Stories

Small businesses band together to meet high cost of Indonesia’s timber certification scheme

Next month, the Indonesian government will have fully phased in legislation requiring all furniture companies exporting to the European market prove sourcing of legally harvested timber.

Voices from a carved landscape

Intiyah is nobody’s idea of a shrinking lily. At age 33, she runs a freelance wood carving business out of her house while raising her daughter. Yet, here she is, rigid with embarrassment from her new-found literary celebrity, at a book signing of Pelangi di Tanah Kartini in the Central Javanese...

Carving a new future: Jepara furniture industry bounces back after global financial crisis

When mortgages in Nevada went sour in 2008, no one expected it to set off a financial downward spiral that would affect industries as far away as Jepara, Central Java. In a recent economic analysis, CIFOR scientists detail just how every level of this export-furniture-making capital adjusted.

Jepara producers hone marketing skills during CIFOR's annual meeting

The Jepara Small Scale Furniture Producers Association (APKJ) exhibited at CIFOR's annual meeting for the second year running in October 2010. The nascent association is a key partner in CIFOR's Furniture Value Chain project. APKJ practiced their ever-improving exhibiting and marketing skills while...

The faces behind Jepara

In the central Java district of Jepara, small-scale furniture workshops are a mainstay of the local economy. In recent years, however, furniture makers have been looking at fierce competition on two fronts. Manufacturers in China are underpricing them, and other furniture makers in Java are...