making bamboo the timber of the 21...

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Making Bamboo the Timber of the 21st Century

A Report on Bamboo as a Sustainable Alternative Fiber

Report Contents

Bamboo Overview.................................................................................................

The Benefits of Bamboo ......................................................................................

Commercial Bamboo Farms ................................................................................

Environmental & Social Benefits ..........................................................................

Industrial Product Sectors ...................................................................................

Sustainable Value Chains ....................................................................................

Bamboo and Climate Change ............................................................................

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Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the grass family Poaceae. There are more than 70 genera of bamboo divided into 1,200 plus species, of which only around 50 species are routinely cultivated. Native bamboo grows in many parts of the world, including Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas.

Bamboo has two primary growth forms: (1) monopodial or running bamboo and (2) sympodial or clumping bamboo. Running bamboo have rhizomes that grow horizontally and generate an open clump with culms distant from each other. Clumping bamboo rhizomes are very short, emerging as close as possible to the parent plant and forming a dense clump of multiple culms. Neither form of bamboo is inherently invasive and both can be managed under commercial cultivation with simple controls in place to eliminate any potential spread of the bamboo.

Bamboo Overview

Growth Behavior is to Create a Bamboo Forest

Running Bamboo Clumping Bamboo

Growth Behavior is to Create a Bamboo Clump

Interesting Fact: Bamboo Seed

Bamboo has been slow to be commercialized outside of China. One of the main reasons for this is a unique flowering pattern, which has resulted in limited availability of planting material for larger operations.

60-120 Year Waitfor a Bamboo

Species to Flower

Parent Plant Flowersfor 3-5 Years Producing Lots

of Seeds

Parent Plant DiesOnce Seed

Production Ends

6 MonthsApproximate

Viability of Seed


Bamboo is the fastest growing land plant and has advantages over trees grown for timber:

• Whereas a hardwood tree reaches a harvestable size in 15-30 years, bamboo can be harvested within 5-7 years of planting.

• Cutting a tree for timber kills the tree, but as bamboo is a grass, cutting individual culms simply stimulates further growth.

• This growth pattern means that a portion of each bamboo plant can be harvested each year, with no replanting required.

• Harvesting of trees results in areas devoid of biodiversity as well as exposing soil to the elements. In contrast, once mature, a bamboo farm maintains a continuous canopy cover.

Bamboo’s high growth rate combined with the unique ability for annual harvesting and continuous stimulation of growth results in a single bamboo clump producing a far greater volume of usable biomass than traditional hard or softwood species.

EcoPlanet’s yields in comparison to traditional tree species (per ha / year)

Temperate Bamboo

50 tons

Eucalyptus

20 tons

Pine

17 tons

Teak

4 tons

Tropical Bamboo

80 tons

The Benefits of Bamboo


Like any other crop planted for commercial purposes, bamboo can be planted and managed sustainably, or not. Working hand in hand with governments, institutions and international organizations, EcoPlanet Bamboo has invested a decade into developing a stringent framework for what the term “sustainability” means with regards to bamboo farming.

Commercial Bamboo Farms

EcoPlanet’s bamboo farm in Nicaragua transformed from degraded land into a flourishing bamboo ecosystem.

Deforestation Free | Bamboo planting should never result in the cutting of forests or clearance of native vegetation.

Degraded Lands | Bamboo planting should be limited to the millions of hectares of land around the world classified as degraded.

Healthy Soils | Bamboo requires scientifically rigorous management regimes that ensure the long term health of soils.

Integrated Management | Many animals and pests feed on the high sugar content of bamboo, requiring integrated pest management.

International and already recognized certification schemes for sustainable forestry can assist in ensuring that bamboo maintains environmentally positive attributes.


Environmental & Social Benefits

Impacts Beyond Bamboo

Bamboo farms can create long-term, sustainable income for communities with little employment opportunities. These employment opportunities create indirect impacts on the communities at large as benefits trickle down through secondary opportunities leading to increased access to education, health care and better nutrition as income levels rise.

When bamboo is planted on degraded land its environmental impacts are vast. Its unique qualities contribute to environmental restoration and conservation in a number of ways. By harnessing bamboo’s benefits and utilizing it as a sustainable alternative to timber, bamboo has the potential to address critical environmental issues.


Challenge: Bamboo has traditionally been utilized in low level processed items, with a focus on handicrafts, crude furniture and some flooring. This has limited its potential and associated it with niche markets.

Opportunity: The true potential of bamboo fiber lies in its ability to be a sustainable alternative fiber for the four major industrial sectors that currently absorb the majority of the world’s wood and fiber supply.

Industrial Product Sectors

1 Hectare

80 MT Fiber / Yr

487,000

Toilet Rolls / Yr

34 million

70 Yr Harvest Cycle

Bamboo’s Potential

Case Study: Bamboo Toilet Paper

Absorbent paper products such as toilet and tissue papers represent a key consumer product sector that faces increasing demand as a country’s population moves towards greater spending power. Bamboo toilet and tissue papers provide an alternative to one of the greatest drivers of unsustainable forest use and waste production globally, with 40% of the world’s forests cut commercially for pulp and paper.

1 HECTARE OF BAMBOO WILL SAVE MORE THAN 30 HECTARES OF FOREST

ENGINEERED TIMBER

PULP & PAPER TEXTILES BIOENERGY


For bamboo to truly be the timber of the 21st century, it needs to be sustainable along the entire length of the supply chain:

Sustainable Supply Chains

Bamboo FarmsManufacturing

Technology End Products

• Degraded Land• Deforestation-Free• Sustainable

Management• Certified

• Low Footprint• Zero Waste• Biorefinery Concepts• Certified

• Replacements• Traceable• Price Matching• Certified

Sustainable Alternatives to Everyday Products

Bamboo can be produced into a wide variety of products, offering consumers the opportunity to switch to environmentally responsible options that offer the same quality at competitive prices.


Offsetting >13,000

Cars

In contrast to trees planted with the goal of harvesting, species of giant clumping bamboo provide a unique carbon benefit - harvesting does not kill the plant thereby reducing the carbon sink back to zero. Instead, the bamboo forest ecosystem increases in both above and below ground carbon sequestration and storage until a high per hectare long term average is achieved. At this point, despite selective harvesting, the carbon stored within the bamboo becomes a permanent sink, with the bamboo clumps having a lifetime of >80 years.

Moreover, bamboo contributes to both mitigation and adaptation measures while having a suite of indirect benefits.

Bamboo has become recognized as one of the most efficient biological tools for fighting climate change within a tangible time frame.

The plant’s growth pattern means that it can absorb higher volumes of carbon dioxide in a shorter period of time to planted trees, while non invasive harvesting techniques allow this carbon dioxide to be stored indefinitely. Given bamboo’s significant sequestration abilities, there will be a reduction of 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for every 1,000 hectares planted with bamboo. This is the equivalent annual emissions of over 13,000 cars.

Bamboo’s Contribution to Fighting Climate Change

1,000 HA Sequesters 500,000 Tons of CO2

Mitigation

Prevent Deforestation

Long term CO2 Capture &

Storage

Habitat Protection

AdaptationGenerate Livelihoods

for Vulnerable Communities

Reduce Temperatures & Create Micro-

Climates

New Products for a Low Carbon

Economy


www.ecoplanetbamboo.com

This report was sponsored by EcoPlanet Bamboo who are leading the industrialization of bamboo as a viable and environmentally attractive alternative fiber.

For more information on bamboo and how EcoPlanet Bamboo is making bamboo the timber of the 21st century, check out these videos:

1. EcoPlanet Bamboo - An Overview2. EcoPlanet Bamboo’s Case for a Bamboo Pulp Alternative for Paper and Packaging3. EcoPlanet Bamboo West Africa: Conscious Capitalism - Transforming Communities,

Landscapes and Industry

Learn More

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