Bohol’s second district to boost bamboo industry
September 19, 2011 9:48 pm
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Sept. 19 – The bamboo industry in this province will get a boost in the 14 municipalities of the second district, with Danao serving as pilot town.
A partnership between the Municipality of Danao and Bamboo Horizons will spark the district-wide bamboo plantation for local livelihood with the help of established bamboo advocacy agencies.
Danao Mayor Thomas Louis Gonzaga and Robert Haruntunyan of Bamboo Horizons recently presented the concept of a bamboo plantation and processing for livelihood project before Rep. Erico Aumentado and the other second district mayors in a gathering at Bohol Tropics in this city.
Rep. Erico Aumentado expressed support to a possible district-wide implementation of the project with Haruntunyan’s assurance that it will include a marketing component.
To ensure sustainability, the project also includes bamboo skills training workshops for bamboo treatment and processing to better assist local community residents who need to learn practical and progressive learning techniques to successfully grow and harvest bamboo and sell quality bamboo canes to industries.
Haruntunyan also cited that Bohol can contribute a lot in addressing the scarce supply of bamboo as the country is catching up with the demand.
“We’ve barely produced 25 percent of the demand. In Bohol, you need 40 hectares as starter and will push you to 200 hectares. We train your people and your people in return, will train other people,” according to Haruntunyan.
Haruntunyan also pointed out that Bamboo Horizons continues “to keep developing solutions and basic bamboo processing techniques that can continue to foster growth on the planet and not devastate the land of nutrients plants and space that animals need to survive”.
There is a viable solution as the world looks to sustainable energy and products to reverse some of the devastating effects of global pollution, poverty and over population, he added.
“Our focus must be directed towards viable, long-term solutions, not only on advocating and implementing bamboo production but rather focus the proper bamboo treatment techniques for maximum use along with training skills for the successful production of bamboo building material for local use and job creation,” Haruntunyan said.
The lifespan of a bamboo club can reach 100 years if their seedlings will be sourced from a reliable nursery.
“A one-hectare area can accommodate 400 seedlings of bamboo. We carefully monitor and wait for the day when they flower. It takes careful planning. Seedlings are available in Iloilo, but if you need 40,000, you don’t need to buy one truckload of them,” according to Haruntunyan.
PENRO Nestor Canda informed the mayors of second district that there is a plan to put up one structure that can house a cloning nursery for each district which can be maximized in the bamboo project.
He said Secretary Montejo proposed to reduce the budget to only P250,000 each so that all districts in the region can have at least one cloner nursery.
A good seedling has higher survival rate than bamboos grown from shoots.
Aumentado contemplated on facilitating funds from his PDAF for the 24-foot container with capacity of 250 bamboo canes costing P40,000-P60,000 each to be set up in a cane drying facility per municipality.
The congressman, however, asked Haruntunyan and Gonzaga to make sure the project will include a marketing component.
Haruntunyan said they will start with an assessment on the skills available in every town.
The town of Danao has been producing “lumboo” or lumber from bamboo.
Haruntunyan said that bamboo is even more durable than wood, with even more uses aside from serving as habitat for wildlife and preventing soil erosion.
“Bamboo has created millions of never-before-available jobs through the combined efforts of bamboo growers and developers. The problem is 95 percent of bamboo harvested in the Philippines is not treated and are just left to dry under the strong sun on a wet ground, resulting in complete rot and instant pest infestation, which amazingly still works well for three to five years,” he added.
Haruntunyan expressed lament that the biggest buyers of bamboo are those in the B.B.Q. stick industry, beating the furniture industry, basket and weaving industry, and fish pen industry.
“The environmental benefits of manufacturing bamboo products and conservation of forests through timber substitution is just one step in the right direction of reversing the effects of global depletion and to begin respecting the earth and its more renewable resources with a more beneficial environmental affect,” Haruntunyan said.(PNA) LAP/Angeline Valencia/utb
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