Press Release: Limerick Goes The Mondragon Way: CoOp's making CoOps

October 15, 2012 (FPRC) -- Supported by Limerick City Council and Limerick County Council, the Limerick Workers Cooperative is being styled on the internationally successful Mondragón Cooperative Corporation in the Spanish Basque country, which has sustained over a quarter of a million jobs in spite of the ongoing recession. The new Cooperative will feature a combination of producer, consumer, worker and community co-ops in Limerick’s biomass, electricity and intensive commercial horticulture sectors.

Michael Noonan TD, Minister for Finance will officially launch the Limerick Workers Cooperative at a seminar at The Kemmy Business School in the University of Limerick on Saturday 27th October 2012.

Bill Kelly of Meitheal Mid West and the Workers Cooperative Network, which is coordinating the upcoming event, explained that the “Reinventing Limerick - The Cooperative Way” seminar will have two broad themes.

“Following on from last year’s visit to Limerick by the Mondragón Cooperative, we are inviting leading worker cooperatives from Britain and Ireland, both north and south, to tell their story of how they built their businesses. The second theme will focus on the launch of Limerick’s and Ireland’s first-multi stakeholder cooperative he stated.

Mr. Kelly explained that the development of the Limerick Workers Cooperative represents an innovative approach to developing business opportunities for new and existing businesses in the region.

“The purpose of this co-operative is to empower individuals and businesses in Limerick to work together and by doing so benefit from being part of a larger group. The evidence from other countries where cooperatives have been established show that such groups are more adept at climbing the value chain, engaging in R&D, and keeping jobs & wealth in their local communities. They also have more buying and bargaining power than individual members might ordinarily have. Industrial worker cooperatives are competitive, innovative and profitable business entities which are proved to be more resilient that conventional businesses in times of recession. This development is of particular local significance in light of recent figures from the Central Statistic Office (CSO) that confirm 7 of the country's 10 worst unemployment blackspots are in Limerick he added.

Mr. Kelly continued: “By working with the Workers Cooperative Network, setup in June 2012 to promote the interests of worker cooperatives across Ireland, the Limerick Workers Cooperative will look to expand its scope as its membership grows. This objective is made more achievable through the support of Limerick Local Authorities, a development which represents a new departure for Irish cooperatives which have normally been focused on individual business sectors.

Mr. Kelly said that through the establishment of the Limerick Workers Cooperative, the region had the opportunity to learn from and follow the lead of industrial cooperatives that have achieved international success from humble beginnings, such as the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation headquartered in the Spanish Basque country.

Established in 1955 through a coop of five workers assembling paraffin heaters, Mondragón is now the largest employer in the Basque country, employing more than 80,000 worker/owners in multiple areas including industry, banking and consumer sectors. There are also 14 research centres, vocational training and teaching centres, including a university that has 4,000 students.

According to Mr. Kelly: “In the midst of the current financial crisis, the Basque country continues to enjoy a higher credit rating than the Spanish sovereign. There is a 7.9% unemployment rate in the Basque Country compared to over 22% for Spain as a whole. 20% of Mondragón’s 2011 turnover is from products and services which didn’t exist five years ago, such is the quality of their high tech research & development and their consequent intellectual property. By establishing the Limerick Workers Cooperative in 2012, the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives (IYC), we are hoping to sow the seeds that will eventually see Limerick become a leader in the development of a cooperative-driven local economy focused on internationally traded goods & services.

Speaking ahead of the seminar Professor Fred Freundlich of the Mondragon University, part of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, stated: �Mondragon’s success has many components, not least of which is its commitment to innovation and the inter cooperation among its 120 cooperatives whether in the industrial, financial, retail or educational and R&D sectors. It is encouraging to see Meitheal Mid West and the Workers Cooperative Network pursuing the inter-cooperation idea themselves and developing it further with links with the cooperative family in Britain."

We wish Limerick well in their efforts to adapt the Mondragon model to their local circumstances and promote stable economic development through enterprises that are both economically successful and broadly socially beneficial. We hope Limericks efforts will be as rewarding for Limerick as the Cleveland Ohio efforts are for Cleveland - in the setting up of the Cleveland Evergreen Cooperative Group. Mondragon is also looking forward to participating in the Interreg “Cooperatives for Growth” bid being led by the new Limerick Local Authority and the University of Limerick," Professor Freundlich added.

Among the speakers at the upcoming day-long seminar at The Kemmy Business School will be representatives from British worker coops, environmental science instrument manufacture Delta-T Devices, international renewable energy pioneers Dulas Engineering, and Specialist Wholesaler The Suma Coop, The Unicorn Coop (Manchester’s Cooperative Grocery). Northern Ireland will be represented by The Belfast Cleaning Cooperative and The Northern Ireland Cooperative Forum, the regional body representing the interests of existing and emerging co-operatives in Northern Ireland. Other contributors include The Bridge Street Coop in Kenmare and Roscommon Home Services (RHS).

“Reinventing Limerick - The Cooperative Way” will be opened by Michael Noonan TD, Minister for Finance, at 10:30 am on 27th October 2012.

The seminar is open to anyone wishing to be involved in the development and ownership of Limerick’s cooperatives, or wishing to find out more about the cooperative movement (unemployed - graduates & non graduates are particularly welcome). The event is free but interested persons are requested to register in advance at the Workers Cooperative Network site, www.workerscooperativenetwork.org or email admin@workerscooperativenetwork.org.



CONTACTS:
Bill Kelly
Meitheal Mid West
+353 87 6474 230
+353 61 208 352

Mark Dunphy
Dunphy PR
+353 86 8534 900

Send an email to Mark Dunphy of Dunphy PR
00353868534900





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PRESS RELEASE: ARCHITECT DAVID SANDS of BAMBOO LIVING, STATEMENT AT RIO CIFOR 8th Roundtable on FORESTS

Frances Seymour, Director General                  

Center for International Forest Research
(CIFOR)
Sindangbarang, Bogor, 16115 Indonesia

His Royal Highness
The Prince of Wales’s Accounting for Sustainability Project
The International Integrated Reporting Council
The Green Economy Coalition and Stakeholder Forum




June 18, 2012

Dear Director General Seymour, et al:

Regrettably, I was unable to attend the 8^th Forest Roundtable as planned due to circumstances outside my control. I cannot overemphasize the importance of the Roundtable's agenda. In my opinion there can be no discussion of sustainability unless it begins and ends with the conservation and management of our rapidly vanishing global forest resources. In particular, it was the one forum for which I humbly believed my voice carried weight, as I have the ability to say that I am the co-founder of a decade old global business that integrated the use of a historically handicraft raw material -bamboo- and engineered its natural properties into a high performance building material. Over the years, BT has found great value in the ability to market from the U.S. its developing-country Vietnam produced goods as ICC certified; and likewise agrees with CIFOR's position that similar indirect market mechanisms should be scaled up to support and promote demand side regulation for green commodities.

My company -Bamboo Technologies, LLC- is a significant example that 1) consumers will embrace new material buildings when they exude quality, perform and carry genuine green values; 2) that myriad three-bottom-line forest economies -based on non-timber forest product agroforestry- are a viable development model delivering healthy ecosystems and sustainable communities. Add to this REDD+ and a synergistic driver of genuine 3BL economic models is achievable. Coupled with integrated reporting metrics and CSR, the private sector would likely look favorably on finance for REDD+ (which according to CIFOR is an industry with a potential to deliver an additional US $13 billion in resources per annum by 2020.)

For BT, bamboo proved a high performance timber replacement material; a rapidly renewable; a carbon capture device, when caringly produced, can balance emission reduction goals with the well being of forest communities, including their participation, rights and knowledge. The principle of 'caring' production is very much an ethic that connects the raw material to forest to community to business to consumer. A new broadened stakeholder 'profit' paradigm. BT's experience has now led to the promotion of a hybrid cross cutting public private partnership model, that includes government concessional community forest cooperatives managed and monitored by regional and national NGO. This type of relationship building takes time, resources and insight, but it is the type of commitment required of transitional change, and is the check and balance security that private markets and REDD+ will and must require for transparency.

Finally, BT's research and experience has demonstrated that the treatment of forests as 'museums' that remove humankind from the forest natural econ-ecosystem is as unnatural as over-exploitation. A decade of experience and deep investigation of the critical 3BL objectives favor -and arguably cannot realistically exist without market mechanisms and a view that forest economy and products are the clear source of economic growth and poverty reduction for developing countries.

Respectfully Submitted,

/s/
David Elliott Sands
Co-Founder, Bamboo Technologies, LLC
a Rio+20 Forum representative of,
The Peerless Green Initiatives Network
a Global Compact Member

cc:

UNEP, TEEB
UNGC
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales’s Accounting for Sustainability Project
The International Integrated Reporting Council
The Green Economy Coalition and Stakeholder Forum

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Monsoon Betting: Climate Change Holds The Dice

The India SW monsoon thus far has demonstrated climate change does not affect systems uniformly. This fact presents a unique risk management challenge. The easterly extrusion of the monsoon's normal eastern front, weak cyclonic (and at times anti-cyclonic) winds, regionally varied rainfall that is net negative 50%+¹ is compounded by poor infrastructure that is not able to cope even under the best of conditions. (500MW deficit power for pumps²; failure to recharge bore-wells; over-exploited water table; poor management of reservoirs, dams and allocation.)

 

Even a cursory review of the effect of an irregular India monsoon, its effect on the Himalayan climatic cycle and stability, supports that systemic feedback loops are breaking down at alarming rates.

The breadbasket of India, the Cauvery Delta, requires that 400,000 acres of paddy be irrigated. This is an increase of 25% from last year. The remaining hundreds of thousands of acres (about one third of all acres under paddy) rely completely on traditional rain fed irrigation.

In addition to this literal climate crisis, heat is rising on the alawys politically charged cross state border release of dam reservoirs to satisfy dependent downstream farmers of the delta. The current reservoir readings do no foster confidence that both state's farmers will get their required quantum.³ Coupled with a weak rupee that has resulted in a near doubling of cost of chemical fertilizers (75% imported⁴) and this year is beginning to show signs of being the sum-of-all-fears.

PGI's perspective is that the monsoon remains viewed from polar positions – by those who mistakenly believe they are disconnected and view the monsoon as romantic or nostalgic; and those lower/bottom pyramid communities who rely on it for their annual revenue requirement just to subsist. The collision course can be avoided through cross sectional / cross cutting approaches to raising political and public awareness and action.

Drastic water conservation measures, emergency energy packages and CoOp organization of rural development interests must be deployed immediately otherwise a major climate crisis on the one hand; and a water resource management crisis on the other, is about to reach flashpoint. The shocks could have extreme consequences due to the sheer scale of population and lack of politico-social safety net. It's the 'resilience' building that UNEP, PGI and others have been advocating -urging developing countries to address. But still the entire national and international focus on 'the India economy' focuses on GDP, forex and market closing numbers, with a blissful unawareness of the connection.

Even for our U.S. readership, the event here are no far away concern. Even a cursory review of the effect of an irregular India monsoon, its effect on the Himalayan climatic cycle and stability, supports that systemic feedback loops are breaking down at alarming rates. We give thanks with our brother and sister colleagues in the NE India that the rains have been favorable - but even they- seem more concerned about the problems reported herein and the systemic approach that must be adopted. There are no regional crisis when it comes to climate change and shocks. We are seeing symptoms of a systemic illness. The time for a global land ethic is upon us that re-orients the roles of public - private, government and intergovernment resources toward a common service and repair of the natural feedback loops key to Earth -and our- survival.

Our energies and prayers are with all those gathering in Rio that a strong and committed plan of action be framed and implemented. PGI will be issuing press releases on Twitter from our representative to the UNGC Corp Sustainability Forum. Stay tuned.

1IMD June 15, 2012

2Tamil Nadu Farm Association

3Federation of Farmers in Cauvery Delta Districts, June 14, 2012

4Times India, June 13, 2012 Complex fertilizers increase 55%; reduced subsidy for non-urea fertilizer

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Gaia & the Growing Tree Bridge to Tomorrow's Economics

Survival of the fittest was a horrid illulsion. It is the reality most of us have been convinced of from birth. Always in constant conflict with our innate knowledge -deep inside our DNA laid the truth that all economy is based on networked systems of shared consumption. The gaia. By contrast our inter-human economic affairs, as well as our perception of the 'purpose' of nature, has for several centuries been based on the murderous premise of survival of the fittest -

We now have finally come to realize that Gaia could not possibly have survived as a system based on a premise of competition, and that our previously flawed beliefs has so upset the relationship of harmonic systems, that we must drastically change our human economy to be in tune with
Gaia's. (And likely assist Her in paying off the deficit we have accumulated with her.) We have finally- and hopefully not too late- awoken to the fact that all relations whether they be inter-human or inter-gaia, must be based on the Universal model of shared economics. This is the essence of true natural order ... it is the biotic system that we now attempt to mimic...not just in how we plant our gardens, but in how we plan every organizations definition and mode of profits.

The change has come. The revolution is upon us. The living bridge has been woven. The new epoch has arrived as in the past - with great suddenness.  We are living in the metaphorical flood, and from the macro to the micro the markets, policy and business dealings smack of panic and desperation by those that refused to step aboard the Ark. 

Like the living tree bridge (http://thegreeneyeofpgi.blogspot.in/2010/11/living-bridges-of-assam.html) we must use our minds to arrange and intertwine and resources -human and natural- needed to usher in a new age of commerce that pays its dividends to all. We must expediently re-learn long forgotten wisdoms and innate knowlege of how to integrate and become a harmonic part of Gaia's systems of which we are all indivisible.

The previous epoch was an Age of Enlightenment wherein we evolved through cognizance that each individual was born possessed of inalienable rights. We're now crossing over to the second age wherein we've become cognizant that all things must be granted those same rights ... the Land Ethic. An Ethic that must permeate every one of our human functions and endeavors. A sort of natural license. Certain structures are forming and gaining tractions such as L3C 's and B corps and hybrid cooperatives. These are quantum leaps for any who has experience in such things.  Just as the UCC was the codification of centuries of merchantile custom and practice, so too must be the Land Ethic. It must be the enforceable right of Gaia as a stakeholder, and that of every transaction with Gaia, or human. Just as the Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity crumbled in the face of democratic governance, so has Gaia proven our doctrine of exploitive economics fails the test of moral reality.

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Hillary-Didi Touched the Hottest Topics: Energy Poverty/ Water Scarcity

Yes there was the standard push for FDI retail (bad idea for India growth) and outsourcing (good idea for US growth), but the true critical subject matter was mentioned as a basis point of creating sustainable economy with India's neighbors and evidence of the increasing reality that politics as usual will not carry us through the transplantation from conventional economy to sustainable. The issues of water and energy on the lips of Hillary and Didi, and on such a high profile platform is a bellweather of things to come.

Regarding water scarcity and conflict, Secretary Clinton said: "We have to do a better job of trying to find a win-win solution for everybody because the alternative will be perhaps worst than conflict, leading up to dislocation, destabilisation, refugee flows, famine and other kinds of problems that we are seeing in places like north Africa." "We have to work together in the international community," she said.

For perhaps the first time publically Clinton acknowledged what conservationists  and economists have been predicting for years: "... we know from working on our own projections what will be the hard issues in future unless water issues are properly dealt with,"

The reality is that there continues to be an ever shrinking bubble of economies that because of their uber-infrastructure remain able to maintain the status quo despite massive shifts in climate and natural resource security. In these economies, the conventional wisdom that technology has outgrown the need for nature and its resources, some going so far as to deny the very existence of a problem. And in fact, as is human nature, as long as the AC is running at home in office all seems well.

However, at the frontlines of climate change and sustainable economic development, a story is slowly unfolding and not carried by mainstream media. Throughout India, and specifically in the south, the story of India Inc. is changing complexion ... it's five minutes to midnight and Cinderella's coach is still out about town living a hapless dream. The two rents in this reality are a widespread power-poverty and a rapidly and potentially irreversible water security crisis. 

For those in India, this article only highlights the present reality and crisis for not only Bengal but throughout India...for those in the U.S. with a more limited world view of the coming escalation of power poverty, this may come as an eye opener of the new normal - in the cases illustrated below-in south India.

The question really becomes "Does the conventional definition of 'development' really apply in terms of the necessity for a sustainable economic and political model? Are we all therefore 'undeveloped' or 'under-developed' until these issues are rectified and power and basic necessities are sustainable?

 This year, city is hottest summer destination

A Selvaraj TNN

Chennai: It’s that time of the year when Chennaiites pack their bags to visit their native places in the state. But this summer they have chosen to stay put in the city; otherwise, it would mean jumping from the frying pan into the fire in the season of power cuts.
    Even while cursing the two-hour power cut in Chennai, residents take solace that it is much better than in some other districts, where power supply is disrupted for up to 12 hours a day. In fact, relatives from other parts of the state are thronging the homes of residents in the city.
   

 “My children never miss visiting their cousins in Salem but the moment I told them that there would be no electricity there, they wanted to cancel the tickets. I’ve asked my sister in Salem to come over with her family,” says Sudha Mani of Nanganallur.
 

   A Ponmani Thangam, an employee of Canara Bank in Tirunelveli, has come to Chennai to visit relatives and, well, get away from the “land of constant power cuts,” as she puts it.
    “At my place, we wake up early because of the heat. We are lucky to have power supply for an hour in the morning. We have an inverter, but the few hours of supply are not sufficient to charge it,” she says.
 

    Maheswari, a revenue department employee in Coimbatore, has gone a step further. “I have appealed to the higher officials in Chennai seeking a transfer to the state capital. My son can’t stand the heat,” she says. K Manikandan, a school teacher from Tuticorin, says he will spend a couple of weeks in Chennai, “where you at least know when there will be a power cut”.
 

   President of the Tamil Nadu Omni Bus Owners Association A Afzal says many buses from Chennai to other towns in the state are plying with at least 15% of unoccupied seats. “Usually our buses run full, but not this year,” he says.
 

    Many people who travelled to other parts of the state have got back before schedule.
  

 Summer travellers to hill stations, however, are happy. “People are asking for details of trips to Ooty and Kodaikanal,” says Afzal.
    selvaraj.a@timesgroup.com 

 

THE HEAT IS ON

Govt report sees 4 degree rise in temperature in 10 years

Nitin Sethi TNN

New Delhi:  If the freakish cool weather across India has lulled you into forgetting about the dangers of global warming, here’s a reality check. In a report to be submitted to the UN in a few days, the Indian government has said alarming climatic changes are taking place in the country and projected even more serious trends for the future — including a 4 degree Celsius rise in maximum temperatures in some parts as early as the 2020s.

    The report says that more than three out of four weather stations across India had witnessed an alarming rise in intensity of rains (over 24 hours) in the period between 1980-2009.

    It says intense warming was witnessed between 1998-2007 and the intensity has been rising since the 1970s. The mean temperature during winters have risen by 0.7 degree Celsius and post-monsoon mean temperatures by 0.52 degree Celsius in the last 100 years. The mean temperature in India rose by 0.2 degree Celsius every decade between 1971-2007 with minimum temperatures rising more than maximum temperatures, which increased 1.02 degree Celsius in 100 years. 

Number of rainy days on the decline: Report
New Delhi: In a report to be submitted to the UN in a few days, the Indian government has said alarming climatic changes are taking place in the country.
    While the trends show evidence of warming, there is, however, no conclusive proof that these are linked to human-induced climate change.     The most alarming findings in the report are the predictions it makes based on scenarios that greenhouse gas emissions would continue to rise unchecked over the coming decades.      Projections show that total monsoon rainfall could rise between 9-16% by the end of 21st century. By that time, annual mean temperatures could rise by 3.5-4.3 degree Celsius with 1.7-2 degree rise taking place as early as 2030s.      The report says the number of rainy days could decrease but 

rain could become more intense – thereby causing more damage – almost all across the country.

    Both the minimum and maximum temperatures recorded in a day will rise, according to the findings. Areas in Rajasthan and Kutch could see more than a 4-degree rise in maximum temperatures by as early as 2020s. A similar rise could take place in more than half the country by 2080.     Night temperatures are projected to rise by 4.5 degrees across a large part of the country by 2050 and the jump could spread to almost the entire country by 2080.     The frequency of cyclonic storms could decrease with time but the intensity with which they wreak havoc will rise, according to these simulation models.
    

Separate studies have been conducted to measure the impact of increasing GHG gases on water availability in river basins and on agricultural productivity. The government assessment notes, “Water scarcity levels will be crossed in Cauvery, Mahi, Sabarmati and westflowing rivers of Kuch, Sau and Luni, while Ganga, Tapi and Narmada basins will hit water stress limits.”

    The report says, “Ganga downstream, Brahmaputra and Surma-Imphal show high vulnerability to climate change in the northern and eastern basins.” Ganga upstream and Mahanadi will also become vulnerable by 2070, it says.
  

  Two different measures are used to quantify the net impact on water basins – the yield of water and the evapotranspiration from river basins. A majority of rivers show increasing precipitation, with exceptions such as Brahmaputra, Cauvery and Pennar.

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THE SOLUTION: LEOPOLD'S LAND ETHIC

I see a world where every village great and small is a micronation of complete sustainability and economic freedom, linked to each other through technology and the undistorted language of a land ethic governed commerce. If you want a tomorrow for our children; if you genuinely want world peace, you will share in and bring about this vision.

- Frank Costanzo
Peerless Green Initiatives
November 2010, Kolkata, UNEP Seminar on Diversity Management of At-Risk Commercially Valuable Crops Through Community-Technology Integration

The notion that inalienable rights have national borders is over. The age of the political map is over.  We are entering is the next age of human enlightment. The geographic and human global map has demanded its due. We cannot carry on as we have because we know what's the inevitable outcome. It is now a question of morality.

- Frank Costanzo
Peerless Green Initiatives
March 2012, Statement for presentation at Rio+20

Published in 1949 as the finale to A Sand County Almanac, Leopold’s ‘Land Ethic’ defined a new relationship between people and nature and set the stage for the modern conservation movement. Leopold understood that ethics direct individuals to cooperate with each other for the mutual benefit of all. One of his philosophical achievements was the

idea that this ‘community’ should be enlarged to include non-human elements such as soils, waters, plants, and animals, “or collectively: the land.”

“That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics.”

This recognition, according to Leopold, implies individuals play an important role in protecting and preserving the health of this expanded definition of a community.

“A land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of land.”

Central to Leopold’s philosophy is the assertion to “quit thinking about decent land use as solely an economic problem.” While recognizing the influence economics have on decisions, Leopold understood that ultimately, our economic well being could not be separated from the well being of our environment. Therefore, he believed it was critical that people have a close personal connection to the land.

“We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand,
love, or otherwise have faith in.”


     Leopold’s Land Ethic

     What Are Ethics?

People tend to use the term ethics in two different ways.

Ethics help us decide how we ought to live. In their most general form, we might say that ethics are the standards we employ (among other factors) to determine our actions. They are prescriptive in that they tell us what we should or ought to do and which values we should or ought to hold. They also help us evaluate whether something is good or bad, right or wrong. 

Leopold’s example: “A land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land

community to plain member and citizen of it…it implies respect for his fellow-members, and also

respect for the community as such.”

Ethics explain why things are important to us. Ethics are also concerned with how and why we value certain things and what actions properly reflect those values. In this sense, ethics appear more descriptive. Just as it is possible for taste to be a neutral and descriptive term –appreciation for a work of art can be a matter of taste – ethics can operate the same way. 

Leopold’s example: “Sometimes in June, when I see unearned dividends of dew hung on every

lupine, I have doubts about the real poverty of the sands…do economists know about lupines?”

“The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the 

community to include 

soils, waters, plants, 

and animals, or collectively: the land.”

                                         - ALDO LEOPOLD


Reprint from The Aldo Leopold Foundation http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/leopold_bio.shtml

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PRESS RELEASE: WBO: KEYNOTE SPEECH by BAMBOO ICONOCLAST: DAVID SANDS, AIA LEED AP

PRESS RELEASE:

THE FUTURE OF BAMBOO CONSTRUCTION

What We Need to Do Now

By David E. Sands, AIA LEED AP

In the midst of a recession there has and continues to be a green construction boom. Sales of green homes in the US has continued to rise when conventional construction has been flat. The opportunity for the growth of bamboo construction has never been better. There are a number of actions that need to be taken for bamboo to fulfill its potential as a building material in Europe, the US and other developed countries. The first is taking leadership in education as to why bamboo should be used for construction. This is particularly true in Europe and the US where there is no history of bamboo construction. The primary educational focus should be on the protection of native forests, and on the reduced need for mining to produce steel and concrete that the increased use of bamboo for construction affords.

The focus of the green standards for construction that have been developed has been mainly on energy conservation. In the US 90% of the energy used during the life of a building is from operations. However the materials used in a building have a much greater environmental footprint than simply the energy used for production and placement. Steel and concrete are both extractive industries and the use of wood for construction results in deforestation. At the same time to expand the use of bamboo beyond tropical areas it is very important to design for minimum energy use over the life of the buildings as exemplified by the Passivhaus Institut in Germany and the work of Zeri in Scandanavia. Our goal should be to create buildings which produce more energy than they consume.

For each acre of bamboo properly put into production for construction material many acres of trees can be taken out of production, eliminating the loss of cover and the erosion that would have been associated with the harvesting of those trees. When the avoided deforestation is taken into account the carbon stored by building with bamboo is effectively nearly doubled. More research is needed but the case can and should be made for using bamboo to address the most pressing issue of our time – global climate change. In the World Bamboo Congress in Bangkok I presented a strategy for using bamboo for carbon sequestration. In the educational process, there is no substitute for direct personal experience, in this case for being able to visit a bamboo building. This leads to the second action needed which is establishing model projects. 

The Hanover pavilion produced by Zeri and designed by SimonVelez is a good example and there are others in Europe already. My company, Bamboo Living, was able to build in the US prior to the completion of our national building code standard by working with local building officials. We brought Dr. Jules Janssen from Eindhoven University in the Netherlands to Hawaii to educate the local building officials about bamboo construction. Also as we completed each step in developing the standard we provided the latest information to the local building officials to review and provide feedback. This was essential to the development of our ICC standard as ICC wanted data from engineers working with the material. It also allowed us to generate the funds needed for the building code standard which took us seven years and significant expense to complete. Perhaps a similar approach can be taken for Europe through a creative collaboration between the public and private sectors and interested universities. Our team is certainly interested in being part of such an effort. From my perspective the first step is to find the client who is willing to be the pioneer. This leads us to the next issue of understanding who will buy bamboo buildings. Unless there is a market and that market is developed bamboo construction remains only a nice idea. In the US we have found that the people interested in building with bamboo tend to be from the group defined as the “cultural creatives” and as the LOHAS consumers. They are highly educated and values driven. 

To grow the bamboo construction opportunity in Europe, as we have been doing in the US, the considerations of this group of people need to be addressed. Their considerations revolve around the values that drive them. They care about the environment and social justice. How can they be assured that they are buying a green product? There is an apt analogy with the growth of the organic industry in the US and Europe. What was needed in the US to take organic food into the mainstream was the development of an organic standard that the buyer could feel assured met their personal standard. The development of the USDA Organic label was that necessary step. We could similarly establish a standard for bamboo that assured environmental principles were upheld in the growth, harvesting and manufacturing and that fair trade practices were adhered to throughout the supply chain. Glues and finishes should meet stepped goals for both performance and “greenness” similar to the CAFE standards used in the US to promote ingenuity with regard to environmental performance in the automobile industry. Sadly, organic food in the US is often associated with elitism. A goal of the bamboo construction industry has to be democratization. Bamboo should be not only the preferred environmental alternative but also the affordable alternative to conventional construction. This will need to come through scaling and new product development both of which we have been working on assiduously.

An additional consideration for Europe that needs to be addressed is that the climate of much of Europe is not conducive to the commercial cultivation of bamboo. This means shipping bamboo to Europe from other places. Shipping then becomes part of the environmental equation when considering bamboo for construction. A study done at Eindhoven University considered bamboo from Central America as opposed to steel, concrete and two types of sustainably grown wood for a bridge construction project. Even with the shipping between hemispheres bamboo had a much lower embodied energy than the other building materials. Further research and education of the public is needed along this line. Bamboo could become an alternative to extractive industries as an export for developing African countries. A consideration we often face in the US is a perception that bamboo is invasive. We educate our potential clients about the difference between monopodial and sympodial bamboos (runners and clumpers) and we have stuck with clumping species for our supply. If a monopodial is being used then a proper management plan has to be implemented and the public educated about it.

For bamboo construction to be widely accepted new products need to be developed that meet developed country standards for construction durability, performance and appearance. This can come in the creative use of poles and in the development of engineered bamboo products. We have gathered a think tank of global leaders and formed a new company, Bamboo Intelligence Global, to implement the technologies and strategies we have been developing. As a company we are pursuing an integrative approach that benefits all stakeholders from farmers to homeowners and look forward to sharing more about our efforts in the future. Our website is www.bamboointelgobal.com. Please join us in our efforts.

There are a number of opportunities for further research regarding bamboo construction. In loading tests done at IIT in Delhi, unlike steel and concrete, bamboo did not fail catastrophically. This could be a valuable area for further research as it defines the value of bamboo for construction in earthquake prone areas. Also with proper fireproofing the use of bamboo could be significantly expanded to compete with steel and concrete in midrise construction applications. For example we have been working with one technology that

encases bamboo in a cold ceramic.

Bamboo for construction is close approaching a tipping point. We have been seeing that in the US and I believe it is true for Europe as well. It will be through the concerted efforts of the people here and others like you that we can reach that point soon and begin to maximize the potential for bamboo in construction. This is a wonderful game where everyone wins including our beautiful little Earth. Let’s win this one for our home planet.

Fair Use Notice: This post contains copyrighted material that has not been authorized by the copyright owners. PGI believes this educational use on the Green Eye Web-blog constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.) If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified or wants us to link to their web site which we routinely do as a business practice notwithstanding.

Things you can learn Riding an India Metro Bus: Gender Bias & Development: The Importance of Swag Regressive Econometrics

Regression analysis is a statistical tool for the investigation of relationships

between variables. Usually, the investigator seeks to ascertain  the causal effect of one variable upon another. To explore such issues,
the investigator assembles data on the underlying variables of interest and employs regression to estimate the quantitative effect of the causal variables upon the variable that they influence. The investigator also typically assesses the “statistical significance” of the estimated relationships, that is, the degree of confidence that the true relationship is close to the estimated relationship.
We have all heard the well worn phrase that India ... 'land of contradictions.' The more accurate is that it is a land of multidictions. Some of the best and worst examples of society's compassion and lack thereof occur everyday, in every corner of India. It is a target rich environment for any CSR professional or 3BL designer. It is a society that on one hand traditionally reveres nature and humankind, and on the other contains inhumane and deeply seeded abusive conventions re same. The business environment with its decade of meteoric rising development, complete with an all-costs fixation on breaking 10% annual GDP, has reflected moments of innovative and 'deep-ethic' CSR, but moreover resulted in an overall strategic disregard for basic human and natural capital resources and services. Although the government and policy is often blamed and complicit, it ultimately comes down to the failures of the business ethic that drives the economic growth we (perhaps mistakenly) call 'growth and development.'  In this extreme environment, where so much is in need of improvement, PGI formed its ethos and gained unparalleled expertise and vision. In honor of our own fifth year as a network organization, we will focus on some of the critical philosophies our our mission statement. Starting with the two most critical: Woman Equality and Energy Poverty. They are far more entwined than you may think.

In this installment we reflect on the art of paying attention. As 3BL planners and CSR professionals we must be accustom to becoming sensitive to the econometrics of various factors in the environment. Sometimes rapid societal changes can be explained by hidden macro shocks. This requires the use of active attentive regressive analytics. Practicing this as much and as often as possible makes ones forensic skills greater and thus a better 3BL designer.

Genuine 3BL and CSR requires critical analysis but it requires a curiosity for causation. Not always having the time or resources to engage an empirical study, an objective swag analysis of known factors should be employed. Standard regressive analytics such as participatory GIS is a tool that allows the professional to keep their eye on the ball so not to miss the story that is unfolding all around. It is something that the founders of PGI have made part of the business model and its business ethic. For example, Sand County Almanac is required reading for our new consultants and network members. (It's best read while traversing the ECR, the 'King's Highway' in Upper Assam and sitting standstill in India's Big 6 urban traffic.) We must always take a look around to remember what's at stake and what's important. It is this constant reading and quest that has continually honed our consultancy. Our goal is to follow the CSR need, and combat lip-servicing greed. This premise collectively led us to organically focus our 3BL business models and led us to pro-woman-Co-Op-ag-business, food security, land ethic CSR and most recently the realization that nearly everything from gender inequality to social-education gaps can be traced to energy poverty. Sounds strange but its undeniably true.

It's all too much to distill into one installment, and frankly we enjoy much more putting our models into practice on the ground than speaking in platitudes. But what can be said as we rapidly approach our fifth anniversary (and Rio+20 is that 'it works'. There is another way. 3BL is real. We have been to the promised land and we have seen lives transformed because of our models performing to spec in India. We have met some of the most inspirational people the world has to offer, and we are positive the green revolution will be won or lost based on the weight of India's minds. This is no exaggeration. This is not a statement made to curry favor of Indian readers. This is true whether you are in Paris, France, Paris Texas or Parrys Corner, Chennai.   India is huge and growing. I am not speaking in terms of economic prowess. I am talking about weight of consumption, weight of waste, weight of energy required to maintain its status quo.

The traditional attachment that is core to the traditional Indian and vedic ethic is the Land Ethic that Leopold and Steiner tried to implement in their day. Neither had such a following as they do now. They are notably unheard of in India, which is ironic in the case of Steiner.  Decades later and just now realizing they were right and we nonetheless remain on the same road to perdition.  Ufortunately the weight of minds in India have likewise ignored the sage advice of tradition and harmonics in favor of the same hollow promises of the consumerist economy. But this time, on the mind bending scale of a consumer base of 1+ billion, the thought of which leaves MNCs breathless in anticipation and the rest of us facing the grim reality of being drown in a mountain of disposable razors. Be sure that the first to suffer will be and always are the women and children, who due to inequality and malnourishment are the first victims of everything from rising petrol prices to newly minted drug resistant viruses.

This critical component of what makes us human has probably never been written about more succinctly and beautifully as the legal writing of Justice Rubello of Bombay High Court as he addressed the complexity and contradiction of adoption law in India. He found the single citation that sums up our present status as a human race:

We are guilty of many errors and faults

but our worst crime
is abandoning the children,
neglecting the fountain of life.

Many of the things we need can wait.

The child cannot.

Right now is the time his bones are being formed,

his blood is being made,
and his senses are being developed.

To him we cannot answer “Tomorrow”

His name is “Today.”

-Gabriella Mistral

So how can the subject of human ethics and our inalienable obligation as CSR professionals be answered on a bus. Well, it will comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me well that I noticed something interesting on the bus¹ today. Something telling as it relates to social adjustment to shocks, and something about dealing with statistics in India.

For years I've daily taken the 21D bus to PGI's Parrys, Madras office. Through my western eyes it looks like something from Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet, but that bucket of Ashok Leyland bolts charges up and down Marina Drive daily like a champ. Inefficient, dirty, rugged, used and abused are some good descriptors of 21D. She sits 48 and the Tamil board at the front of the bus says 24 can stand so 72 is supposedly her max...her 100%. Of this 100% the gender split is 60% women/40% men. Of the women, most are in school uniforms or get off at the half dozen centenarian universities along Marina Boulevard. This always made me feel good that our future may end up in the hands of these young ladies. Alas, if so, there's still hope for the human race.

Things happen in India in waves. Opinion and social habit moves in similar fashion and because of the sheer number of citizens, in spectacular fashion. When the bus fair doubled a few months back, the bus operated at 80% occupancy...I assume as some form of protest...or perhaps while the usual occupants checked out light rail, bike-pooling or otherwise breaking out the calculator to figure out efficiency ratios. (Indians love to do these kind of calculations from top to grass roots, which is part of their innate cultural sustainability ethic.) Eventually within a week 21D came back to 100% occupancy, for reasons I can only fondly speculate.

Last week, petrol was notched up 3 more rupees, the third hike in six months and reports now have India petrol (gasoline) prices as the highest in the world bar none. http://www.mypetrolprice.com/petrol-price-chart.aspx 

This, in a country where the middle income household GDP can be less than a lakh ($2000) per annum or at the opposite end of the spectrum, in league with the top billionaires in the world. For India's huge 400 million and growing 'middle class' three more rupees per liter, on increasingly crowded roads, hits the household economic equation rather hard. Particularly in light of the number of dual income families that have come into being over the past four or five years.

So to my point, since the petrol hike 21D has been operating at a very uncomfortable 120% occupants. I could write an entire installment on what that extra 20% does economically to the public transport system infrastructure and efficiency, but there is something far more important to note. Here it is:

The gender split is now 40% men and 80% women. Yes, in India, most things do not sum neatly into 100%. If you come to India to do business and do not understand this, then either don't come, or better yet (ha) call PGI.

So here;s the SWAG: The extra 20%, (after a quick toe ring count) are married working women, (and a quick sari fabric check) middle to upper middle class. They are the set that has to now been seen tooling to and from work on a variety of shiny 'scooty' mopeds. (The new symbol of India's development, the two motorized bike family.)  

So what can be gathered with (less than scientific) common sense logic is that there has been a shock (price of petrol increase is the obvious one), that some household adjustment had to be made (decrease weekly household petrol consumption cost) and the woman has been 'elected' to absorb the shock. Whether it can be seen as a positive (more humans taking public transport) pales in comparison with the more disturbing and continuing trend of women being the sacrificial lamb of economic and ecologic shocks. I use the bus example as an example of paying attention to the world in the way that we must, and testament to the many shocks that societies absorb that lead societies to shift behavior. The troubling part is that the absorption and shifts are seldom if ever equal.

The male of the species assures that the female and child is the buffer in order to preserve the male 'standard of living'. If anyone would like to debate this, I'd warn that I and others at PGI have a mental inventory of first hand examples that make this bus exercise trite. Horrific and inhumane examples of shocks resulting in women and children being thrown into the abyss in the name of 'development' and social 'integrity.' The status of the gender is no doubt improving and recent laws that give women rights to alimony in divorce and abandonment cases are long overdue but welcome. Today's times of India reported that the mother-not the father- is the priority and first named in guardianship cases. (This is dear to me personally, as I had to insist to my advocate and Court that my wife's name be included in the pleadings for the adoption of our son.)

In fact, professionally, we at PGI advocate that development that is not sustainable and 3BL is not development. The 'developed' world is developed on a myth that is proving itself an illusion. The transitioning world is not developing unless if follows a new model and create a new inalienable ethical and equality based delivery system of development. And for PGI and our network, we have come to use the woman and the child as the measure of sustainability in the environment. When the land-human-gender factors are all in balance, then and only then can we ascribe the model is healthy. The testament of same is reflected in the smile and confident twinkle of a mother's eye and the glow of her healthy children.

We looking forward to seeing you all in Rio in June so we can share and shape a vision for the future through economic models that make sense and accounts for every stakeholder no matter the strength of voice to demand a share.

-Frank Costanzo

Peerless Green Initiatives

See also:  http://www.firstpost.com/india/a-crying-shame-the-battered-baby-girl-syndrome-272221.html

1At PGI we ask that all our network members use the public transportation system where-ever available. Some of us including myself have converted our automobiles to LPG and are attempting to do some CSR for organizing a recycled cooking fuel and bio-gas filling station for diesel and CBG respectively. The interesting co-benefit of public transport is that it gets us closer to the social ground and infrastructure requirements where shocks are better felt than in the AC confines of our comfy cars and homes.

Fair Use Notice: This post contains copyrighted material that has not been authorized by the copyright owners. PGI believes this educational use on the Green Eye Web-blog constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.) If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Fair Use notwithstanding we will immediately comply with any copyright owner who wants their material removed or modified or wants us to link to their web site which we routinely do as a business practice notwithstanding.

"Forest 1/3 of India" One Year Later We Remember Our Colleague N.S. Adkoliji

I was the former lawyer that sometimes sounded like a forester, and he was the former forester who always spoke and wrote like a seasoned lawyer, we reflect back on the first anniversary of the departure of PGI's beacon light, N.S. Adkoli.  He was and remains one of India's National Treasures. As if playing part in his own dramatic script which he played to perfection, he did not leave until he championed his last fight to have bamboo classified as a grass and end what he outspokenly described as the license Raj on bamboo. It was a year ago today that we lost our dear friend, teacher, colleague, mentor and inspiration, NS Adkoli. Reminiscent of what Aldo Leopold was for America, Adkoli was very much the same for India. Passionate, apolitical, unafraid to ruffle feathers in the establishment, he was lightning in a bottle to the end. And likewise, I sincerely believe that the depth of his wisdom-like Leopold's- will not be fully realized until the generation of his contemporaries have past and the depth of his thoughts and applied methods of social forestry will be realized. Continually wrangling with one of the most complicated legal and political social-forestry systems anywhere in the world, he led through example with undaunted courage and tenacity. 

In his memory, PGI humbly and respectfully reprints his last work which we had the honor to proof before he published for the Conference on Bamboo Propagation Techniques and Technology in Bangalore in February 2011.

It is a fitting piece reflective of his passion and level of detailed knowledge and wisdom, and a true treat for anyone involved or interested in the bamboo industry. Please enjoy.

With Continued Devotion to Our Departed Teacher and his goal of 1/3 forest coverage for India,

-Frank Costanzo

Peerless Green Initiatives

Forest administration (s)....need to orient their role to become friendly to the needs of the people, rather than monopolizing resources and create adverse conditions for the growth of forests, harvests and meeting the needs of the produce to the people and industries. -NS Adkoli

POLICY NEEDS FOR BAMBOO DEVELOPMENT

By

N.S. ADKOLI, IFS (Retd)

Abstract:- The National Forest Policy of 1952 was revised in 1988 to exclude supply of raw material to wood based industries from the forest lands. Imports and farm forestry were advised for supply of raw material to forest based industries. Whereas some relaxations were made for encouraging timber imports, no incentives or policy interventions were made to encourage tree and bamboo cultivation on private estates and farms. Farm forestry and Social forestry were included in the eleventh schedule by amendments to the Constitution of India in 1992. But statutory changes to suit these amendments have not been made. Bamboos and other forest produce are still under the statutory control of the forest department. These controls have become obstacles to the healthy growth of farm forestry in India, even though some technological advances have been made to achieve improved productivity from unit areas.

Urgent need for the changes in the attitude of the governments to relax controls and provide incentives to the farmers and investors has been suggested on the basis of a study and statistics of supply of raw material to the wood based industries in the country. It is concluded that the National goal of reaching one third of the geographical area under tree cover, can be achieved only by relaxing controls on farm trees, incentives for the growth of farm forestry and providing adequate share of state investments for tree cultivation outside forests. Encouragement to private investors by tax incentives and policy on land holding can help in the National Afforestation program. Being a signatory to the ‘Copenhagen accord’ in 2009, India is duty bound to arrest climate change through massive tree cultivation for which there is a vast scope outside forests and by extensive use of bamboos.

Key words:- Forest policy, Forest controls and farm trees.

1. Policy:- The National Forest Policy:- The National Forest Policy of 1952 had included growing, harvesting and supplying forest produce to meet the requirements of industries, defense, housing, communication and the people etc from our forests. But the revised National Forest Policy of 1988 gave emphasis on forest conservation and sustainable supply to meet the needs of the community. The forest based industries were required to depend on imports and tie-up with the farmers for their raw material. Bamboos form important raw material for the pulp, paper and rayon industries, besides their use as substitute for timber in panel products. Bamboos form the source of livelihood to millions in India and have uses in all sectors of economy. Import of timber was liberalized and customs duty was slashed after the 1988 forest policy. Unfortunately, no efforts were made nor any incentives given for growing trees, bamboos and canes as a follow up of revised forest policy. Dependence on import for timber and products of wood to meet the needs of industries is a retrograde step, when such products can be grown in our forests and farms, with large economic, environmental and social advantages.

2. Provision in the Constitution of India:- By the 42^nd amendment to the Constitution of India, forestry became a concurrent subject in early 1977. Hence, the forest policy for all the states and the union territories has to be identical to the National Forest policy. Social Forestry and Minor forest produce have been included in entries 6 & 8 in the Eleventh Schedule and Urban forestry in entry 8 under the twelfth schedule of the constitution of India under article 243 g w.e.f 1992 & 1993 respectively, as a result of the 72^nd and 74^th amendments. These subjects are now governed by the Panchayat Raj institutions of the state. Powers and functions under the Karnataka Forest Act (1963) & rules (1969) and under the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act-1976, have to be delegated to these Panchayat Raj Institutions. It has become constitutionally necessary to make amendment to the state forest act and rules.

1. State Control on Bamboos :- In view of the amendments to the Constitution of India, control on felling and transport of bamboos under the State Forest Acts is repugnant to the provision in the Constitution. By an order on 29-10-2006, a division bench of Karnataka High Court, while hearing W.A Nos; 2972/2003,3019 &3054/2003, has ruled that bamboos grown on private lands become “agricultural produce”. It is learnt that the government of Andhra Pradesh has termed trees and bamboos grown on farm lands as “agriculture produce”. Continuance of bamboos in the list of “forest produce” under the definition in section 2(7) of the state forest act is repugnant to the high court ruling.

2. Changes in wood production:- Farm forestry was given more importance in the national development plans to increase the tree cover outside the forests. Poplar, Eucalyptus, Rubber, Casurina, Subabul, Sissoo, Silver oak etc have been accepted by the farmers in agro-forestry in the last thirty years. These trees are grown on private estates and farms for which the consumer industries have provided promotional assistance. Even high-tech cultivars have been identified and introduced for higher productivity. Hundreds of wood based industries have come up in the states like Haryana, Punjab and the plains of Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Karnataka, dependent entirely on farm trees. The report of the Forest Survey of India and the EMPRI in 2009 have mentioned that less than 1.5 % of timber used by the industries in Karnataka originates from the forest and 98.5 % comes from Farm Forestry and imports. The assumptions by CEC, the Supreme Court and the forest administration that the Woodbased industries cause forest decimation is erroneous and the governments should guide the court properly.

3. Harvest by the state agencies:- By the order of Karnataka government, harvesting of timber, pulpwood, bamboos and fuelwood in the forests is done by the department or the State Corporations since 1992. Attaching the stigma to woodbased industries for imaginary encouragement to smuggling is unrealistic and leads to an admission that the state administration is involved in such illegal activity. Continuance of state control on felling and harvest of trees grown outside the forests is unwarranted and is counterproductive to the National Afforestation Program (NAP). Farmers donot depend on the state agencies for harvest or marketing of trees grown by them.
4. Exemptions given:- By issue of notifications in 2000 and 2002, a dozen species like Eucaplypts, Casurina, Silver-oak, rubberwood etc have been given exemption from the control of the forest department on fellings and transport. This relaxation has lead to self sufficiency in the pulp-wood supply and dependence of timber industries on supply from Estates and farms. Since 1985, the industries have assisted farmers by arranging supply of quality planting stock and ready market for their produce. These examples are available to the policy makers to liberalize statutory controls on farm grown trees. The supply of pulpwood in Karnataka has risen from about 600,000 tons in 1985 to over 1.5 million tons now (2009).

3. Control of forest administration:- In the early part of the twentieth century, bamboo was considered as a weed in forestry practice. The resource was much higher than the demand and uses. Bamboos were neglected in forest management. In the Indian Forest Act of 1927 and most state forest acts, bamboos and canes (rattan) were included as “trees” in the definition under subsection 7 of section 2. Since ‘timber’ included “trees” under subsection 6 and “timber” got included in the definition of ‘forest produce’, whether found in, brought from a forest or not, under subsection 4 of section 2. Bamboos got into rigid control of the forest regulations, even when they were grown in private lands. Such control was justifiable under the National Forest Policy of 1952, but not so under the revised National Forest Policy of 1988 and the revised priorities under the National Development Plans, by which social forestry including farm forestry, got a boost in investments. The importance given to increasing green cover outside the forests under the National Afforestation Program (NAP) and the efforts made by the pulp and paper industries in the last twenty five years to promote cultivation of fast growing trees of economic importance, have helped in acceptance of tree culture by the farm community. However, the control exercised by the forest authority on felling and transport of many useful trees, bamboos and canes has become major obstacle to acceptance of farmers to grow bamboos, canes and trees for deriving economic benefits. Trees, bamboos and canes save from misery to rural population in times of calamities like famine, flood, earth quake and other disasters.

4. Relaxing state control:- For reasons already described earlier, the state should amend the definition of “ forest produce” in section 2 of the KFA-1963 to release farm trees from the state control on felling and transport. Andhra Pradesh is said to have described farm grown trees as “agriculture produce “. It is relevant to mention that ‘Agro-based industries’ have many state incentives for investment, as against “forest based industries”, which have negative priority and too many obstacles, including the wrath of the CEC and the Apex court. In the last eight years, resolutions to relax state control on felling and transport of farm trees and bamboos have been passed and sent to the state authorities in many seminars and workshops. The state authorities should be responsive to the demands of the public.

5. State policy on promotion of bamboos:- In consideration of a report of an expert committee created by the Ministry of Environment and forests in Delhi on bamboos in 1998, two National Bamboo Missions are now existing and operating in India. Unfortunately, the National Mission on Bamboo Application (NMBA) works under the department of science & technology for the past eight years and the National Mission on Bamboos for increasing resources is working for the past two years under the ministry of agriculture and horticulture. Since the major control of bamboo resources including the statutes is with the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), there is lack of coordination among these ministries to work for a common objective. Despite the efforts made by the two missions, there is no relaxation on the statutory controls. The National Bamboo Mission has a target of additional bamboo plantations of 80,000 Ha each, in forests and nonforest areas during the eleventh five year plan. The achievements made in the last two years reveal that the progress of additional bamboo plantations in the nonforest areas is poor. This is mainly due to unrealistic allocations for nonforest bamboo development and the fear of red tape involved in felling and transport of harvested produce. Similar problem persists with regard to extension of many important indigenous economic tree species like Teak, Rosewood, Sandal, Deodar, Pines, Sal, Hollock,Hollong, Laurel, Gumkino, Benteak etc.

6. Amendments proposed:- a) Harvested produce of bamboos and trees grown on farms or private lands should be removed from the definition of ‘forest produce’ under subsecion 4 a of section 2 of the Indian and state forest acts and transferred to subsection 4 b” in these Acts. b) There should be total freedom to bamboo and tree growers on private lands to fell and transport the produce, even under the state acts for tree preservation. c) Growing of trees and bamboos should enjoy the same exemption on ceiling on holdings under the State Land Reforms Acts like growing Tea, Coffee, Cardamom, Cocoa and such plantation crops. These changes will help in healthy and fast growth of bamboos and economic trees on all private fallow lands, on the boundaries and bunds of private holdings, roadsides, canal banks, below high tension power lines, bunds of tanks and rims of water reservoirs, along either side of railway lines etc. Besides, tax incentives for tree cultivation should be given to investors.

7. Neglect of farm forestry in the guidelines for use of CAMPA funds:- On the basis of a direction of the Supreme Court in its order dated 30-10-2002, the ministry of Environment & forests (MoEF) has collected over Rs 6000 crores as Net Present Value (NPV) and kept the sums in Nationalised bank in interest earning deposits. Together with the accrued interest, the bank deposit is now in excess of Rs 11,000 crores. After years of court wrangles and legislative efforts, the MoEF has issued guidelines on July 02, 2009 for creation of state agencies for utilization of these funds ordered for release by the Supreme Court. It is regrettable that the guidelines have shut out development of tree cover outside the forests, in spite of the mention in the report of the Forest Survey of India (FSI) in its publication of 2005, that the scope of increasing tree cover in India is better and higher outside the government forests than in the legal forests. Such adverse policy decisions and legal constraints have stifled the development of bamboos and trees on private lands. The media in our country is content with publishing popular rhetoric and policy gimmick by the governments, instead of a proactive role of scientific analysis of the policies, investments and the statutory hurdles in promoting massive planting of trees, bamboos and canes for the environmental and economic well being of the nation.

8. Copenhagen Accord-2009:- India is a signatory to the Copenhagen accord during the world meet on climate change in December, 2009. At item 6 of the accord, there is mention of quote- “enhance removal of greenhouse gas emissions by forests” unquote. Under item 8 of the accord, there is mention of creation and use of “Copenhagen Green Climate Fund” of U.S $ 100 billion by 2020 on reducing such emissions. The climate and soil in south India are very friendly for increasing tree cover to enhance the carbon sink. Since there can be minimal increase in the forest area of the state, the scope of increasing tree cover on farms which cover over 50 % of the geographical area, is very high. Bamboos form the best species under farm forestry in terms of easy establishment, fast rate of growth, absorption of greenhouse gases and quick economic returns to help in prosperity to farmers. Bamboos co-exist with a large number of trees of high commercial value

9. Suggested amendment:- In the definition for “Forest Produce” in subsection (7-a) of section 2 of the Karnataka Forest Act-1963, the words “or not” deserve to be dropped or deleted to exclude all forest produce resulting from trees of non-forest lands from all controls.

1. The amendment bill to the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act-1976 may be passed by the legislature with minor modifications to the draft bill to allow the Panchayat Raj Institutions to exercise the powers, in addition to the notified forest officers. Our association has suggested a few changes in the draft bill of 2005 in a recent representation sent to the government.

2. Alternately, all farm grown and nonforest species can be added to the exemption list. This list should also become a Schedule to subsection 8 of section 8 in the draft bill to be introduced for amendment to the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act-1986 and enjoy exemption from chapter xvi of Karnataka Forest Rules-1969.

3. Besides the above proposal of exemption, the state may also consider to expand the list of authorised officers to a) act as tree officers under the KPT act-1976 and b) Chapter xvi) of KFR 1969 in consideration of the 72^nd & 74th amendments to the constitution of India in 1992 and 1993. Such changes have been suggested in the proposed amendment to KTP Act-1976.

4. These changes are overdue if social forestry, farm forestry and urban forestry have to succeed under the prestigious National Afforestation Program (NAP), the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme and the Joint Forest Management (JFM) schemes of the Government. The Agroforestrtry Farmers Association will do everything possible for the success of farm forestry in Karnataka to enable farmers to augment their income for rural prosperity.

5. Restraints under the Forest Conservation Act-1980 (FCA):- Under subsection (iii) of section 2 of the FCA, there is total restraint for assignment of forest lands to any person, authority, corporation or organization not owned or controlled by the government. Under subsection (iv) of section 2, clearing of naturally grown trees even for reafforestation is prohibited. Both these legal restraints are counter-productive and discriminatory. Prior permission by the union ministry of forest has been given and continues to be given for lease of forest lands for mining, airports, irrigation & power projects, communication, wind energy farms and many other non-forestry uses. It makes little sense to discriminate between government owned undertakings and privately owned corporates for assignment of forest land, and more so, for the purpose of reafforestation. In most advanced countries, large scale forest plantations are owned by corporates and individuals. The “state of the forest’ report of the Forest Survey of India- 2009 shows that nearly 40 % of the total forest areas in most states is degraded and having a crown cover of less than 40 %. Allocations under the development plans for the forestry sector are hardly one percent of the budgets. It makes sense to allow investments by the private corporates in re-afforestation of degraded forests, as long as the legal status of the land is unchanged.

10. Emulate examples:- Exemption provided to Silver oak, Eucalypts, Rubber, Casurina etc from the control of the forest regulations in the last ten years has resulted in a) the pulp and paper industries of the state are raising nearly 200 million seedlings of pulpwood species and selling them to farmers at concessional prices b) the coffee and tea estates are supplying about 100,000 Cum of Silver oak timber p.a. to the market c) the farmers are growing and selling about 1.3 million tons of poles and pulpwood to the market every year. d) the farm community earns Rs 1500 crores per annum at stumpage value of trees e) 87 % of timber to saw mills and plywood mills in Karnataka comes from the farm forestry sector. f) Rubber plantations have spread in Shimoga, Chikmagalur and Uttara Kannad districts. Contribution of timber from the forests of Karnataka to the saw mills and industries is less than 1.5 % and pulpwood is less than 25 %, including the captive plantations of the Mysore Paper Mills Ltd. If control of the forest regulations is relaxed for Bamboos and all important timber trees grown on farmlands, the state will be able to send excess grown produce to other states within ten years.

11. Conclusion:- The forest administration both at the Centre and States need to orient their role to become friendly to the needs of the people, rather than monopolizing resources and create adverse conditions for the growth of forests, harvests and meeting the needs of the produce to the people and industries. The research institutions in the states and under the ICFRE should be continuously engaged in improving yield per tree and unit area and provide quality seeds, seedlings and extension services to the farmers to improve their economy, besides improving goods and services. Policy and statutory changes have to be made to help farm forestry. Private and public investments for tree cultivation should be equally divided between the forests and the farms to achieve the policy goal of tree-cover on one third of the geographical area of the country.

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