Newsletter no.23
October 1998
Editor:Armin Tenner
INES, P.B. 101707, 44017 Dortmund , Germany .
Tel: +49 231 575202 / 05, Fax: +49 231 575210
E-mail: INES_NAT@t-online.de; INTERNET: http://www.mindspring.com/~us016262/ines.html
Bank account: Postbank Hamburg , R. Braun, account no. 1672 50-209, bank code 20010020
THE DATE PALM: THE PRINCESS OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Hamed EI-Mously
Professor Hamed EI-Mousiy is the Director of the Centre for Development of Small-Scale Industries at Ain-Shams University , Cairo , a member organization of INES.
Introduction
The impending environmental crisis pushes us far beyond limited curative measures to the radical and thorough revision of our patterns of consumption and modes of production. Over and above, the scope of vision and analysis becomes wider. The reductionist approach of technification of issues like sustainable development, and ecofficiency, etc. is more and more rejected. The social and cultural dimensions of these issues are taking more concern. In other words, we need to change ourselves and reconstruct our relations with nature. The dominant utilitarian consumptive unidimensional relations with the natural material resources have to be replaced by more or less symbiotic relations with the ecosystem, taken as a whole. This, in turn, widens the sphere of global responsibility for the environment to reach the layman everywhere and stimulate the participation of millions of people from the level of the local community worldwide. This is the context, within which I would like to talk about the date palm.
The date palm: A pivot of economic, social and cultural life in the region
Perhaps no other tree has accompanied us along our history as the date palm. There is historical evidence about its existence in Babilon and South Iraq, 4000 BC and in Egypt long before the dynasties. The date palm was one of the pivots of economic and, hence, social and cultural life in this region from ancient times. In ancient Egypt the heads of pillars in temples were made resembling the growing top of the date palm. The date palm appeared frequently on walls of temples in different contexts revealing its significance in life in Egypt . According to Nobian ( South Egypt ) traditions, when a child is born, they plant a date palm for him. When he has matured, the date palm will have grown to a number of palms, providing a basis for his future economic life. In Upper Egypt each village has evolved beside its life-supporting palm plantations. The date palm is well adapted to our environment. It is grown well in the Nile Valley , where it gives gentle shade against the sun and protection from the wind to crops growing below it. It tolerates the harsh climate of the Sahara, making possible the life of Bedouins; it even tolerates high levels of salinity, growing along the seashore in Egypt . It needs much less water and service and is less subject to diseases and parasites than other trees.
Date, the primary product of the palm, is rich in protein, vitamins, and mineral salts. That is why it represents an essential element of diet for the cultivator himself and his animals (the low-grade date with kernel). All secondary products of the palm result from annual pruning (Fig. 1) and have essential uses for the cultivator. Thus, no waste results from the growth of the palm. The dale palm's midribs of grown palms after being woven in a mat using coir ropes are used in roofing. 1 Crates for the transportation of vegetables and fruits are also made from the palm midrib, as well as furniture items, manual fans, doors, of gardens and coops for chickens and rabbits.
Midribs of young palms are used in fencing gardens. The midrib is used as floats for fishing nets or for fuel in rural ovens: the ashes being used afterwards in mortar. The leaflets arc used after being woven, in mat making, as well as in a very wide variety of baskets for use in the cultivator's household, as well as for transportation of various agricultural crops and packing of dates. They are also used for the manufacture of screens for households and as ropes for tying up vegetables. The leaflet fibers are used in the manufacture of crina used for stuffing of upholstered furniture. The coir is being used for making washing and bathing sponges, as well as for the manufacture of ropes for different uses. From coir, rope nets, and bags for the transportation of agricultural crops on camels are being made. Household brooms and fly whiskers are also made from coir. The spadix stem is crushed to obtain very strong fibers for tying up agricultural crops. The spadix stem ends with fruit stalks are used as brooms. Spadix stems of certain palm species were even used for fire making by rubbing. They were also used as coat hangers, and after being sliced into strips, were used for making screens for household use. The palm trunk is being used after cutting it into halves or quarters as beams for ceilings or walling in rural and desert regions. Thus, the date palm in our traditions represented an eloquent example of integrated sustainable use of renewable material resources.
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The rediscovery of our natural resources: The palm midribs as an example
It is clear from the aforementioned that the dale palm found in many genuine forms of utilization in our traditional way of life. We, as Third World researchers and intelligentsia have to do our job! We have to direct the forces of imagination and thinking to compose a new vision as how to use our local material resources in relation to both our present and future. This is what I may call the rediscovery of our natural resources.
As far as the palm midribs are concerned, we found that this raw material is associated with the poor, whether producer (cultivators of palms, rural artisans manufacturing, crates, etc.) or consumer (peasants in rural areas and Bedouins in oases). Thus the first step in our methodology consisted of the conduction of tests to determine the physical and mechanical properties of palm midribs and their comparison with the corresponding properties of wood. This is thought as a requalification for this raw material to open new avenues for its use within higher social strata in rural and urban areas. The research findings have shown that palm midribs enjoy physical and mechanical properties falling within values pertinent to known wood species as spruce and beech.
Fig. 1 Pruning a date palm
New avenues for use of the palm midrib
Arabesque from palm midribs
The Arabesque (Mashrabiah) handicrafts are a part of our cultural heritage. The Arabesque items are being used in furniture, windows, and partitions (Fig. 2). The drastic increase in the price of imported beech wood, usually used for Arabesque, has led to the shrinkage of demand on Arabesque handicrafts. Therefore, it was thought that the replacement of beech wood by the cheap locally available palm midribs may open the way for the revival of Arabesque handicrafts, especially in rural areas. The Centre launched a project on July 2nd, 1995 , for the Development of Small-Scale Industries in the Dakhla oases in the New Valley governorate to disseminate Arabesque handicrafts using palm midribs as a raw material. A training centre was established to train the beneficiaries (Fig, 3), who obtain their lathes on a loan basis and produce at home. The project has grown great success turning the poor, especially women, to autonomous producers and entrepreneurs and transforming the idea of use of trees pruning products as a substitute for imported wood into reality.
This project opens a great potentiality of dissemination of a new culture of sustainable use of renewable material resources in rural and desert communities in the whole region.
Palm midribs in blockboard
Due to its full reliance on imported spruce wood, the blockboard industry in Egypt is in a critical situation. Therefore, it was decided to direct research to the use of palm midribs as a substitute for spruce in the core layer of the blockboard. The research results have proven that the palm midrib-core blockboard enjoys physical and mechanical properties comparable (and several of them superior to) those for spruce-core blockhoard. Therefore, machines were designed and manufactured for the conversion of palm midribs into strips of uniform cross-section for the core layer. The Centre for the manufacture of palm midrib-core blockboards has established a pilot factory in EI-Kharga, the New Valley governorate on October 27 th , 1993 . This new product has been successfully marketed and used in communities school furniture, established all over Upper Egypt by the UNICEF.
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Particleboards from palm midribs
It has been proven that the ratio of utilization of palm midribs in Arabesque and block board does not exceed 40%. Therefore, research was conducted to use these midrib residues in particleboard manufacture. The results have proven that particle boards manufactured from palm midribs enjoy physical and mechanical properties satisfying the Egyptian particleboard standard 906/1991. This opens the way of development of a particleboard industry, complementary to Arabesque or blockboard industries, to satisfy the objective of integrated use of the palm midrib.
A lumber-like product from palm midrib
As a response to the acute shortage and high prices of wood in Egypt , a research has been conducted to investigate the possibility of manufacture of a local substitute of solid wood, made from palm midribs. The research results indicate that palm midrib blocks enjoy values of modulus of rupture (MOR) and other mechanical properties similar to those for red pine and spruce. This opens a great potentiality for use of palm midribs to manufacture products that could substitute imported solid wood in Egypt and the whole Arab region. This research has been awarded the Euromat-97 conference prize for the best poster, 21023 April 1997, Maastricht .
A super strong material from the palm midrib
The anatomical structure of the palm midrib has shown that the outer layer differs from the inner part of the midrib by a higher density and smaller diameter of the fibro- vascular bundles. This suggests that this outer layer may have better mechanical properties, as compared with the average properties of the midrib. Besides, this layer constitutes an unused residue of the palm midrib- blockboard industry. Thus, research was conducted to determine the tensile strength of the outer 1.5-mm layer of the midrib. The research results (See Table I) clearly indicate that the outer layer of the midrib enjoys a tensile strength (= 25 kg/mm2) comparable with that of commercial steel. This indicates that the palm midrib outer layer is a super strong material that could find wide applications in industrial composites.
Fig. 2 A partition from palm midribs
Fig 3. Training of beneficiaries
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Date palm residues: Future prospects;
Substitute DPLM for wood in the Near East
The increase in the environmental concern during the last decades has led to an acute shortage in the available wood in the international market. As an example, in the USA the rate of cutting wood in the federal forests has been decreased to ¼ its value in 1980. Subsequently, this has led to the soaring of wood prices. The main response to the shortage of wood in western countries is found in the tendency to improve the efficiency of utilization of natural timber (e.g. the use of particle boards and medium density fiberboards (MDF) instead of natural wood, guaranteeing a higher rate of utilization) and / or the use of lower grade wood species in composition panels. The response in Southeast Asian countries was basically to use bamboo and rattan and the agricultural residues of annual crops as a substitute for wood in panels. The range of products range from: blockboards, particleboards, MDF and furniture. The annual size of sales of bamboo and rattan products could be estimated by 4.5 and 7 billion US $ respectively.
Fig. 4 Distribution of palms in the Near East region
As far as wood resources are concerned, the situation in the Arab countries is very critical. Being located mostly in an arid zone, the percentage of forest coverage to the tolal area is meager: ranging from 0.002 % for Egypt , 0.3 % for Libya , 0.7 % in Saudi Arabia to 3.5 % in Syria , 4.5 % in Tunisia and 22.3 % in Sudan . Thus, we must use, to a maximum, the products of pruning as DPLM as a substitute for imported wood, raising the motto: Substitute DPLM for wood in the Near East .
Fig, 4 illustrates the distribution of palms (in millions) in the region. It is obvious that the leading countries in palm plantations are Iran , Iraq , UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt . By pruning the palm trees an annual amount of 1.34 millions of tons DPLM and 0.96 million tons of spadix stems dry matter become available.
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New opportunities for palm residues
The growing environmental consciousness, especially after the Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio De Janeiro has created a new situation, in which not only the non-governmental associations, such as the Consumer Associations and environment-action groups like Greenpeace, Milieudefensie, etc. are environment-active, but also the governments! The government's legislation, especially in Europe , gives considerable care to environmental issues. There is now legislation putting great pressure on dumping or incineration of waste and defining what is called: "producer responsibility for recycling of products after use." Among the legislations are the EC-Guidelines "Packaging and waste of packaging," which will be valid for all packaging that will be brought to the European market. A general preferential system worked out stating that preference could be given to products from developing countries, which are produced in a more environmentally friendly way. Within this context, the renewable material resources, such as palm residues may have quite challenging new opportunities in new avenues of utilization. Here are several examples:
• Improvement of some traditional uses of palm residues through new treatment and new design of products:
> Manufacture of baskets from palm leaflets.
> Manufacture of crates from DPLM.
• New avenues of utilization as a substitute for other materials:
> Use of coir and leaflets as a packaging material, upholstery, floor covering, etc.
> Use of coir and leaflets as an isolation material.
> Manufacture of bio-composites using DPLM and spadix stem fibers as a substitute for fiberglass in composites and replacing plastics by natural glues.
> Use of DPLM, spadix stem and leaflets in gypsum-fiber and cement-fiber boards. Thus, the palm residues may replace wood fibers in many places.
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Afforestation by palms and not by wood trees
Assuming an average maturation period for a spruce tree of ˜ 90 years, a stem diameter of 35 cm, merchantable length of 15 meters, a tapering reduction ratio of 0.60 and a density of 0.38 g/cm 2 . Thus the useful dry wood crop will be equal to 0.33 ton.
Assuming an average lifetime for a palm of 100 years, the total amount of dry residues will be equal to 3.53 tons.
This means that during its life. a date palm renders a crop of lignocellulosic material more than ten times that of the spruce, in addition to the dates, of course. This opens the way to a new concept of afforestation more appropriate to our regions: afforestation to obtain food and lignocellulosic materials that may serve as wood substitutes and other industrial uses.
Besides and perhaps more important, the dale palm points to a new ethos from the environmental perspective: you can obtain your "wood" not by cutting or killing trees, put by serving (pruning) palms. That is why the dale palm will be the princess in a sustainable future.
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A WORD FROM THE CHAIRMAN
As the new chairman of INES, my first task is to thank my predecessor Hartwig Spitzer. When we attended the Congress "Challenges" in 1991 in Berlin , Hartwig stood at the cradle of INES and took the lead in setting up the new network. Up to this summer he held the chair of our organization, and the extension of the network to five continents and 87 member organizations was largely due to his intense dedication and endeavour. During a heavy loaded career as an experimental physicist at the University of Hamburg , he found time to travel around, preparing congresses and meetings, and discussing with people the subjects of peace and sustainability. We know for sure that these activities will not end when he stands down from the chair, but that he will continue devoting his effort to the tasks of INES.
In this issue of the Newsletter you will find the optimistic leading article of Hamed El-Mously, showing an attempt to create a friendly environment and to reach sustainability. It comes from a region, which we like to denote as "the South" or "the Third World ." His effort to found an industry on local sources and for local needs has to resist the ideology of free economy that prevails in the Western countries. The free market has no feeling for local optimization of the production methods; it generally tends to sacrifice the products of local crafts in replacing them by export articles from the richer countries.
In this issue you also read the embarrassing report about the development of poisonous weapons in South Africa . Facts are revealed that we may have anticipated but never could imagine.
A large part of this issue is devoted to this Year's Council meeting in Cambridge , USA , Together with the workshop about security before and the demonstration of future planning after the actual meeting, it gave a lot of new information. It becomes clear that the recent upsurges of dangers and conflicts in the world and the increasingly more cumbersome way our society proceeds, leads to a tougher formulation of opinions, also in INES.
There are several activities that will need our support and inventiveness in the coming years. From 11 to 16 May 1999 the Hague Appeal conference will be held. You will all get an invitation to register for this conference. We will participate in the program of this conference by organizing three workshops in the parallel sessions. The subjects of the workshops are: "The ethical crisis of science" (See page 12 of this Newsletter), "New military technologies and their future impact on peace and security,"' and "Towards a nuclear weapon-free world."
We hope to realize two topical meetings in 1999 in areas in Eastern Europe and continue our INES projects. In the year 2000 we will have our big congress in Stockholm about which you find some information in the Council meeting report.
At the end, I wish to welcome the three new individual members of INES.
Armin Tenner. Amsterdam
The text of the INES Newsletter is appended to the INES homepage on the INTERNET:
http://www.mindspring.com/~us016262/ines.html
1 This was our first acquaintance with palm midribs. Roofs, made of midribs, lasting for centuries, were our first natural proof of their durability and good mechanical properties.
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