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`
<br /> do+cn as demand grows. Indonesia, °
<br /> +vith 120 natire species of bamboo, is s~~, ,
<br /> ideally placed to produce these new ,'#',`.,f`
<br /> products.Alreadel3ofitsspecieshave
<br /> been identified as id eal for production.
<br /> - The world Bank has expressed in- - -
<br /> terest in assisting financially with the ;
<br /> ;
<br /> consen~ationandmanagementofbam- -
<br /> .,.y:-.~~-s.
<br /> boo forests on Flores, in Indonesia's „~.r.- y;
<br /> eastern Nusa Tenggara region. On
<br /> Flores, attention is being given to the
<br /> potential use of bamboo in the con-
<br />
<br /> . struction of earthquake-resistant
<br /> homes. It soon became obvious after '
<br /> the 1993 earthquake devastation on
<br /> Flores that houses constructed with
<br /> ' bamboo had withstood the upheaval
<br /> ~ while buildings made of other materi-
<br /> ' alshadcrumb]ed.Tensilestrength,flex-
<br /> ibility and its light +veight are all Clockwise from above: from China,
<br /> qualities of bamboo that make further a bamboo bicycle seat; so many
<br /> research imperative in the earthquake items can be made from bamboo;
<br /> zones of the world. In Costa Rica, and abamboo-instrument band 'i!~4 I
<br /> where, under a national bamboo °4~ ~ z
<br /> project, more than 700 houses consist- dous d~anges. "Indonesia is opening t
<br /> ing of mortar applied over a bamboo up at a pace that is almost too rapid to ~
<br /> frame were built, all survived the 7.6 keep up with," she says. Over the past
<br /> Richter scale quake of 1991. Jorge 10 years, demand for bamboo has ~
<br /> Gutierrez, an engineer and technical soared, cutting heavily into the avail- _
<br /> adviser to the project, says the inten- ability of some species. However, be- ~
<br /> tionno++~istobuild1000bamboo-based cause of the plant's extremely quick ~ ~ ~ i
<br /> houses eachvear. rate of growth--the record is nearly 7.2 a.-
<br /> EBF's Linda Garland, perhaps best metres in 24 hours by a Japanese vari- ~ -
<br /> known as a successful and innovative ety-conservation efforts canstill save ~ ° ~
<br /> interior designer, has put her career on most of the world'sbambouresources. -
<br /> hold for the past three years to concen- According to Dr Elizabeth b~~idjaja,
<br /> trateonpromotingbamboo.Underthe aJakarta-basedbotanistandvice-presi- thatwillberevealedatthefourthlnter-
<br /> guidance of Professor Walter Liese, of dentof the EBF, much more research is national Bamboo Congress, to beheld
<br /> HamburgUniversit}', she initially de- needed.Sheemphasisesthereisaneed atUbud,Ba]i,Jw~e19-22.
<br /> voted her time, money and energy to in Indonesia for a survey of bamboo The congress is intended to stimu-
<br /> researchanon-toxictreatmenttocoun- forests and species so that existing late interest in bamboo by sho++~ing
<br /> - ter the powder-post beetle. If cutbam- resourcescanbemanagedinasustain- to the world a resource that has uses
<br /> boo is overly starchy, the beetle bores able way. In many areas where hard- rangingfromtheprimitivetothea+ant-
<br /> intoitand,it not tackled, can reduce garde; from scaffolding to ardr
<br /> it to dust. This makes the culms BCi1'1'Ib00 1S gEttlllg itectural detail; and from functional
<br /> (stems) unreliable for marketing. crafts to high art.
<br /> It took two years to rediscover 111UC~1 1?101'E CittE11t1011 fl'0111 There's nothing new about the
<br /> and successfully test the Boucherie jJCi~JEY Yi1Ci11Uf(iCtll7"e1"S use of bamboo in the West. Around
<br /> process(+~~hichreplacesbamboosap the turn of the century, in England
<br /> withanon-toxic preservative),which alone there were more than 300
<br /> has made bamboo a reliable resource. woods have been over-harvested, re- bamboo-furniture factories, inchid-
<br /> It is no++~ possible to study the treat- forestation efforts are centring onbam- ing Chippendale.
<br /> ment (along with cultivation and boo. This is notane+a concept,bamboo The International Bamboo Con-
<br /> manufacturing) at the world's first traditionally having been used to re- press at Ubud will be staged in the
<br /> bamboo-training centre, +ahich has place forests cleared of their main tim- grounds of Garland'sestate.Thescien-
<br /> beenestablished at Penglipuran on Bali. ber crop. tific component of the cungress +vill be
<br /> The centre, the first 30studentsof~+•hich Along with the EBF, Garland has at the nearby Agung Rai ~7useum,
<br /> graduated in February this year, is developed Designers for the Fm~iron- ++'here the latest papers on bamboo
<br /> funded by USAID, the Earth Love mentandhasattractedatalentedgroup ++~illbepresentedbyleadingscientists
<br /> Foundation (UK) and AIDAB (Aus- of designers and architects who have and researchers in the field. ]G
<br /> tralia). made products as diverse as bamboo
<br /> In the 20 years thatshe has lived in watches, eyeglasses and luggage. And Christine Inh•rLtnM is n /rerLma ua-it<'r
<br /> Indonesia, Garland has seen tremen- there are snore than a fe+v surprises t~nsrd in A~per~, ~~dora~in, Ll~
<br />
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