Lantana Removal: Missing the Wood for the Trees
Current artisanal models are not enough to remove lantana at scale. We need to identify additional supply chains.
Sandeep Hanchanale
Murugaraj’s (name changed) day starts early. He packs his tools, some food and water before joining a larger group and then setting off deep into the forests of MM Hills in southern Karnataka. They have a long day ahead cutting and collecting stems of the invasive lantana, bane of these eco-sensitive woods.
Murugaraj is a Soliga, an indigenous tribal community based in the region, and they know these lantana-infested lands well. But that doesn’t make the gruelling work they do any easier nor does it achieve much in terms of removing lantana. So, we went back to the drawing board to figure out a better way forward, one that effectively gets rid of this aggressive, fast-spreading weed; restores forests on a large scale; and is cognisant of the needs of forest-dependent communities.
Read | Twist in the Lantana Tale
Murugaraj and his co-workers, who belong to such a community, collect the wood to use as raw material for furniture and handicrafts. Here’s what their work typically involves:
Since the lantana they need is for artisanal use, they first head to a patch of woods that has the kind of wood they need, i.e. older plants with strong stems. Once there, Murugaraj and some members of the group scan for suitable plants, while others keep an eye out for signs of wildlife that may be a threat to them. Once they’re confident about the environment and quality of wood, they start cutting.
After identifying the right sticks and bundling them, they start their journey back to base where they pool all the harvested sticks and begin processing it, which involves cleaning, boiling and trimming to uniform sizes. These steps are necessary to make the wood appropriate for making furniture and crafts.
For about a decade now, these are the steps being followed to collect and process the weed.
As evident, Murugaraj and others are expending a great deal of time and effort to manually remove lantana and carry heavy loads over great distances. Things marginally improved when, in some places, it became possible to take a truck up to the forest fringes. The bundles could then be loaded and transported by road, at least to an extent.
Read | Tackling the Lantana Menace at Scale
When lantana craft cooperatives were established, the goal was to create livelihoods for people like Murugaraj who stay in and around lantana-infested areas. Their ability to forage forest produce and thus their livelihoods was greatly impacted by the spread of a weed that rapidly overpowers native species. It was believed that this approach could both create livelihoods and closely involve affected communities, while working towards the long-term goal of removing lantana and restoring native forest landscapes.
But we were missing the wood for the trees.
By focusing on fine-tuning the artisanal model, the core idea of removing lantana was not addressed. And with this model alone, it may never get addressed.
Workers remove lantana a stick at a time based on each one’s individual quality. This selective removal may take many years to clear a patch of infested land and there is a high probability that lantana or another invasive will return and re-infest the same places from where it was painstakingly removed.
We spent the last two years figuring out a different approach to remove lantana at scale. The two big problems with the artisanal business model are: i) furniture and crafts require too little of the plant and, ii) there is a very small, niche market, and therefore limited demand for such products.
To be more specific, lantana craft consumes only around 18% of the plant, which means there is an opportunity to use the remaining 52% that goes to waste.
We have identified and successfully prototyped with our partners products including construction material like particle boards as well as experimented processes like gasification, which yields producer gas and biochar. These alternatives consume the entire plant. In high-density lantana-infested areas around MM Hills, it is estimated that there are around 25,000 tonnes of lantana in a 5-km radius. That’s a lot of raw material to make commodity products.
Read | Invasive to Invaluable: Lantana as a Promising Raw Material
Imagine an architectural firm wants to build a resort using lantana wood and requires around five tonnes. From an artisanal standpoint, this is impossible considering the time and effort needed to trudge through dense forests and cart back such massive quantities of sticks.
Therefore, we need to shift from a livelihood-led approach to a restoration-led model to effectively remove lantana. Under the restoration-led approach, lantana would be removed from large tracts of land using available public, private or PPP mechanisms. For example, government funds through MGNREGA, the rural employment programme, could be utilised to remove lantana. Restoration work can then be carried out through joint efforts involving: i) the forest department, which can provide good-quality saplings of native species; ii) restoration companies, whose expertise in ecological rehabilitation is vital to inform proper action; iii) private companies, who can lend support through funds and plantation drives; and iv) most importantly — the communities themselves, who decide what kind of native plants and trees would be most beneficial for them.
Read | Lantana Pencils and Rocking Horses
This hybrid model would also ensure the whole lantana plant is made available for use; lantana sticks would continue to be used by the artisans, while the rest is diverted to make low-value — but more in-demand — commodity products as diverse as thermal energy and biobricks.
This weed has turned into a resource for Murugaraj and his community under the artisanal model. They have little incentive to eradicate it, nor can they, considering the arduous nature of work and the massive scale of infestation. Which is why a well-managed lantana removal and restoration programme is key; forest-dependent communities would be able to continue using the plant to make furniture, earn additional income by supplying parts of the plant for commodity products and actively partake in restoring the forests they inhabit as per their needs, discouraging dependence on the invasive weed.
