Figuring out rattan

A month ago I had never heard the word rattan. Now I am spending my days figuring out how rattan grows, how its value chain operates, how can it be harvested sustainably and provide a source of livelihood to communities for our second project (in addition to the project about identifying community readiness for Payments for Ecosystem Services).

Rattan products at a shop

Rattan is one of the most commercially valuable Non Timber Forest Products. It is a "climbing spiny plant belonging to the palm family". It grows in tropical parts of Asia, Africa and Australia and while efforts have been made to classify and list different species, it doesn't seem like the work is quite complete yet. There are over 600 species of rattan that have been currently identified. Some of these are edible as well. While we saw acacia and rubber trees during our visit to Nam Dong, we didn't manage to see places where rattan is cultivated.

Rattan has several uses including for making furniture, baskets and decorative items. The rattan industry has seen tremendous growth in recent years and this has been accompanied by over-harvesting, exploitation and subsequent yield decline. Many of the countries where rattan grows have tried to set harvesting quotas on rattan. But since information on growth and yield is limited, these quotas are often ineffective.

Sustainable harvesting of rattan would involve identifying annual growth patterns, determining how much can be harvested annually without over-exploiting rattan, having a supportive legislative and policy framework, and having buy-in from the communities, the intermediaries, the non-profit organizations, and buyers.

Rattan falls within the larger category of Non Timber Forest Products and of course the larger problem of sustainably harvesting these. But unlike other products such as bamboo, less information is available about rattan.

If you'd like read more and learn about this spiny plant, check out the WWF page. I will keep posting more as I learn more!