Perception of artisans towards bamboo preservation for improved product durability in Uganda
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
Bamboo continues to attract attention globally as a sustainable material and is used in many applications.
However, the quality of bamboo products in Uganda remains poor and cannot compete in the local and inter-
national markets. Bamboo's low product quality is associated with poor raw material processing and limited
preservation methods, which lead to the short service life of the products due to its susceptibility to bio-dete-
rioration and degradation. To cope with the above, artisans in Uganda apply various preservation methods
depending on their knowledge and available resources. In this paper, the authors seek to determine the methods
used by the artisans to preserve bamboo, understand the background of their intention to preserve, and their
perception towards bamboo preservation. The Theory of Planned Behaviour was used as the main framework to
understand artisans' perceptions towards the intention to preserve bamboo. A cross-sectional survey with 186
randomly selected artisans working with bamboo was conducted across three agroecological zones presumed to
be Uganda's main bamboo growing areas. The study reported 13 available bamboo species, with the artisans
exploiting mainly three of these species. Most artisans (86%) were aware of the need to preserve bamboo, with
67.4% practising bamboo preservation. The artisans use different methods and chemicals for preservation, i.e.
leaching (17%), smoking (14%), soaking in crude lake salt (31%), boric acid and borax solutions (20%), surface
application (16%), and pressure treatment (1%). Ordinal logistic regression was used to model artisans’ intention
to engage in bamboo preservation. Attitude and subjective norms were the psychological factors that sig-
nificantly influenced artisans’ intention to preserve bamboo. Interventions that increase benefits accrued from
preserved bamboo can improve artisans’ attitude and subjective norms and enhance their intention to engage in
bamboo preservation.
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Bamboo, Beetles, Decay fungi, Preservation, Termites, Theory of planned behavior