Network Past Issues

HONEYHUNTERS OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

 Interview with Mathew John

With a background in administration and finance for rural development organisations and field projects, Mathew John (MJ) from PRM 8, co-Founder & current co-Director of Keystone Foundation, has an active interest in enterprise development and participatory organic certification systems for small growers and harvesters. Keystone has been working in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve over the last 15 years with indigenous communities on eco-development initiatives. The Foundation’s work has been concentrated in the areas of apiculture, land development, organic & fair trade marketing, non timber forest produce and many more. To compliment his role as a director of the Keystone Foundation, he is also a member of the IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) and PGS Organic India Council. Mathew is involved with Fair Trade and is on the board of the Fair Trade Forum – India. He is also working with a local group for Geographical Indicator (GI) on Toda embroidery. Arpit Shah (AS) and Burra Naga Trinadh (BNT) from PRM 30 interacted with him regarding his life and Keystone Foundation.

AS & BNT: How was your life before joining IRMA. Kindly take us through your childhood, key activities, notable achievements, social work, etc. What had you decided for yourself before joining IRMA? What made you join IRMA? Also, please elaborate any key event/s that occurred that moulded your life. And a question that every IRMAn repeatedly faces: Why IRMA?

 MJ: I have spent most of my childhood in Varanasi. I completed my schooling there and then went to Chennai for college. I did my B. Com from Loyola College and then on to IRMA. Actually, history was something that interested me but school did not offer that option and then moved on to commerce. IRMA joining - why? Is a difficult question to answer because I had calls from 3 IIMs but did not get through the GDs and interviews!!! Maybe that explains that I certainly am not a boisterous character to be able to force my way through GDs. But with my bend of mind and a family support, caring atmosphere at home and their concern (dad was a pastor); IRMA might have by chance created the best path for me. And it did turn out that way. Right through school, I was very clear in my mind that sort of was in my mind that I should be able to create a niche where ethics/transparency was crucial.
AS & BNT: Kindly take us on your ride through IRMA. What feature of IRMA did you like the most? Please share special moments. Any specific incidence that you may recollect, life at campus, teachers, colleagues, hostel life, etc. How about the Fieldwork and MTS segments. What transformation do you feel that you credit to IRMA? How did your time here transformed you and did it play a role in deciding your future?
MJ: I think the best things through IRMA - friends and camaraderie, tremendous emphasis on sports and fitness in our batch (whatever the situation), food and a capacity to grind oneself through all situations. The course - in hindsight, I think that if you have basic intelligence, it will carry you through. Quantitative areas were not my strength but courses taught by profs like Madhav Rao (Economics), Arul Raj (Organizational Behavior), Mukunda Das (marketing) stick out in my head. The Admin officer (Soman Nair) was an absolute gem - he supported students through thick and thin. Food was a washout but strict adherence to eggs and chicken were our life savers - who will forget the special Kentucky fried chicken in mess on Sundays?

Field work and MTS were I think more crucial than many of the courses because they taught you to think on your feet - whether it was to succeed or to wriggle out of situations!!! Apart from that, discussions with many of the seniors who were either working in these organizations or around were extremely useful.
AS & BNT: What was your life after IRMA? Any key decisions that shaped your life. Briefly take us through the events that led you after IRMA to Keystone foundation. Can you elaborate the various stints you had before Keystone and key learning from them.

MJ: A disaster was the organization that I joined after IRMA. Under the guise of AKHB, I was sent to another trust (realized this only when my appointment letter was given after 2-3 months) - left and came back to IRMA. Prof. Tushaar Shah and other professors were supportive and I got taken in by Dev Alt. That took me down another route – made friends in DA and wanted to get into the field rather than sit in the office and write reports/attend meetings. These might be important things to do but felt that I was more comfortable doing things in the field. That helped to work in Bihar and then convinced DA to set up a field base in Kodaikanal – which 3 of us: Myself, Pratim and Snehlata did. Pratim is an ecologist from Salim Ali School of Ecology, Pondicherry and Snehlata is an economist from Lucknow University. They are my colleagues and co-founder Directorser. After close to 1.5 years, the project was coming to a close and then we were being called back to Delhi. That did not enthuse any of us – we went back but over a period of 3-4 months, quit. We got a consultancy from NORAD to work in HP to work and come up with a plan for natural resources in different districts with the administration and NGOs. That was a great experience – then short consultancies in Bangladesh, helped and we then realized that consultancy was good to earn money but never for satisfaction which you could get only after you worked and saw the results. We always wanted to come back to Tamil Nadu and so we did – the 3 of us were called `packers & movers’ – so, with the money, we had earned, we spent an year backpacking in TN, looking at honeyhunters and beekeepers – an area that was of interest to us since we had heard about it while working in Kodaikanal.
AS & BNT: Can you tell us about Keystone Foundation. How it started, reasons for starting, why Kotagiri was selected as the place, difficulties faced, journey of upbringing, activities it carries out, its key interventions, how it brought about changes in lives of people, how has it impacted lives of tribal communities there.
MJ: The beginning was made when four core members of Keystone Pratim, Snehlata, Leo and myself; set out on a state-wide survey of apiculture in Tamil Nadu. Just before starting this survey in Nilgiris, in Nov 1993, we registered Keystone. Trudging miles of mountain paths and dusty roads with backpacks, this field survey gave a precious opportunity to look at the situation of 11 indigenous communities across 15 hill ranges in Tamil Nadu. At the end of 1994, we sort of zoomed in on Kotagiri because of a variety of reasons. We chose Kotagiri because there were local people who were supportive of our work and wanted us to base ourselves here. It was also an area where a certain viral disease affecting one species of bees, was not yet found. It would help us to experiment with technology and different ways of beekeeping.

It was a start and so in Feb 1995, we again moved to Kotagiri to hopefully, set up our base for the last time. It was a start from scratch but support from some local folks helped us with contacts in villages and allowed us to begin work. We started with just 3 villages but today work in over 90 villages across the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. A lot of the initial months was just spent in talking to people and building up relationships. That took a lot of time – just to convince people that you were here for good rather than for just a few months.

It was also the start of the enterprise – buying some honey and packing and selling. It was a very new experience but we continued and it bore fruit. We used to go door to door, selling honey to people, in the evenings – on a bike with a bagful of bottles. One of our first breaks was to supply honey to the Taj Group of Hotels. AS & BNT: What is the concept at Keystone? What is the reach of Keystone?

MJ: Emphasis on bringing natural resource management and rural development, together. Many times, it is one at the cost of the other. For us, it is important that both need to be in harmony.

The concept of `keystone’ emerges from the nest-building behaviour of some birds in nature. These permanent nest structures serve as habitat for several life forms. Such `keystone’ species become crucial in providing opportunities for other associated beings to grow and evolve. Thus, the Keystone group is born out of a simple ecological principle of the interdependence of natural systems.

Keystone Foundation has completed 16 years in the Nilgiris, working with indigenous communities on eco-development initiatives. The Foundation’s work has been concentrated in the areas of apiculture, micro-enterprise development, non-timber forest produce, land and water management, revival of traditional agriculture, and other issues concerning indigenous communities. Keystone has projects primarily located in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve covering the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala & Karnataka. It has reached out to around 90 tribal hamlets and impacting over 4000 tribal families.

AS & BNT: Keystone Foundation was nominated for BBC World Challenge 2008 and was a finalist in the competition. Take us through that. What are the other awards, nominations that you received for your activities?

MJ: That was quite a surprise for us. Normally, we don’t apply for awards but the email for this competition came from many friends and partners – and so, wrote up for the competition. And that was it – we got shortlisted. The exciting process started after that when we had to raise votes online for winning. We made book marks with a calendar and it got distributed all over the place. Then, an email campaign went on – we got posters made and that got distributed in schools, cyber cafes, etc etc. I have not seen such excitement take hold of the office. Wherever folks went, they would ask people to vote for us – we still fell short but it was an engaging experience.

Some other things that have come our way – my colleague, Pratim being invited for tea with President Abdul Kalam (50 NGOs from all over India). Sneh, another colleague, being awarded as `woman of the year’ - by the Ramakrishna Mission, Coimbatore. Also, a film, `Honeyhunters of the Blue Mountains’ has won awards in France, US and other places.

How do you feel when your efforts are being appreciated by the world? It must be giving you immense pleasure that your efforts are shaping so many lives not only in the tribal communities of Nilgiris but also others who get motivated and inspired by the zeal exhibited as well as impacts created by your interventions.

It is always good to get appreciated but it cannot be a key driving factor. An interesting outcome was that I got called to give a TEDx talk in Coimbatore in November. Very nice to hear many young folks come up and say that they felt validated in the new ventures that they had started out on.

AS & BNT: How do you feel transformed yourself as a person through your journey of establishing and nurturing Keystone?

MJ: It is a humbling experience – you learn so much along the way – everyday is a new experience. We try to explain things by reason and logic which fit into our systems but this same cannot be applied or does not fit into adivasi systems of culture and daily lives. Our problem is that we try and get them to do the reasoning in the same manner – is it necessary to homogenize the world – who decides that and why do we want homogeneity. Does dissonance disturb us or does not allow us to function in an LFA (Logical Framework Approach) manner!!. I think these are questions that we need to constantly confront ourselves with.

AS & BNT: How is IRMA different from any other top Business school in the country? Also, what is that an IRMAn should completely take advantage of while studying at IRMA? What does IRMA give to its student that other schools cannot give.

MJ: These are perennial questions that is put to every IRMAn – I think we get so fixed with this question that it tends to upset every one. We should create an atmosphere in IRMA which allows students to look and experience management in a different manner and then allow students to make the choice – not everyone will fall in line and it is difficult to find a large set of students who will all follow the ideals of IRMA and the reasons for its existence. I think there are 2 ways to tackle this – one, to continue to strive for excellence in the fields that it is relevant to and second to be able to find a better way of selection of students. It has to be out of the box thinking that will allow IRMA to find people who are different and want to make a difference.

AS & BNT: The batch PRM 30 is on threshold of transition from life before IRMA and life after IRMA. What message would you like to give to these aspiring rural managers? Can you spare few lines for IRMAns who are bemused whether to tread a development sector path or not.

MJ: Be different – do not settle for mediocrity. Be sensitive and humane – it is very easy to set up systems and then want everyone to follow the rule book. Are we wanting to make robots? We need to be able to reach out not only to our colleagues but also to our clients – to understand their needs and concerns and see how we can make a difference.