Rattan furnishings evoke the glamour and laid back elegance of exotic beach houses as well as the informal beauty of plant filled garden rooms and sun dappled verandas. Long fascinated with rattan's versatility, designer Lulu Lytle examines the enduring appeal of this sustainable tropical palm in RATTAN: A WORLD OF ELEGANCE AND CHARM. The first book in decades to examine the history and craftsmanship of rattan furniture, this insightful tome showcases rattan's appeal through archival images of beautiful interiors including Madeleine Castaing's winter garden in Paris, Michael Taylor's own Californian beach house, the Titanic's Café Parisian and the Billy Baldwin designed Mr. Kennedy's beauty salon in New York City. Rattan's many personalities are explored through its inclusion in settings as diverse as Impressionist paintings, flamboyant nightclubs and pared down contemporary drawing rooms. A reflection of its inherent beauty and longevity, antique rattan furniture from the nineteenth century is highly collectible, as are rattan pieces created by giants of modern design such as Josef Hoffmann for Thonet, Josef Frank for Svenskt Tenn, Jean-Michel Frank for Ecart, Renzo Mongiardino for Bonacina, Arne Jacobsen for Sika, Paul Frankl and Donald Deskey. Rattan pieces have become iconic and highly prized, including Hiroomi Tahara's Wrap Sofa, Franca Helg's Primavera Chair, and the many iterations of the beloved Peacock Chair. RATTAN also highlights some of the many tastemakers who have embraced rattan--from Marella Agnelli, Babe Paley, and Cecil Beaton to leading interior designers including Jeffrey Bilhuber, Veere Grenney, Axel Vervoordt, and Jacques Grange.

We investigated the production and trade in rattan along the supply chain. We focused our study on Indonesia, the global leader in natural rattan production, and more specifically, West Kutai in East Kalimantan. Our analysis of local livelihoods in 2004 and 2011 indicates that communities have abandoned rattan as their main source of income, primarily because of low rattan farm-gate prices. Our interviews and econometric analysis indicate that rattan prices are kept artificially low through price fixing within a cartel of rattan traders. Farm-gate prices are also kept low by export quotas. The result has been a substantial reduction in export volumes of Indonesian rattan products (as opposed to unprocessed and semi-processed rattan). Other contributing factors include reduced overseas demand, the relative strength of the rupiah and the loss of Indonesia’s competitive edge over other countries. Compared to its competitors, Indonesia has higher transaction costs, including taxes, tariffs, administrative costs and transportation costs. We conclude that a lack of reliable data on rattan resources and unstable policy have hampered efforts to develop sustainable management strategies and annual allowable harvest volumes. We recommend the development of a national rattan action plan, based on reliable scientific data. This would require more accurate information on rattan trade, future development in the rattan products market, production capacity in forests and planted rattan gardens, and international trade, including illegal trade. Such information could guide rattan policies, specifically determining what trade legislation would have the best macro and microeconomic results for Indonesia.

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This volume contains a glossary on terms and terminologies used in the rattan sector. The glossary is structured according to the following major sections: rattan resources (biology, management, plantations, harvesting); rattan as a raw material (transport, storage, grading and post-harvest handling, rattan trade); rattan processing (for local artisanal uses; for industrial level furniture manufacturing); and rattan trade in raw, furniture and other products. In order to give special emphasis to the emerging rattan sector in Africa, a separate compilation of terms specifically focusing on those used in Africa is added.

Rattan is the common name for a diverse group of climbing palms found throughout Old World tropical forests. For centuries people have used them for binding, basketry, house construction, food, and numerous other non-market purposes; more recently the canes of some species have been gathered for the multi-billion-dollar furniture, handicraft, and mat-making industries. Thus rattan continues to be vital to the culture and economic well being of millions of cane collectors, laborers, and artisans throughout tropical Asia and Africa. The Nature and Culture of Rattan explores this valuable forest product, the tropical forests on which it depends, and the societies that flourish by using and managing these remarkable plants. The Nature and Culture of Rattan provides a distinctive and engaging review of rattan and the people whose lives are centered on it. It examines rattan use, biology, human culture, and challenges in tropical field research and conservation through the knowledge of cane workers in three Southeast Asian forest villages where the author lived over a twenty-five-year period. He effectively challenges commonly held views of "slash and burn" farming, rainforest destruction, and population increase while underscoring the myriad forces involved in individual decision-making and social and environmental change. Personal stories and experiences are integrated with scientific information in a manner that will attract nonspecialists as well as students and researchers. The Nature and Culture of Rattan will be a valuable addition to undergraduate and graduate courses in ecology, anthropology, rural sociology and development, forestry, and natural resource management. A website (www.cfc.umt.edu/rattan) includes additional photographs, suggested reading, and discussion topics.

Due to its rapid growth and ability to adapt to a wide variety of ecological conditions, rattan provides a valuable crop that can be grown and harvested in a sustainable manner. Its use in furniture production also means that effective rattan cultivation serves as a reliable alternative to timber exploitation. Clearly laid out and illustrated throughout, this technical guide gives a general overview of the cultivation, harvesting, treatments, transformation and commercialisation of rattan.

Rattan stalks have been bent into furniture forms in the tropics for nearly a century. Design changes have provided variations from fancy items with bamboo before 1920, to streamlined, Deco-inspired forms of the 1940s, and practical, mass-produced styles in the 1960s and beyond. Today, each rattan style is recognized for its distinctive contribution to casual living spaces, indoors and out. In this book, over 400 color photographs of rattan furniture, period upholstery fabrics, and related art works are described in detail to present an inspiring variety of furnishings for every room in the house. Harvey Schwartz identifies the best pieces and explains what to look for in the market place. Beautiful floral bark cloth cushion covers and tropical scenes in prints and paintings are shown combined with fantastic rattan furniture to provide the best look for casual living.

Globally, 30% of the world population lived in urban areas in 1950, 54% in 2016 and 66% projected by 2050. The most urbanized regions include North America, Latin America, and Europe. Urban encroachment depletes soil carbon and the aboveground biomass carbon pools, enhancing the flux of carbon from soil and vegetation into the atmosphere. Thus, urbanization has exacerbated ecological and environmental problems. Urban soils are composed of geological material that has been drastically disturbed by anthropogenic activities and compromised their role in the production of food, aesthetics of residential areas, and pollutant dynamics. Properties of urban soils are normally not favorable to plant growth—the soils are contaminated by heavy metals and are compacted and sealed. Therefore, the quality of urban soils must be restored to make use of this valuable resource for delivery of essential ecosystem services (e.g., food, water and air quality, carbon sequestration, temperature moderation, biodiversity). Part of the Advances in Soil Sciences Series, Urban Soils explains properties of urban soils; assesses the effects of urbanization on the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and water and the impacts of management of urban soils, soil restoration, urban agriculture, and food security; evaluates ecosystem services provisioned by urban soils, and describes synthetic and artificial soils.

Soil and Fertilizers: Managing the Environmental Footprint presents strategies to improve soil health by reducing the rate of fertilizer input while maintaining high agronomic yields. It is estimated that fertilizer use supported nearly half of global births in 2008. In a context of potential food insecurity exacerbated by population growth and climate change, the importance of fertilizers in sustaining the agronomic production is clear. However, excessive use of chemical fertilizers poses serious risks both to the environment and to human health. Highlighting a tenfold increase in global fertilizer consumption between 2002 and 2016, the book explains the effects on the quality of soil, water, air and biota from overuse of chemical fertilizers. Written by an interdisciplinary author team, this book presents methods for enhancing the efficiency of fertilizer use and outlines agricultural practices that can reduce the environmental footprint. Features: Includes a thorough literature review on the agronomic and environmental impact of fertilizer, from degradation of ecosystems to the eutrophication of drinking water Devotes specific chapters to enhancing the use efficiency and effectiveness of the fertilizers through improved formulations, time and mode of application, and the use of precision farming technology Reveals geographic variation in fertilizer consumption volume by presenting case studies for specific countries and regions, including India and Africa Discusses the pros and cons of organic vs. chemical fertilizers, innovative technologies including nuclear energy, and the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals Part of the Advances in Soil Sciences series, this solutions-focused volume will appeal to soil scientists, environmental scientists and agricultural engineers.

Just five years ago, it was generally believed that the number of food insecure people in the world was on continuous decline. Unfortunately, widespread soil degradation along with resistance to recommended agronomic practices, and little attempt to restore degraded soils have conspired with significant droughts (in regions that could least tolerat