The Bamboo and Rattan Sectors in Asia: an Analysis of ... - INBAR

information sharing, to consolidate power in buying and selling, and to mobilize
political support in lobbying for policy changes. Some of the stronger association can
act as cartels, and effect supply management through collective production restrictions.
At the most extreme, firms within an industry can be integrated, where one firm
assumes control over other firms in the same industry to increase buying power, to
assume greater control over the marketing of products, and generally to take advantage
of economies of scale.
Methods
The SEWG selected a series of bamboo and rattan PCS for study. The cases were
selected to represent a range of intensities of management at the raw material
production stage and at other stages in the PCS. The systems selected included
examples of extractive-based systems through to plantation-based systems, and a
range of intermediate situations. The studies followed the PCS approach, tracing the
flow of material through the various processes and transactions to the ultimate
consumer and identifying the stakeholders involved. They described the social and
economic factors that make up the 'decision-making environment' (the combination
of factors that affect the way people use their resources). With improved understanding
of a PCS, it will be easier to know what kinds of development interventions (technical,
policy, institutional, investment, etc.) are needed to benefit the target group(s) in a
sustainable way. The studies also help to show where further research is required.
Information thus generated will help form the research agenda within INBAR and
will help ensure the relevance of technical research.
Each of the studies was executed by a small team of researchers from government
research agencies and/or universities. Based on the general PCS selections made by
the SEWG, the researchers refined the study site selection. In some cases a whole
country was included, while in other cases specific PCS were defined within a country
(for example, three separate rattan PCS were studied in Indonesia).
The approaches and methods were intended to be comparable among the studies.
Given the wide range of systems, different social contexts and different levels of
available data, the methods could not be identical from one study to another. However,
all studies used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. To help the
teams coordinate their work, a workshop was held in March 1995 in Bandung,
Indonesia. Two members from each team participated to share ideas and to modify
methods to make them as comparable as possible. At this workshop, several
resource people contributed to the conceptual thinking and helped with methods
development.
The studies collected primary data using surveys of market participants at all
levels of the PCS, from gatherers of raw materials to sellers of final products. Purposive
sampling was used, selecting the major bamboo or rattan production and processing
areas in the country. Questionnaires were used during personal interviews with
respondents. Key informant interviews were conducted with personnel of government
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