua, which produces a seed marketable in various forms. It historically has been used to make buttons and other products before the creation of plastics. In Ecuador a large company called ManExpo harvests the nut and sells it to button factories which carve the buttons with machines. In Panama it is the tradition of the Waunaan and Embera indigenous peoples to hand carve the seed into native species animal figurines.

Recently, we have become aware of a market for hand-carved tagua buttons and guitar parts. Various companies we have been in contact with have expressed interest in not only the product but also in supporting the project financially.

The process for this project is then as follows:
1) Orientation Seminar Topics:
    a) Feasibility study
    b) Reforestation with tagua palm
    c) Tagua carving classes

2)Follow-up:
    a) 1-week seminar on introduction to business and cooperatives
    b) 2-week seminar on carving tagua to be taught by Waunaan or Embera artisans
    c) Reforestation with tagua
    d) Formation of cooperative between tagua producers and carvers.
    e) Certification of sustainable harvesting practices through SMARTWOOD.

In addition to working with the Latino communities of Caño Quebrado and La Tagua, we also would like to expand this project to include the Waunaan and Embera who are the traditional carvers of the tagua nut. Through this seminar with the participation of these communities and the Waunaan teachers, we hope to start a partnership in the business of tagua production for the benefit of both. The funds we receive will go to start production in the communities I am currently working in with the intention of expanding to work with the indigenous communities in the near future.