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Development of advanced veneer and other product from coconut wood to enhance livelihoods in South Pacific communities

UTAS Home ›  › Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology › Research › Architecture & Design /Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood (CSAW)  › Development of advanced veneer and other product from coconut wood to enhance livelihoods in South Pacific communities

External Collaborators / Partners Dr Henri Bailleres, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI); Sairusi Bulai, Land resources Division, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC); Sevanaia Tawake, Fiji Department of Forests; Maturo Paniani, Western Samoa Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE); Gordon Konairamo, Solomon Islands Ministry of Forests
UTAS Collaborators School of Architecture & Design
Funding Source Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
Project Status Current

Summary

This project aims to develop the technologies, processes and expertise necessary to producing high quality veneers and composite wood products from coconut wood on an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable basis.

Description

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 300,000 ha of senile coconut plantations in the Pacific islands to become an attractive alternative resource. With the development of suitable technologies, processes and expertise, a sustainable cocowood veneering industry sector may be established to exploit this resource. Such an industry could include the harvest and re-establishment of coconut plantations, conversion of recovered stems into veneer, assembly of composite products for local use or export, and production of useful agricultural products and fuel from stem and crown residues.

The project objectives are to:

  1. Quantify the broad value chain for processing coconut stems into veneer and a suite of composite products.
  2. Develop protocols for sustainable low-impact coconut wood harvesting, plantation rehabilitation, and log grading, handling and transport.
  3. Determine the optimum processing parameters and protocols for peeling coconut stems and assembling a suite of composite products.
  4. Establish the characteristics and in service performance of the recovered material and composite products assembled for that material.
  5. Develop uses for the cortex and soft, central cores remaining after logging and peeling.

People

Members (External)

Assoc Prof Greg Nolan, Director, Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood (CSAW), School of Architecture & Design