Bamboofloorguide.com

Natural Material Directories for Home Decor

EC FUNDED BAMBOO NETWORK IS LAUNCHED: Kickoff Meeting to be held from 16-19 April 2002 in Antwerp, Belgium

By Anonymous





4 April 2002 -- Bamboo experts from China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal, and the United Kingdom will be meeting in Antwerp from April 16-19 for the inception meeting of the EC funded Bamboo Thematic Network (BTN) project. The meetings will be hosted by Oprins Plant NV (OPRINS) of Rijkevorsel (Antwerp Province), Belgium.

BTN is a three year (2002-2004) project approved and funded by the European Commission within the 5th Framework programme "Confirming the International Role of Community Research". The project is coordinated by OPRINS and involves 15 partners from private companies and academic institutions.

Jan Oprins, CEO of OPRINS, stated, "as a Belgian SME we are truly honored and privileged to lead such a prestigious international group." The BTN participants include the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, Ghent University, Institute for Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries, Agricultural Research Centre of Gembloux, University of Hamburg, University of Wales, Imperial College of London, University of the Philippines Los Baños, University Sains Malaysia, German Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forestry Products, CAB International, Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, Technical Centre for Wood and Furniture in Bordeaux, and Cobelgal of Portugal." According to Jan Oprins, "what binds OPRINS to these world-class institutions is a firm vision of bamboo's potential and the resoluteness to realize agronomic and industrial developments with a positive economic, social, and ecological impact. I am grateful to the European Commission for its support in allowing OPRINS to take the lead in this project."

OPRINS is a progressive horticultural nursery specialized in bamboo cultivation. During the last 15 years the company developed its proprietary technology for the micropropagation of bamboos and is the European market leader for ornamental bamboos. The company's pioneering research, which is headed by Ir. Johan Gielis, has resulted in an innovative and efficient production system suitable both for temperate garden bamboos and tropical bamboos for agroforestry. According to Dr. Victor Brias, project development manager of OPRINS, "bamboo has provided a livelihood for millions of poor people around the world for thousands of years. OPRINS is however taking the lead in a paradigm shift towards thinking of bamboo as the timber resource of the third millennium instead of merely as the poor man's timber. Bamboo is the fastest growing wood resource on earth; by maximizing its utility we can help spare valuable rainforests. The BTN project is an important opportunity for European industries to make use of a resource with many value added applications, including biocomposite materials, medium density fiberboard, and pulp and paper."

The BTN project aims to valorize ongoing research on bamboo forestry and technological applications in order to promote the use of bamboo in industry. It aims to enhance international cooperation among bamboo researchers and industries through a clear focus on new technologies and the global market coupled with a policy of open information exchange. Research on silviculture, biotechnology and industrial processing of bamboo has not yet been integrated fully into the realms of the economy and ecology. The participants of the BTN project will foster added value by optimizing scientific networking towards the coordination, exploitation and dissemination of bamboo research in four areas, namely: biology; silviculture; industrial processing; and technology transfer.

BTN seeks to facilitate the transfer of knowledge of bamboo and to enhance cooperation between researchers and users. It endeavors to guide researchers towards market and consumer needs and to inform industry about scientific and technical advances related to bamboo. It will create a knowledge infrastructure to redirect research towards high value-added industrial applications of bamboo and will pursue an open policy for exchanging knowledge and information in order to increase the economic possibilities of bamboo. Information about bamboo will be freely available at http://www.bamboonetwork.org, the BTN web site.







The website http://www.bamboofloorguide.com/ is the owner of this article Please feel free to use this article on your website for any purposes as well as use on both off-line and online publications, by providing the author's name and the URL(s) link of the author remaining with the article. The misuse by removing author's name and the URL(s) link of the author will be considered as terminating the usage agreement of the article, then you are ask either to add the author's detail or remove the article from the website or publication.

Submit your article