Bamboo: The Secret Weapon in Forest and Landscape Restoration?

Being a supplier of many bamboo products I thought I’d share an article from the World Resources Institute about the beauty of this plant and it’s part it plays in helping our world.

 

An article from the World Resources Institute
http://www.wri.org/blog/2014/02/bamboo-secret-weapon-forest-and-landscape-restoration

In the world of forestry, bamboo doesn’t always get the credit it deserves. Dismissed as a weed or marginalized in traditional forest management, bamboo could actually play an important role in forest and landscape restoration. With adequate attention, investment, and the right standards in place, it could become a major renewable and sustainable crop—if we can update our outmoded view of it.

Perceptions of a natural resource often shape how it is used. In this case, bamboo’s problem can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries. The advent of modern agriculture and modern forest management changed the European approach to plant management. Forests became a commodity valued as “timber,” while other plants were divided between “crops” (valuable plants) and “weeds” (unwanted plants).

This framing has persisted into modern times, and leaves little space for bamboo. Stuck somewhere between forestry, horticulture, and agriculture, bamboo doesn’t fit neatly into any category. Many years later, international forestry institutions still tend to overlook bamboo as an important natural resource.

Bamboo: Versatile, Renewable, and Overlooked

This is unfortunate, considering the role bamboo could play in alleviating some of the demand on forests. In the midst of climate change and rapid global development, we face an urgent need to provide innovative responses to natural resource use.

Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on the planet. With approximately 1,400 species, it is highly versatile and rapidly renewable. Long used as a timber alternative for furniture, charcoal, crafts, and food (in the form of bamboo shoots), new technologies are extending bamboo’s value in flooring and construction, for pulp and paper, viscose and rayon fabrics, and even in the construction of wind turbines.

Yet bamboo’s potential continues to be overshadowed by outmoded policies. In order for bamboo to compete with established commodities in the global marketplace, it needs to adhere to recognized standards of sustainability. Yet those standards, such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, have fallen short amongst bamboo practitioners who wish to see bamboo recognized as having specific management requirements as a grass and not a tree. Moreover, because bamboo plantations are often in areas of low economic development, it can be difficult for farmers to shoulder the associated costs of a certification like FSC.

In response, the Rainforest Alliance is developing an alternative natural fibers standard, open to public review until March 17, 2014. Creating a recognizable, accessible sustainability standard for bamboo farmers in the marketplace could spark new development of bamboo industries. Should this standard become a certification scheme, however, there is no guarantee that it will alleviate the significant challenges inherent in third-party certification standards for smallholders. Much work still needs to be done to create equitable, global standards for bamboo small-holders.

The Potential for Bamboo Forest and Landscape Restoration

Bamboo could also play an important role in the growing field of forest and landscape restoration (see map). To date, around 47 percent of the world’s potential forest area has been cleared or degraded to make way for crops, cattle, cities, and roads. The 2011 Bonn Challenge calls on governments to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020. As a native species across tropical, sub-tropical, and some temperate areas bamboo could contribute significantly to restoring degraded landscapes.