Barking up the right tree

The new NWFP-Digest is out. That’s only if you get it by email, however. It’ll be on the website ((FAO’s link is dead.)) in a couple of days. As ever, lots of interesting links, but the one that really caught my eye was an article on the success of Ugandan bark cloth on the international fashion scene. It was named a “masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2005. Called lubugu, it is made from the bark of Ficus natalensis. Interestingly, this species is an invasive in Hawaii. Elsewhere in the Pacific, they make bark cloth — tapa — from Broussonetia papyrifera, but the dyes come from a Ficus, among other species.

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