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  • The Nature of Rattan PDF

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    Rattan is a vine that grows in tropical forests and is harvested for use in furniture and other products. Most rattan comes from Indonesia, where millions of people rely on rattan harvesting and production for their livelihoods. Rattan is extracted from forests by villagers, who carefully harvest mature vines and transport them to markets via rivers and roads, with the rattan then undergoing processing and finishing to produce furniture and other goods.

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    were rattan comes from

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    the nature of rattan.pdf

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    Rattan is a vine that grows in tropical forests and is harvested for use in furniture and other products. Most rattan comes from Indonesia, where millions of people rely on rattan harvesting and production for their livelihoods. Rattan is extracted from forests by villagers, who carefully harvest mature vines and transport them to markets via rivers and roads, with the rattan then undergoing processing and finishing to produce furniture and other goods.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    144 views2 pages

    The Nature of Rattan PDF

    Uploaded by

    ozpidg
    Rattan is a vine that grows in tropical forests and is harvested for use in furniture and other products. Most rattan comes from Indonesia, where millions of people rely on rattan harvesting and production for their livelihoods. Rattan is extracted from forests by villagers, who carefully harvest mature vines and transport them to markets via rivers and roads, with the rattan then undergoing processing and finishing to produce furniture and other goods.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    the nature of rattan

    where rattan comes from


    a look at Indonesian rattan at the source

    When you think of rattan, you might think of household, oce or restaurant furniture, but there is much more to the story of natural rattan. Rattan is a species of vine that grows naturally in tropical forests. Most of the world's rattan is in Indonesia, but it is found in many countries in Asia and Africa. From forest to retail store, natural rattan requires the work of many people with specialised skills to make the nished product. Four to ve million Indonesians earn income from rattan production.

    This information sheet describes the process of extracting rattan from the forest and converting it into furniture. It uses the example of Indoneisa, where most of the worlds rattan comes from. Similar stories may be found in other areas where rattan is collected and converted into furniture. Rattan marketers can uses this information to share with clients to empahsise the nature of rattan. Sources of world rattan Malaysia Other China 3% 3% 9%

    Rattan is natural

    Rattan comes from a vine. Rattan requires only basic processing to be ready for use.
    Rattan is fast growing

    Rattan is fast-growing compared with wood . Most rattan used for furniture is ready to harvest when it is two to ve years old, with some varieties after 10 years.
    Rattan needs forests

    Most rattan needs trees to climb on in order to grow. 90 per cent of rattan is harvested from forest. Villagers who collect rattan protect the forest so that they can continue to harvest rattan. No forests, no rattan.
    Rattan is lightweight

    Indonesia 85%

    Rattan is very strong for its weight. This means that it takes less energy to transport rattan than materials of a similar strength.
    Rattan is abundant

    Indonesian forests have much more rattan than is currently harvested. There is lots of room for growth in the Indonesian rattan industry.
    Quality counts

    There are over 600 species in the world. Even the same species can be of dierent quality. Quality is mostly a combination of strength, hardness, colour, imperfections and spacing between knuckle rings. Some species can be used with their natural peel, others have to be sanded and polished. Dierent areas of the world are known for dierent qualities and species.

    Rattan is harvested by people who live in villages and depend on the forest

    Research has shown that most of the poorest people in the world live near forests and depend on forest resources for their livelihoods. Rattan harvesting is done by these people who consider rattan an important source of income to meet their daily needs.

    The story of rattan

    There are records of rattan being commercially traded in the 16th centrury. It has a long tradition of being a valued product used not only for furniture, but also for medicine, roong material, food and even as a toothbrush. The story of rattan starts, of course, in the forest. Villagers, stewards of the forest, harvest rattan from forests. People living near forests tend to live very simply with only basic electricity if at all, and usually with poor road access. In Indonesia, most rattan-collecting villages are only accessible by foot, horseback, boat or motorbike. Villagers plan areas of the forest that have not been harvested in a while and seek out the mature rattan. Most rattan grows in heavily forested hilly areas. Harvesters often have to hike up steep inclines for up to an hour from their base camp in order to access mature rattan. They are careful not to disturb the growth of young rattan. They cut mature rattan with a long knife, collecting 75 to 100 kg per day. Rattan is full of long, sharp thorns often 50 mm long that can easily puncture skin. The harvesters peel the thorny outer layer o the vine and the smooth wet rattan is exposed, bundled, and pulled through the forest to collection points. These 35 to 50 kg bundles are dragged down (and sometimes up) the hill, and collected over a period of six to eight weeks. After each day, the harvesters bundle their rattan with their "signature" knot, so they know whose is whose. Thorns are not the only risks for rattan collectors. Poisonous snakes, bees, stinging insects, slippery mud on steep slopes and falling debris are every day risks in the forest. The rattan is then bundled into bigger packages for longer transportation, often down the river (in some countries they use elephant power). The villagers swim with the rattan for three days in order to get to the point of sale, where the rattan is weighed and loaded into a truck to be cleaned and polished to be made into furniture. Rattan factories are in smaller towns and villages where local people are employed either in the factory or to work in their homes. These communities have a culture of natural rattan. Most of the workers have been exposed to rattan since they were children and have learned the craft from their parents, and continue learning in the factories. The furniture manufacturers then check the quality and nish the furniture. It is then loaded into trucks, then boats, then trucks again and sold throughout the world.

    I obtained this information based on my research, but I am not nished yet! If you would like to help me out and also receive market information when I am nished my research, please take 15-20 minutes to complete my on-line survey. You can read more about it, and my research at:
    www.rattansurvey.com

    If you would like to contact me about this research, please e-mail me at [email protected] or anonymously at feedback.rattansurvey.com

    Rodd Myers is a postgraduate researcher at the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. This document was produced as part of my three-year study on the rattan industry. The information is still in draft and should not be cited without permission. The information in this document is my own and does not represent the University. Rodd Myers 2013

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