Furniture makers worry over dwindling bamboo materials

ANTEQUERA, BOHOL ,Philippines  - This interior town is not only the "basket capital" but also the source of well-crafted bamboo furniture that draws tourists to every Sunday's old-fashioned market day here.

Makers and producers of bamboo furniture were however worried over the diminishing supply of raw materials.

Francisco Segovia, who is already in his old age and has been making sofa sets made of bamboo in barangay Sto. Rosario since his younger days, told The Freeman that bamboo for this industry is becoming scarce.

At times when there is no more bamboo to harvest from within his landholding he would be forced to source out the materials from other places, including Maribojoc town, he said.

Almost every household of about a hundred in this remote barangay engages in bamboo sofa-making, said he and his neighbors of furniture makers who all believed that their barangay has been the only one with workers in this craft as the main livelihood.

Segovia himself said that his daily chores in making sofa enabled him to send his children to school.

He said his products are sold in Tagbilaran City only since he and the others have no access to other markets. They (his family) are renting a little area near the Island City Mall apparently for showcasing their bamboo made sets.

Other barangays are into basket-making and other native products, thus the moniker, "basket capital," it was learned. During planting season, he attends to his small rice farm, he said.

Meanwhile, the province of Bohol was not listed among areas having a bamboo plantation in the country. Based on some studies, including the Philippine National Report on Bamboo and Rattan, areas of concerns in developing bamboo were identified.

These included the lack of concerted effort in plantation development; delineation of areas for plantation devt; inadequate technology mechanism; pre-mature harvesting as demand increases; inadequate support services; no standard grading and classification of raw materials; ineffective gov't policies on cutting, transporting and monitoring of bamboo.

"Bamboo stands out among woody plants because it possesses unique qualities and offers a wide array of uses," It has been used as an inexpensive source of housing materials, furniture, handicraft, banana props, fishpens and other innumerable products. It is also a source of food and culinary craving.

Through the years, bamboo's uses have largely diversified and benefited many industries. "Bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some of its members are giants, forming by far the largest members of the grass family." 

About 23 of a thousand species of bamboo are said to be endemic in the Philippines.