Date
13 Jul 2022
Researchers examine rattan's prospects for sustainability in Indonesia.
Indonesia is the largest rattan producer in the world, with around 80% of the rattan trade. Most harvesting takes place in natural forests. Rattan, which is technically a liana, has thick tendrils that grow from the forest’s floor, wrapping around trees and other plants toward the Sun. When mature, farmers cut it, tie it and carry it to markets.
Rattan canes are made into a huge variety of products, including furniture, baskets, building material and even fabric. They also play important parts within the daily drama of the forest, being a habitat for insects and animals and helping to stop erosion. The seeds of the plant are mainly collected by women and are eaten in some areas.
Rattan is often referred to as an ‘overlooked’ opportunity for sustainable production of furniture and other products, write researchers in an article, Rattan Resurgence, in the June 2022 25th anniversary edition of Bamboo and Rattan Update, a serial publication of the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization.
The researchers work with one of the transformative partnership platforms of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF). The platform brings together the public, private and civil sectors to generate new solutions to pressing sustainability challenges. Including rattan.
‘To become a mainstream non-timber forest product,’ write the authors, ‘rattan requires more than better management techniques: it will also need efforts to ensure a higher wage for rattan harvesters and more support to local communities who are maintaining and supplying this material.’
Read on to learn more about rattan’s resurgence and, inspired, next read Establishment of Rattan Plantations to help set up a sustainable future.
World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific and development excellence that harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment. Knowledge produced by ICRAF enables governments, development agencies and farmers to utilize the power of trees to make farming and livelihoods more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable at multiple scales. ICRAF is one of the 15 members of the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. We thank all donors who support research in development through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund.