Bamboo Dust to Cooking Fuel

Iloilo - Bamboo dust to charcoal, originally uploaded by suvajack.

Bamboo charcoal has many known advantages. Its porosity makes it excellent for use in water filtration systems, but better yet its use as burning fuel can have huge positive implications in areas around the world where there is a major need for a natural cooking fuel. Bamboo briquettes utilize the waste from either cutting-dust or mulched scrap pieces. This allows the structural advantages of harvested bamboo to be utilized for things like building and designed materials while putting any and all waste to good use.

Amy Smith from MIT looks at the issue of utilizing waste to meet the need for cleaner-burning fuel in the rural areas of Haiti in this insightful TED Talks video. After watching this video I can't help but think of this country among many others that could benefit from the plantation of bamboo for the reforestation of hillsides. A plantation could create both livelihood of the people with bamboo briquettes as one of the many bonus that come with it. Other possibilities for unused bamboo is fabric and paper making.

Bamboo Immersion Trip - Day 4

Iloilo - Tools, originally uploaded by jsigharas.

This bamboo splitter tool stood out for me as one of the most functional and efficient tools I've seen on the bamboo trip. Similar to how an apple corer/slicer works, this heavy duty, one piece cast iron tool requires little force for maximum output. The resulting strips are used for baskets, garden fences, etc. These gentlemen were seen working just outside the mayor's home in Maasin.

Bamboo Immersion Trip - Day 4

Iloilo - Bamboo, originally uploaded by jsigharas.

Bamboo supply.

Bamboo Immersion Trip - Day 4

Iloilo - People, originally uploaded by jsigharas.

The next stop of the day was to Maasin municipality's naturally growing bamboo forest. This viewpoint overlooks part of Maasin's 10,000 hectares of bamboo-filled hillsides.

The 30-minute dirt road drive through the barangays gave us a interesting and amusing look at life outside the city. These rural areas are where you see how the majority of Filipinos truly live, and in this case, how they commute.

Bamboo Immersion Trip - Day 4

Iloilo - Performance, originally uploaded by jsigharas.

As a welcoming to the mayor's office in the municipality of Maasin, local students performed a bamboo dance - accompanied by an all bamboo instrument band. The unique and delightful sounds of the various bamboo instruments reverberated a musical sense of enjoyment I've never heard or experienced before.

Tultug is an action verbalizing the act of playing sound on bamboo. Every year, the Tultugan Festival, held in Iloilo, features bamboo-based performances and competitions. This yearly event, held in the month of December, contributes to the evolution of bamboo music and dance in the Philippines.

Following the performance, we met with the mayor of Maasin, Damian Mercada, as well as his faculty to discuss the municipality of Maassin, there active involvement in the bamboo industry, and how the livelihood of the community flourishes because of it. Maasin claims to have the most abundant source of bamboo in the Philippines, with 10,000 hectares of naturally growing bamboo forests right in their backyard. We found Maasin to be an example of how bamboo can positively effect a community's economy.