More bamboo plantations will be established under the expanded coverage of the National Greening Program (NGP) to boost the supply of the important nontimber forest product to various industries, officials of the Philippines’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said last week.
Executive Order (EO) 879 promotes the use of bamboo as alternative to wood in the construction of school furniture. It mandates the use of bamboo as planting material with at least 20 percent of reforestation species annually.
While the order has not been strictly implemented because some NGP sites are not suited for the species, bamboo, along with rattan, is part of the NGP commodity road map 2013-2016, Director Ricardo Calderon of the DENR’s Forest Management Bureau said. Bamboo is widely used for construction and processed bamboo is used to make furniture and other handicraft products.
According to the International Trade of Bamboo and Rattan 2012 report, the Philippines is the fifth most important exporter of bamboo products in the world. The top exporter is China.
The report said the Philippines produces and exports a significant amount of bamboo and rattan products. In 2012 the country’s total bamboo and rattan products reached $36 million, about 2 percent of the world exports.
The same report, however, said the export value of bamboo and rattan products from the Philippines decreased from $63.8 million in 2007 to $36.0 million in 2012, with an average annual decline of $5.6 million.
Under the NGP commodity roadmap, the target is to establish 54,000 hectares of bamboo plantations nationwide.
More areas are to be rehabilitated under the revised forestry master plan released by the DENR, which will require a hefty amount of P123 billion to increase the country’s forest cover by 3 million hectares in the next 13 years.
Last month President Aquino signed EO 193 expanding the coverage of the NGP to cover the remaining 7.1 million hectares of open, degraded and denuded forest, consistent with the DENR’s forestry master plan 2015-2028.
Calderon, also the national coordinator of the NGP, said the implementation of the NGP commodity roadmap identifying the commodities to be planted under the program is on track. He said the agency is now gearing up for the implementation of the expanded NGP.
Meanwhile, the DENR’s Ecosystem Research and Development Bureau (ERDB) said it will embark on a research and development project for the mass production of quality planting materials of two commercially viable bamboo species using the tissue-culture technique.
Director Henry Adornado, chief of the DENR-ERDB, said the project aims to boost the supply of planting materials for the massive reforestation program.
He said the tissue culture experiment for kawayan tinik (Bambusa blumeana) and giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper) will allow the agency to produce more quality bamboo planting materials.
The ERDB has recently partnered with the Philippine Army for the establishment of 3,100 hectares of bamboo plantation within Fort Magsaysay. So far, only 400 hectares have been planted, Adornado said.
He noted there is currently a shortage in supply of bamboo planting materials, thereby requiring the use of tissue-culture technique in order to support the demand.
“Other countries are doing this already. If they can do it, why can’t we do it?” Adornado said.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has extensive research and development for various uses of bamboo that are ready for technology transfer.
Meanwhile, harvesting of bamboo within forest lands requires special permits, Calderon said.
He reminded gatherers of bamboo in forest lands to secure the necessary permits from concerned DENR regional offices before harvest.
Besides cutting permit, gatherers are also required to secure a certificate of non-timber forest products origin (CNFPO) as specified in DENR Administrative Order 59 issued on September 30, 1993.
“Bamboo has two different classifications. If they are planted in private lands, they are considered agricultural products. But if they are planted in forest lands, they are non-timber forest products which require gatherers to secure a permit before harvest,” he said.
Securing permit for the collection and harvesting of bamboo in forest lands is specified in the Revised Forestry Administrative Order 11 issued on September 14, 1970. Applications for cutting permit may be filed through the concerned community environment and natural resource office.
Image credits: WWF China