THE BOND BETWEEN THE LAND PRODUCTS QUALITY AND THE CREATIVITY AND CULTURE OF THE LOCALS/BIOSPHERE RESERVE BRANDING THROUGH HIGH QUALITY

PRODUCTS AND GASTRONOMYECOPIA THE BRAND NAME FOR ETHIOPIAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE

DR. MITSLAL KIFLEYESUS-MATSCHIEITLAY 2015

Ecopia Plc is a social for profit company that produce organic natural and forest food, cosmetic and herbal medicinal products for national and international market. Ecopia’sproducts are produced, and process within the communities.

Ecopia plc has processing facilities in 14 different part of Ethiopia covering more than 11,000 farmers. Some of the processing facilitates are co-owned with the communities or with youth from the communities. Ecopia Plc has developed more than 57 processed food products, 35 cosmetics and 15 herbal medicinal plants.

The past 5 years the volume of the production as well as the demand for Ecopia products have increased 300% not only in Ethiopia but also in other countries like Dubai, Germany, Senegal etc.

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▪ Ecopia stands in both the term and the brand for high qualityproduced in community, organic, natural, environmental,ecological products and services.

▪ Arguably, Ecopia-as an organic brand- has been since 2009 one ofthe most famous and celebrated brands in Ethiopia by organicmovement and by community based products and services: it is aplace, product and soon service brand that is without parallel inEthiopian organic movement.

▪ 2011 The German government representative BFN requestedEcopia Plc to use its brand name for developing products andservices for biosphere reserve.

▪ Ecopia is since 2015 linked as key stakeholder to Ethiopian GreenEconomy and developed for Ethiopian government the necessarylegal and administrative procedures for facilitating branding ofcarbon natural with certificate of origin from biosphere reserves.

Ecopia logo and Ecopia Plc activities in Biosphere reserve

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Ecopia Plc has been requested from the Ethiopian government to develop a natural medicine and cosmetic products for national and international markets will support the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy by providing: Economic livelihood improvement for subsistence farmers, Biodiversity conservation and resilience to climate change through green technology and environmentally sustainable practices.

In this regard, Ecopia Plc developed manuals and procedures for all the stakeholders (including the government authorities) for developing green products within Ethiopian biosphere reserves and hotspots having the following certifications.

1. Certificate of Origin;

2. Certificate of Green and sustainable,

3. Carbon neutral and organic.

Ecopia activities implementing Ethiopia Climate Resilient Green Economy in Biosphere Reserve

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ECOPIA PRODUCTS FROM BIOSPHERE RESERVES: FOOD COSMETICS AND HERBAL MEDICINAL PLANTS. ECOPIA PRODUCTS

ARE LINKED WITH ITS GEO-TOUR.

Ecopia research has demonstrated that the certification and validation of the certifications by government authorities enables the communities and the company to move

For food from 15% to 30% margin of profit;

Cosmetics from 60 to 100% margin of profit;

For herbal medicinal plants the margin of profit heavily depend on certification of origin on price and quality.

Therefore, if Ecopia biosphere products in the near future will provide the three certificates as well as provides a verification means to the validation of the certifications and integrating the existing trace, track and pay me system on line.

At the same time the Ethiopian government revenue from the products and services will increase 100% annual.

The communities will be able to increase their margin of profit not only from the products but also from the services linked to the validations and verification that community based interactive tourism.

Impact of certification, green branding and labeling income and revenue generation for the company and the Community

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ECOPIA BRAND DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF PRODUCTS FROM BIOSPHERE RESERVE

▪ Ecopia Logo

▪ The picture describes Ade Ababa with the three national colors: the validation of ade abebadescribes why the business came into being: endemic plant, a symbol of new discovery, a symbol of women power, women beautify, a gift from queen to king and the community, a product and services produced with traditional knowledge linked with human computer interaction. A product that reflects ABS of the Convention of Biodiversity. A product produced by hand empowered with technology for been green and carbon neutral.

Ecopia Logo and brand stands for its roots

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▪ Ecological products of Ethiopia, describes why the business came into being. To develop products and services with the communities in the communities.

▪ All Ecopia products have indication: where and by whom it is produced:

▪ Taste of Yayu biosphere reserve;

▪ Taste of Sheka biosphere reserve

▪ Taste of Tigray etc

Ecopia brand stands for its origin

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▪ The DNA of Ecopia is a product that is produced with the communities and empowering the modern society: our products of Shea butter are made in Gambella by our communities by hand with calm. Our products are bought as they are also linked to the spirituality of the production and traditional knowledge.

Ecopia’s brand DNA’s is the community, women in green economy de facto environmental and organic

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Ecopia brand is certified by consumers. We provide our consumers to verify and validate our products.

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ECOPIA is involved in the commercial movement of organic food from the biosphere reserve/field to the consumers. We bring a product from its conception to its end use consisting of the input suppliers, producers, processors and buyers. Using the mobile application of ERP system. Ecopia provides tourism to the community as part of the validation and certification verification.

Labels indicate:Traceability CodePlace of originExpiration dateConsumer informationContact

Ecopia Brand name integrates certificate of origin

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Labels indicate:Traceability Code with Place of origin

Ecopia biosphere reserve brand name management

Ecopia brand name is managed with the communities, in order to insure the knowledge management: we train in regular bases the community (women) about Biodiversity

and CRGE

WE PROVIDE TRAINING ON PRODUCT SERVICES: WHY DO THE END USERS LIKES OUR PRODUCTS; HOW TO USE THE PRODUCTS FOR THE COMMUNITIES

WE TRAIN AND DEMONSTRATE THE PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING TO ALL THE AGE OF THE COMMUNITIES: ELDERLIES INCLUDED. ECOPIA TRAINING IN YAYU, SHEKA, ZEGE ON FOOD, COSMETICS AND HERBAL MEDICINAL PRODCUTS

Ecopia and the communities are developing community interactive tourism

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Ecopia and the communities are developing community co-management Biosphere Reserve as well as brand management

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Challenges and opportunities of community based branding

1. Heavily dependent in the community and the government.2. Community based brand management requires patience's and

all communities involvement.3. If managed efficiently the margin of profit in long term is very

high