ENVIRONMENTAL BAMBOO FOUNDATION
| The Bamboo Nursery: With the help of LIPI's Dr. Elizabeth Widjaja and INBAR, EBF maintains a growing nursery to meet current and future needs for various planting projects. Started with eighty species of bamboo, EBF has successfully propagated more than 35,000 seedlings. While ensuring the propagation of all species, particular emphasis has been given to those most suitable for timber, shoot production and landscaping. |
HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION
The Environmental Bamboo Foundation (EBF) is an Indonesian non-profit organization founded by designer Linda Garland in 1993 to protect tropical forests by promoting and demonstrating the many conservation and development opportunities that bamboo offers. In less than three years EBF has helped put bamboo on the conservation and development agenda of Indonesia while generating an international interest in bamboo that's growing exponentially. EBF, based in Bali, Indonesia has affiliate non-profit organizations in America (IBF), and Holland, also dedicated to spreading the news about bamboo.
The EBF has a focus upon international development, through consulting and education, preservation research, agro forestry projects, watershed reclamation, plantation development and policy development. Weekly educational workshops under the guidance of the staff of the Environmental Bamboo Foundation are ongoing in Indonesia. To date, all EBFand IBF board members have volunteered their time and resources to promote bamboo as an environmental solution. The EBF works in concert with the International Bamboo Foundation, the Zeri Foundation and an international network of bamboo associations, scientists, universities and governments.EBF's main activities include:
The
IVth IBC:
In 1995 the EBF hosted the IVth International Bamboo Congress, architectural
forum, trade show and music festival in Bali, Indonesia. This four day world
class environmental event drew over 2000 attendees from 37 countries. For the
first time, the world's leading scientists, business representatives, engineers,
architects, environmentalists and politicians participated together to promote
bamboo as an environmental solution. This event was covered in Indonesia by
CNN's Elsa Klench...
It was a landmark
event when Indonesian Minister of the Environment, Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, who
officiated at the opening of the Congress, committed Indonesia to the "Zero
Emissions" policy, after meeting with Gunter Pauli, co-author with Fritjof
Capra of "Steering Business Towards Sustainability". In partnership
with the IBF and EBF , Mr. Pauli, has since gone on to found ZERI (Zero Emissions
Research Initiative). This effort has now created standards for industrial reform
worldwide of the recycling of waste and reduction of CO2 emissions. This event
was one example of the diverse range of environmental solutions explored and
launched at the conference.
Training
Center at Penglipuran:
In 1994 a fully equipped training center , surrounded by bamboo gardens and
nurseries, was created in Penglipuran. Its facilities include classrooms, workshops,
an office, a dormitory, and a kitchen. Equipment at the center includes basic
tools and machines for bamboo preservation and making ply-bamboo. The Center
is managed cooperatively with the Penglipuan community, who contributed land
and labor for its construction. Funding for this project came from a grant
from USAID and the Earth Love Fund (UK).
Training
Indonesia's First Group of Bamboo Trainers
In early 1995 the Bamboo Training Center in Penglipuran hosted thirty people
from NGOs and government agencies in Indonesia, who were trained in all aspects
of bamboo cultivation, production, and marketing. After the program, participants
returned home with locality specific bamboo action plans including agro forestry
and watershed protection, as well as production and marketing of bamboo products.
EBF intends to provide continued technical and marketing support to this first
group of trainers, as well as to training of an additional group in 1996.
Supporting
Indonesia's National Bamboo Development Strategy
As a direct result of the IVth International Bamboo Congress, Festival and Trade
Show, the Government of Indonesia's commitment to bamboo for conservation and
development has been solidified. In late 1995, bamboo was declared a multi-purpose
species, thus opening the way to research and development for bamboo applications
in the Departments of Agriculture and Forestry. In February 1996, the government
initiated the National Bamboo Development Strategy, coordinated by the Ministry
of the Environment and Department of Forestry, including representatives
from nine Ministries and Departments. EBF is pleased to have been invited to
take an active role in the implementation of Indonesia's National Bamboo Development
Strategy Program. <back
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WHERE WE ARE NOW...
Establishment
of Bamboo Based Agro forestry Projects
The EBF has initiated three bamboo based agro forestry projects in Bali. One
site is located ion community land managed through traditional community institutions
(Tanah Adat), and is operated both as a producing plantation and as a demonstration
plot in cooperation with local farmers. The second project is located on degraded
forestland and is managed in collaboration with the Department of Forestry.
Active on these projects are scientists from the Indonesian Institute of Science
(LIPI), Udayana University professors and students, government officials at
the national, provincial and local level, representatives from Indonesian NGO's
and community groups.
These seemingly modest projects far reaching effects have already fostered:
Boucherie
Bamboo Preservation
The powder post beetle continues to inhibit the potential of bamboo export market
development. In collaboration with Professor Walter Liese, an EBF board member
and the world's leading expert in bamboo processing, EBF has developed a treatment
process that eliminates this problem by replacing the sweet sap in bamboo with
an eco-friendly preservative that repels insects. This year, we will continue
researching the viability of this system and develop a prototype that can be
used by entrepreneurs for income generation in through out Indonesia and internationally.
Concurrently, the EBF will train NGO's community groups and entrepreneurs interested
in establishing their own treatment facilities. Finally in collaboration with
the Penglipuran community, EBF will begin selling treated bamboo in order to
demonstrate the feasibility of the Boucherie process as a distinct business
and to generate revenues to sustain the foundations work.
The
Bali Nursery and Collection Garden
EBF is working with the Government of Indonesia to establish Bali's Bamboo Collection
Garden, one of seven such gardens to be set up across the nation to conserve
bamboo stock, provide research and education opportunities, promote ecotourism,
and generate income from a visitor's entrance fee as well as from the sale of
bamboo plants. The Bali Bamboo Collection Garden will be established at the
EBF Training Center in Penglipuran and will eventually include species traded
from six other Indonesian collection gardens.
Charitable Contributions are acknowledged by a receipt for tax deductions over
USD$300 Thank you for your support
EBF - Bali P.O. BOX 196, Ubud, Bali Indonesia 80571 Phone: 62 361 974 028 Fax: 62 361 974 029