Kovel Foundation

Economics and technicality of Gum Karaya (Sterculia urens) which is a sub-sector of NTFP livelihood, have come forward to organize themselves with a vision to enhance their quality of life through socio-economic empowerment and formed ‘Kovel Foundation – A trust by the indigenous people for research on sustainable technologies’ in the year 1994 with its headquarters at Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh State in India. It is an Apex organisation of 250 Girijan Gum Pickers Associations (GGPA) spread across 15 tribal concentrated Districts of Andhra Pradesh State and has a strong clientele of 8500 tribal gum pickers. Having the core values of faith in the capacity of indigenous community, ecological integrity and accountability besides transparency, Kovel has been able to impact the lives of the tribals both tangibly and intangibly.

The Trust Board of Kovel Foundation comprises of 6 elected tribal Trustees from the 6 zones across the State out of which one is woman belongs to a Primitive Tribal Group (PTG), 3 nominated Trustees who are committed to tribal development and 2 standing
invitees. The Board meets quarterly to plan and review the activities. The affairs of the Trust are managed by the Managing Trustee through the Chief Executive Officer.

Kovel Foundation is one of the few NGOs in the country owned and headed by NTFP dependent tribal/client communities who form the Board. GGPAs have contributed seed capital and community ownership and participation has always been on high priority in
planning, implementation, monitoring, review and evaluation of the programmes.

Now, working on a sustainable livelihood strategy, the organisation also works with land based interventions.

Gallery | Contact: kovel@rediffmail.com