New forest by-products industry evolving
December 12, 2004 | 12:00am
A new forest by-products industry is taking shape.
For want of a name, R&D NOTES is tentatively naming it Malapapaya By-products Industry, which is all about the items developed from the malapapaya tree. The species is so named because its branches grow the way the papaya leaves do (horizontal).
It is from the malapapaya wood that toothpick, popsicle and lollipop stick, chopstick, ice cream spoon, tongue depressor, food boxes, pencil slot, wooden shoes, and crates are made.
The prospect of the evolving industry considerably brightened when two researchers of the Los Baños-based Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (DENR-ERDB) developed an easy and practical way of germinating malapapaya seeds that guarantees seedling propagation of the species. Previous to the R&D breakthrough, it was very hard to propagate the species owing to lack of technology to do so.
Thus, MP Wood Philippines has established its 140-hectare malapapaya plantation in the Teracka Farms in Mangatarem, Pangasinan. Several companies have followed suit, among them the Progress Wood Product in Cavite and the Bongliw Factoryand MP Wood, both in Gumaca, Quezon.
The malapapaya technology is but one of the environment-friendly technologies developed by ERDB, headed by Director Celso P. Diaz.
Among the other environmentally sound ERDB technologies to be exhibited during the bureau’s 30th anniversary celebration on Dec. 16-17 are the following:
• "DENR charcoal," a solid fuel produced using leaves, twigs, stems, and other forest wastes compacted into briquettes. This technology can lessen the pressure of cutting wood in the forest for fuel.
• Water hyacinth (lily) and abandoned coconut biomass for producing charcoal briquettes for household fuel. This will reduce extraction of trees for fuelwood and charcoal and help mitigate carbon dioxide emission in the atmosphere.
• Non-mist clonal multiplication, or the technology of cloning dipterocarp species. The technology, developed by multi-awarded ERDB researcher Mitsi Tijana-Pollisco, allows the selection of the best trees and replicating them with their superior or desired characteristics intact. Clones of dipterocarp species are now robustly growing in various parts of the country.
• Species-site matching, a computer-based procedure developed by ERDB and Green Tropics International (GTI). Through this technique, government reforestation programs now stand a good chance of success, unlike previous once that failed because the species used and the sites where the tree seedlings were planted were incompatible. – Rudy A. Fernandez
For want of a name, R&D NOTES is tentatively naming it Malapapaya By-products Industry, which is all about the items developed from the malapapaya tree. The species is so named because its branches grow the way the papaya leaves do (horizontal).
It is from the malapapaya wood that toothpick, popsicle and lollipop stick, chopstick, ice cream spoon, tongue depressor, food boxes, pencil slot, wooden shoes, and crates are made.
The prospect of the evolving industry considerably brightened when two researchers of the Los Baños-based Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (DENR-ERDB) developed an easy and practical way of germinating malapapaya seeds that guarantees seedling propagation of the species. Previous to the R&D breakthrough, it was very hard to propagate the species owing to lack of technology to do so.
Thus, MP Wood Philippines has established its 140-hectare malapapaya plantation in the Teracka Farms in Mangatarem, Pangasinan. Several companies have followed suit, among them the Progress Wood Product in Cavite and the Bongliw Factoryand MP Wood, both in Gumaca, Quezon.
The malapapaya technology is but one of the environment-friendly technologies developed by ERDB, headed by Director Celso P. Diaz.
Among the other environmentally sound ERDB technologies to be exhibited during the bureau’s 30th anniversary celebration on Dec. 16-17 are the following:
• "DENR charcoal," a solid fuel produced using leaves, twigs, stems, and other forest wastes compacted into briquettes. This technology can lessen the pressure of cutting wood in the forest for fuel.
• Water hyacinth (lily) and abandoned coconut biomass for producing charcoal briquettes for household fuel. This will reduce extraction of trees for fuelwood and charcoal and help mitigate carbon dioxide emission in the atmosphere.
• Non-mist clonal multiplication, or the technology of cloning dipterocarp species. The technology, developed by multi-awarded ERDB researcher Mitsi Tijana-Pollisco, allows the selection of the best trees and replicating them with their superior or desired characteristics intact. Clones of dipterocarp species are now robustly growing in various parts of the country.
• Species-site matching, a computer-based procedure developed by ERDB and Green Tropics International (GTI). Through this technique, government reforestation programs now stand a good chance of success, unlike previous once that failed because the species used and the sites where the tree seedlings were planted were incompatible. – Rudy A. Fernandez
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