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

trend is the increasing use of substitutes for rattan in rattan products. In China and
the Philippines, wood is now regularly used in place of large-diameter rattan as a
main structural element in 'rattan' furniture. Wrought iron with rattan webbing and
other rattan decoration is also being increasingly used in furniture in places like the
Philippines. Even with these shifts, rattan resources, and especially resources of largediameter
canes, are becoming scarcer.
Where rattan cultivation is being done in the region, it is mainly in the control
of large scale corporations or forest departments. Despite government incentives
(Malaysia 20 , the Philippines) and regulations intended to promote small-scale planting
(Indonesia, the Philippines) and the apparent financial feasibility of such investments,
there has been very little in the way of small-scale rattan cultivation. Most notably,
traditional rattan collectors and small-scale agriculturists, who are familiar with the
plants and already involved in the market, are not intensifying to enhance productivity.
Still, there is tremendous scope for increasing raw material production through
intensification. The main economic constraints are:
1. The long time to maturity (in the case of rattan) ---- most poor people cannot
wait 8-10 years for returns on their investments;
2. Lack of secure tenure over land or resources;
3. Difficult market conditions for small-scale producers that make it difficult to
capture the returns to investment in improved management.
In Anji County and in Eastern Nepal, management intensification in bamboo
sector was a direct response to increased individual or community control over the
resource. The China case is particularly dramatic. The Ancestral Domain land claims
in the Philippines (and other community forest management efforts elsewhere) have
opened up a new and very promising approach to resource management. It seems to
have great potential to encourage rattan (and other forest products) cultivation within
the forest ecosystem. The claim gives security of tenure to the cutters, along with
guaranteed cutting rights. Moreover, it encourages the development of associations,
a horizontal linkage that has potential to increase the commercial leverage of the
cutters. This is a promising approach that is worthy of further development.
There has been some capital intensification in the semi-processing and
manufacturing industries. In Anji County, many small- and medium-scale
entrepreneurs have invested in mechanized bamboo processing equipment to make
a variety of products. The larger rattan products firms in Indonesia and the Philippines
20 The government has supported research into rattan cultivation and policies encourage rattan plantation,
with the result that rattan is now planted with timber and rubber over tens of thousands of hectares
in the country. Although no study was carried out in Malaysia under this series, this fact is worth
noting. It may also be noted that one of the first INBAR rattan projects was in Malaysia.
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