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Bamboo Processing and Industry Development
Program Leader: Loreto A. Novicio
Bamboo is one of the most economically-important non-timber forest products in the Philippines. Its fast growth and excellent properties makes it an ideal substitute to wood for furniture, handicrafts, construction material, and chemical products. Thus, it is explicable that most of the initiatives undertaken worldwide on bamboo utilization are to exploit its use as substitute to wood. Global market for bamboo in 2006 stands at about 7 billion US dollars and was projected to increase to US$ 17 B from 2015 to 2020.
In the Philippines, where the restriction on the harvesting of wood from natural forests are strictly prohibited by virtue of a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in the natural and residual forests (Executive Order 23, 2011), bamboo may be tapped as the main material to substitute for the reduced supply of wood.
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Climate Change and Environment S&T
Program Leader: Cesar O. Austria
Climate change refers to the change in the environmental conditions of the earth. Over the years, this has become a global concern that has affected the lives of many resulting to damage to property, livelihood and community. Human activity is the main driver of these changes primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil and gas), which produces heat-trapping gases.
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Basic R&D and Services
The efficient utilization of tree plantation species (TPS) has become increasingly more important particularly if these are to be used as substitute to other widely and traditionally used wood species. Wood, aside from being conventionally used as construction and housing material when processed into lumber, has many industrial uses. These are for furniture, pulp and paper, veneer and plywood, composite boards (particleboard, fiberboard, etc.), utility poles (power and telecommunication poles), packaging (pallets, fruit boxes, crates etc), builders’ woodworks (doors, windows, door and window jambs, mouldings, balusters, stairs and railings, shingles and shakes, parquets, etc), fancy woodwork, wooden shoes, pencil slat, cream spoon, chopstick, matchsticks, toothpick and many more. These uses however depend on the properties/characteristics (sawmilling, drying, machining, chemical, physical, mechanical, and finishing), natural durability and treatability of wood.
