Forests to fall for food and fuel

[CRTreeDude]

Regarding limited resources. Honestly, much of the problem is inefficient use of resources. For example. We have a furniture factory. One of the biggest issues in a furniture factory is sawdust. You would think we make sawdust rather than furniture some days!! But, the sawdust, which is waste for the furniture factory is a free resource for a nursery to improve the soil for the seedlings and bedding for our chickens, ducks, geese, etc who provide fertilizer for the nursery as well.

One person's manure is another person's treasure. Often we have a resource problem because we have a underutilized waste problem.

[prashamk]

Originally Posted by CRTreeDude

Regarding limited resources. Honestly, much of the problem is inefficient use of resources. For example. We have a furniture factory. One of the biggest issues in a furniture factory is sawdust. You would think we make sawdust rather than furniture some days!! But, the sawdust, which is waste for the furniture factory is a free resource for a nursery to improve the soil for the seedlings and bedding for our chickens, ducks, geese, etc who provide fertilizer for the nursery as well.

One person's manure is another person's treasure. Often we have a resource problem because we have a underutilized waste problem.

Pretty true. Indians have almost proved this point. We are having around 1.3 Million biogas plants in rural areas of India.

Food waste to cow dung to biodiesel process waste is used to generate methane which is used for cooking.

[spadlet]

Originally Posted by CRTreeDude

But, the sawdust, which is waste for the furniture factory is a free resource for a nursery to improve the soil for the seedlings and bedding for our chickens, ducks, geese, etc who provide fertilizer for the nursery as well.

In Europe some companies use sawdust from timber processing to make wood pellets. They have a higher energy density and are easier to transport than wood chips so they are a more popular wood fuel option for people living in cities (especially London).

[CRTreeDude]

Originally Posted by spadlet

In Europe some companies use sawdust from timber processing to make wood pellets. They have a higher energy density and are easier to transport than wood chips so they are a more popular wood fuel option for people living in cities (especially London).

Interesting, I am working on getting a design for a kiln for drying wood that uses sawdust.

[brianidaho]

Originally Posted by spadlet

In Europe some companies use sawdust from timber processing to make wood pellets. They have a higher energy density and are easier to transport than wood chips so they are a more popular wood fuel option for people living in cities (especially London).

That's pretty common around here too. Local saw mills are producing wood pellets, pellet stoves have a hopper that can be loaded, it's automatically fed into the stove when the thermostat kicks the stove on. Prices have been up a bunch lately, wood use is down (building construction) and there isn't as much sawdust. I still go with a regular stove and cut my own.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by CRTreeDude

The issue is that it only has value if you can sell it. It is very very easy to sell a cow, it is much more difficult to sell a medicinal plant (unless in high regard by the locals). Can you imagine someone calling up a pharmaceutical company and saying, "Hi, I have two bushels of stems from Hombre Grande, want to buy them?"

Not too sure of that, if we look at the example of Hog Plum (Spondias mombin)

SPONDIAS MOMBIN - JAVA PLUM.

Spondias mombin bark 1 pound US$ 16.00
Spondias mombin bark 1 ounce US$ 1.50
Spondias mombin leaves 1 pound US$ 12.50
Spondias mombin leaves 1 ounce US$ 1.00

This is a very common forest tree in places like Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, etc. and outside of traditional medicine (which like all other indigenous technologies are an “endangered species” in itself), the tree is highly disregarded – for example, it is regarded as a Class IV timber species (lowest rank) by the Forestry Division in Trinidad & Tobago.

On the other hand – bark, leaves, fruit, seeds as an export commodity – you may very well be sitting on a potential goldmine in Costa Rica. The issue here is respecting the rights associated with Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in relation to patenting / exploiting / benefit distribution, associated with the trade in biodiversity-related commodities (whether pharmaceutical or otherwise). I mean, while not casting aspersions upon the entrepreneur(s) who are operating the company in the link, how much of the benefits of this and all the other forest products end up in the hands of the native harvesters of this material (whose indigenous knowledge-base is the origin of these profits)...

[CRTreeDude]

Originally Posted by Karl

Not too sure of that, if we look at the example of Hog Plum (Spondias mombin)

SPONDIAS MOMBIN - JAVA PLUM.

This is a very common forest tree in places like Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, etc. and outside of traditional medicine (which like all other indigenous technologies are an “endangered species” in itself), the tree is highly disregarded – for example, it is regarded as a Class IV timber species (lowest rank) by the Forestry Division in Trinidad & Tobago.

On the other hand – bark, leaves, fruit, seeds as an export commodity – you may very well be sitting on a potential goldmine in Costa Rica. The issue here is respecting the rights associated with Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in relation to patenting / exploiting / benefit distribution, associated with the trade in biodiversity-related commodities (whether pharmaceutical or otherwise). I mean, while not casting aspersions upon the entrepreneur(s) who are operating the company in the link, how much of the benefits of this and all the other forest products end up in the hands of the native harvesters of this material (whose indigenous knowledge-base is the origin of these profits)...

Interesting stuff. Some issues:

1. Finding a broker who will handle the export. Exporting of vegetable material is challenging. All countries are paranoid about organic material, rightly so. To give you an idea, whack together a crate for shipping and the crate material has to be treated by very rigid and strict rules. Why? danger of bugs. If the material is not listed as being okay for export, you will have to pay for a study, and get it scheduled in MAG - which can be a year or two, at the very least. It may be stalled forever.

2. Education of the owners of farms. You have to have your market in place before, storage, shipping, permits, etc before you start to talk. Otherwise, material will show up, you can't pay, and they never show up again. sort of a catch 22.

3. If you, as a broker, set up a system and it works, soon there will be plenty others, so you can't invest much, because if you do, you may not be able to pay it off because someone larger crushes you. There is no Intellectual Property here, and there is nothing to protect your market.

4. As the supply grows, the profit will plummet - which means that soon, everyone could be poor.

5. No farmer, unless very large here, has the training, background and resources to sell directly. Usually the consolidators take all the money.

I am not saying it is a bad idea, just that there are many slips between cup and lip as the saying goes. Most people have no experience on exportation and do not know what a royal pain in the you know where it is. The huddle to export is sizable. Much of which is due to the environmental laws we need, especially those created to prevent pests from other nations from entering countries.