World Bamboo Day is observed every year on 18 September
World Bamboo Day was founded by Kamesh Salam as former president of the World Bamboo Organisation in 2009 at the 8th World Bamboo Congress held in Bangkok. September 18 is observed as the World Bamboo Day by the World Bamboo Organisation, in order to generate awareness about conserving and promoting the bamboo industry. World Bamboo Day was founded by Kamesh Salam as former president of the World Bamboo Organisation in 2009 at the 8th World Bamboo Congress held in Bangkok.
An event conceived by the World Bamboo Organization to raise global awareness of the thousands of resources of this extraordinary plant and to sensitise the public on the great current global challenges in which bamboo can play a decisive role as a protagonist: environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality, food, replacement of plastic and polluting building materials.
Why is Bamboo Special?
Bamboo, commonly mistaken for a tree, is a grass that belongs to the Gramineae family.It grows naturally in the tropical and subtropical belt and is commonly found in Africa, Asia and Central and South America. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world and has over 1500 uses ranging from construction to clothing and its shoots are a delicious substitute to the typical vegetable.
Bamboo has water retention, water purification, soil conservation and carbon sequestration properties and produces 35% more oxygen than trees. It absorbs 3-5 tonness of carbon per hectare making it vital for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Bamboo has been a tool for economic liberation for rural communities. Its numerous strengths influence the ecological, social and economic status of these communities where bamboo cottage industries thrive.
Bamboo is a special plant because it is a self-generating natural resource with shoots growing annually. There are over 1200 species grown worldwide. The utility of bamboo has increased tremendously in the last decade with both cottage and large scale commercial industries growing as a result.
The Global Bamboo Story
In China, bamboo has been used for different purposes like construction, as food and medicine for centuries and the modern bamboo industry has grown rapidly since the 1980s. By 1999, trade was estimated to be worth USD 4.5 billion, expontentially growing to an estimated USD 60 billion per year in 2015. Advances in technology has led to production of value-added products like pulp and paper, activated carbon for energy , flooring ( construction material) and textiles. This diverstifation of products has seen China’s domestic bamboo market alone reach a value of USD 32 billion, improving millions of peoples livelihoods and generating over 7 million jobs.
India has the World’s second largest Bamboo resource and the largest area under bamboo plants, covering 13.96 million hectares with over 8.6 million people in India dependent on bamboo for their livelihood. The pulp and paper industry, construction, food, fuel, fodder and medicine annually consume about 13.4 million tonnes of bamboo equating to over USD 400 million.
Many other countries in Asia have historically utilized bamboo for culinary, decorative, construction and medicinal purposes like Indonesia, Nepal, Japan and Philippines. Parts of South America are catching up with planting of large commercial plantations in the last few years. The Netherlands is the world’s largest bamboo importer making Europe the largest import market for bamboo products in the world accounting for over USD 0.5 billion of annual international trade.
Bamboo in Africa
Much of sub-saharan Africa has indigenous bamboo and suitable conditions for planting other species. East Africa’s bamboo is largely untapped and contributes only 1% to the global bamboo market despite the region accounting for around 3-4% of the world’s total known bamboo coverage. Reasons as to why bamboo farming has not been popular within Africa and in Kenya for a long time include; lack of awareness, inadequate technology and the lack of policy that favours commercialization of bamboo. However, this is changing with a number of countries in Africa leading the bamboo revolution like Ghana, Ethiopia and Kenya. Action plans have been put into place to ensure bamboo plays a key role in Africa’s economic green growth plan.
Ethiopia has the largest bamboo resource and sector in Africa, with approximately 1,000,000 hectares of bamboo and over 500 urban bamboo micro-entrepreneurs distributed throughout the Country. The sectors mainly have artisans that produce furniture and handicrafts for sale in the domestic market. A few factories are producing charcoal and wood flooring making it a leader the large scale commercialization of bamboo.
bamboo flooring
In West Africa, Ghana is a leading the bamboo revolution, substituting fuelwood for more efficient bamboo charcoal as well as innovating new products from bamboo such as the world renowned bamboo bicycles. Bamboo is now being recognized in Africa as a green solution that addresses issues of climate change, poverty, rural-urban migration, food security and youth unemployment.
