About Us

CIBART’s VISION
To realize the potential of bamboo in enabling poor rural communities secure livelihoods, and drive afforestation, sustainable fuels production, climate change mitigation and economic growth in developing economies.

CIBART’s MISSION
To work with poor rural communities to reduce poverty, enhance livelihood security and improve the quality of their lives by complementing and enhancing existing livelihoods with resilient alternatives using bamboo, through technology and applications development, skill building, and raising productivity and incomes.

CIBART OBJECTIVES
To set up and support, with key stakeholders, a network of self-sustaining community-owned organizations in an action research mode that leverages bamboo resources and technologies for the betterment of these communities.

To identify, create, strengthen and consolidate groups of professionals such as architects and engineers, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs/development professionals working with or interested in the potential of bamboo.

To collaborate with technology institutions and experts in India and overseas and jointly develop value added products to create/ensure sustainable and resilient livelihoods.

To facilitate development of the bamboo sector by providing policy briefs, undertaking livelihood development activities in bamboo resource development and management, bamboo product design and development, project implementation, industrial development, enterprise development, community development, technology transfer, skills development, monitoring and evaluation systems and marketing.

To actualize bamboo based enterprises which generate employment opportunities from resource generation, processing and production of market oriented products, after capacity building, skill enhancement and training.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

CIBART was established to provide technical and policy support and facilitate field level activities on bamboo in India and abroad.

CIBART leverages proven core competencies of its founders and staff in the bamboo and development sectors. These include development of institutions, policy for the resource, technologies, applications and processes, products and capacity to drive sustainable economic activities of primarily rural communities in the geographical areas CIBART operates in. Accordingly, CIBART will:

Partner with the local community networks – growers, producers or consumers – to set up economically viable microenterprises using environment-friendly production processes that are in tune with the community, are employment-generating and energy-saving.
Set up a national network of producing and marketing units, which are majority-owned by community that generate self-sustaining revenue streams within defined timeframes capitalizing on their access to raw material and/or markets.
Set up networks of (a) macro-nurseries for commercially important quality planting materials; and (b) depots for treated raw material, especially bamboo, but also other non-timber natural resources.
Develop efficiency multiplying, productivity enhancing and easy-to-use processing tools and machines through own and or collaborative initiatives.
Develop products, production systems using quality raw material, and marketing mechanisms aimed at delivering price-competitive, high quality products in volume to markets.
Actively encourage and support, through long-term collaborative and meaningful partnerships with its stakeholders within and without the organization, well-structured business models to generate opportunities for networked intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial growth.
Develop a network of self-sustaining Learning Centres aimed at disseminating CIBART’s acquired learning and expertise through model demonstration centres and enterprise development programmes. These will run both standard and customized education and training programmes, both in the classroom and distance learning modes.
Identify and position itself as an authoritative Bamboo Resource Centre with highly specialized research and development competencies.
Design enabling policy frameworks, and accordingly advise and consult with national and international agencies as well as state and central governments on project formulation, assessments, rating, monitoring and administration for mutually beneficial and revenue generating bases.
Identify and address information gaps that exist on different aspects of bamboo and related fields including market information, by collection, generation and documentation of information that would bridge these gaps and disseminate this information as a strategic support tool for development.

Founders

I V Ramanuja Rao, Ph.D

Dr Rao is the Founder and CEO of CIBART. He has extensive global and national experience in bamboo development since 1980. He was International Coordinator/adviser of the IDRC Bamboo & Rattan Network (1989-1997), and Director, Livelihood Development (1997-2015) in INBAR, an international agency that he helped set up. International field and policy experience. He is a co-founder of the World Bamboo Organization and put together the first World Bamboo Congress that was held in 2003 in New Delhi, India.

He has a number of innovations to his credit and has developed the concept of NGO-community-professional partnership (NCPP) and rural crowdfunding and has pioneered intrapreneurship in the social domain. Other innovations are on household charcoal aggregation and processing that has benefitted several thousand women; and developed portable, ready-to-use tissue culture labs in shipping containers. Several publications and national and policy documents, and national and state bamboo policy frameworks, have been developed and authored by him.

IV Ramanuja Rao, Ph.D

Board of Directors

Ms. K. Rathna

Chief Operating Officer and Director

Ms. Rathna has a post-graduate degree in business administration, majoring in portfolio management, financial structures and institutions and management of funds. She has over 20 years of working experience in development sector having worked with CARE India and Access Development Services prior to joining CIBART. She provides strategic leadership as Chief Operating Officer and manages operations and administration to ensure organizational growth, positive performance and manages relations with government, non-government, public, private and partner institutions. She provides executive advice and support in the areas of financial management, reporting, personnel management, coordination and liaison, organizing missions, workshops, proposal writing and business plan development and execution.

She has excellent understanding and experience in project management, accounting concepts, budgeting, loan fund management, business planning, grants management and management information system.

Ms. K. Rathna

Mr. S. T. S. Lepcha, I.F.S

Mr. S. T. S. Lepcha was the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in Uttarakhand. He has researched various bamboo and natural fibre related activities and helped in formulating the Government of India’s natural fibre policy which included nettle and hemp fibre for the first time in 2010.

Some of his major scientific/ technological achievements are: bamboo treatment with bio-preservation techniques in Neem and Lantana and agave extract; degumming and softening methods developed for Himalayan nettle and hemp fibres; and tools and machine modification and development for bamboo and natural fibre processing.

Mr. S. T. S. Lepcha, I.F.S

Dr. Sanjay Deshmukh

Dr. Sanjay Deshmukh, former Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University is widely acknowledged as an academic thought leader in Indian higher education and is currently Professor of Life Sciences at that university. He is a recognized PhD guide in botany, life sciences, environmental sciences and biotechnology at Mumbai University and geography in Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. With field-level research experience in 52 countries, Dr. Deshmukh has to his credit, over 180 publications reflecting successful implementation of 35 research projects. Professor Deshmukh has contributed to development of Mumbai’s ecological and economic environment as well as infrastructure and also in overall societal development of the State. As Member of several apex committees of Govt. of India, he has been contributing to Nation’s Agenda on conservation and sustainable development of Biodiversity.

Dr. Sanjay’s research interests are climate change impacts on biodiversity, ICT for rural development, conservation and sustainable management of plant genetic resources, environmental economics, protected area management, human genetics, sleep sciences, environmental planning for development of hill stations, EIA of mega-projects, management of research and administration, creation of new organisations, CSR and ethical management to name a few.

Dr. Sanjay Deshmukh

Mr. Sanjeev Sashikant Karpe

Mr. Karpe is an electrical engineer with expertise in strategic and operational planning, bamboo structure and prefab structure design and erection, bamboo furniture and high-end crafts making. He has over 18 years of hands-on experience in the bamboo sector and provides executive advice on furniture making, marketing and designing support. He is also Director, Konkan Bamboo and Cane Development Centre (KONBAC), Managing Director, Native Konbac Bamboo Products Private Limited, Founder Director and Vice Chairman, Konkan Nisarg Manch (KNM), Sindhudurg. He is also Member, Expert Committee on Normally Traded Commodities constituted by the National Biodiversity Authority, Government of India and Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.

He has excellent knowledge in bamboo plantation and management, business strategy, furniture production, interior design, product design and development, training of manpower, selection and commissioning of plant and machinery, technology transfer and quality control.

Mr. Sanjeev Sashikant Karpe

Dr. Md. Selim Reza

Dr. Reza has a Ph.D in sociology and a masters in social work with over 19 years of experience in community based livelihood programmes. He is also Director, Tripura Bamboo and Cane Development Centre (TRIBAC), life member of the National Association of Professional Social Workers in India (NAPSWI) and Member, Community of Evaluators (CoE). He was earlier associated with INBAR as Project Coordinator for Tripura, Specialist – Community Development in The World Bank’s Swajal Project and Research Associate at World Vision, and currently works as Project Manager in INBAR.

Dr. Reza is a specialist in bamboo/NTFP/allied agriculture based community enterprise and cluster development, community development, capacity building, business strategy, programme development, international development, strategic planning, social entrepreneur ship, mobilization and trust building through PRA /P-LAP, networking, consensus building with line departments /agencies for convergence and report writing.

Dr. Md. Selim Reza

Mr. Suresh Kumar Sharma

Mr. Suresh Kumar Sharma is a biology graduate with a diploma in public relations management and liaison. He retired as Senior Bank Manager from Syndicate Bank after 36 years in banking, finance, public relations, rural financing, enterprise setting and grading and taxation. Mr. Sharma has handled agriculture based community enterprise formation, community development, rural industry and allied activities. Mr. Sharma provides executive advice and supports in fundraising, networking and financial oversight.

Methodology

CIBART’s services communities at their doorsteps. CIBART brings experts, resources and tools together in the backyard of target communities.

CIBART sets up independent organizations in each state to work with communities, with backward linkages into villages and forward linkages to technical and other development agencies at national and international levels. It also works directly in the field where necessary.

CIBART works through building networks and partnerships with a global outlook, yet one that addresses local needs. It is for communities, but market driven and businesslike. The community is the prime beneficiary, market the goal and the production of craft and manufactured goods using industrial approaches the means.

Services

Promote activities for production, cultivation, marketing and related activities in the bamboo sector.

Research in the areas of growing, production, use or application of bamboo products.

Implement projects or operate the center in partnership with any national or international agency or government.

Promote the process of industrialization of the bamboo sector by developing and sharing resources, techniques, methodologies and markets for products globally.

Set up training centers, enterprises or other institutions that may be deemed necessary for promotion of bamboo industries.

Train workforce and build institutional capacity for technical personnel and development professionals in the bamboo sector.

Design support for all products defined above through CIBART’s state of art design studios

About Us

Reach Us

info@cibart.in | +91-11-4057 4574