University of Tasmania, Australia

The ACIAR-funded project aims to develop the technologies, processes and expertise to produce high quality veneer and complementary soil conditioning products from senile coconut stems and thereby enhance livelihoods in South Pacific communities.

Its specific objectives are to:

1. Identify the most promising product options for the veneer from coconut stem.
2. Develop protocols and capacity for sustainable low-impact coconut wood harvesting, plantation rehabilitation, and log grading, handling and transport.
3. Establish experimental veneer-peeling capacity in the South Pacific.
4. Determine the optimum processing parameters and protocols for peeling coconut stems and the properties of the recovered veneer.
5. Assemble the product suite and establish its characteristics and in-service performance. Characterisation would be to local and export performance standards.
6. Determine the costs and benefits of using the residual cortex and soft, central cores for bio-char and other agricultural products.

An initial ACIAR project, FST/2004/054 Improving value and marketability of coconut wood, demonstrated the technical and economic feasibility of milling the stems of senile coconuts to produce high-density coco-wood timber for laminated flooring and other products. This new project will extend the results achieved in the initial project and focus on the potential of producing cocowood veneer products in resource-rich areas around the Pacific.

The Pacific’s senile coconut plantations present a significant opportunity for a sustainable increase in wood production and act a major constraint on improved agricultural production. There is an expanding regional and international market for wood veneers and composite wood products. As access to the traditional resources for these products, particularly tropical rainforests, are constrained, a significant opportunity exists for the significant volume of wood held in the estimated 120,000 hectares of senile coconut plantations in the Pacific islands to become an attractive alternative resource.Structured around an iterative materials research program, this project seeks to answer the key research and development questions critical to establishing a sustainable cocowood veneering industry, namely:

1. Can coconut wood logs be peeled into marketable veneer using spindle-less lathes and can it be peeled, dried and handled efficiently and effectively?
2. Can products made from this veneer satisfy the performance requirements established in likely local and export markets?
3. Can viable uses be found for the considerable amounts of residual material and by-products generated from this process?
4. Can the whole process cycle of harvesting and reestablishment, log supply, milling, and marketing be sufficiently refined to ensure that it is economically robust, and sustainable given the necessary cultural, social and environmental dimensions that exist in the Pacific?

To address these questions, this project uses a collaborative, multi-disciplinary research and development approach. It is necessarily iterative and expands from a focus on technical questions to broader economic and value-chain issues. It is structured to minimise risk by regular and active interaction and collaboration with industry and community members.