KUALA LUMPUR: Participants of a seminar here have been urged to come up with ways of reviving the rattan and bamboo industries.

This comes in the light of the dwindling supply of rattan and bamboo from forests the past 10 years due to over exploitation and loss of forest to development.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas said the shortage of rattan had resulted in a decline in the number of processing mills.

"The impact of rattan shortages has led to partial or even total replacement of furniture components by other materials such as plastic," he said at the opening of the "Rattan and Bamboo Seminar 2008: Towards a Better Policy in Enhancing the Rattan and Bamboo Industries in Malaysia" on Tuesday.