Perhaps the environmental crisis' at hand have not
yet touched your life, but the time is shortly to
come. Recent NASA reports of a 60% loss of ozone over
the arctic provide an explanation for increased severity
in the worlds weather patterns which has only begun
to affect us whether directly or indirectly. The social,
political and economic implications are difficult
to imagine as our ozone layer continues to thin, forests
disappear and desertization is occurring at an alarming
rate.
BAMBOO
HAS AN IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY...
The earth desperately needs the attention and action
of us all or our children's children will surely not
have a world fit to live in. There is no one
solution but amazingly, the simple bamboo plant can
make a dramatic positive impact in many areas. It
is our goal to inform and raise awareness about "Bamboo,
People and the Environment" and provide the tools
and information to then respond in one's own way in
their own world. Every action counts, every person
counts...
ENDURING
THROUGH TIME...
Thomas Edison successfully used a carbonized bamboo
filament in his experiment with the first light bulb.
This light bulb still burns today in the Smithsonian
Museum in Washington DC. He also used a bamboo as
rebar for the reinforcement of his swimming pool.
To this day, the pool has never leaked. An unrivaled
utility, (One resource book lists over 5,000 uses
including paper, scaffolding, diesel fuel, airplane
"skins", desalination filters, aphrodisiacs,
musical instruments, medicine, food and was Alexander
Graham Bell's first phonograph needle
SURVIVING
THROUGH HARDSHIP...
Amidst death and destruction, bamboo survived the
Hiroshima atomic blast closer to ground zero than
any other living thing and provided the first re-greening
in Hiroshima after the blast in 1945.
GROWING
WITH STRENGTH AND SPEED...
With a tensile strength superior to mild steel (withstands
up to 52,000 Pounds of pressure psi) and a weight-to-strength
ratio surpassing that of graphite, bamboo is the strongest
growing woody plant on earth with one of the widest
ranging habitats of more than 1500 species thriving
in diverse terrain from sea level to 12,000 feet on
every continent but the poles. It also grows
the fastest: clocked shooting skyward at 2 inches
an hour. Some species grow one and a half meters a
day.
BAMBOO
PROTECTS THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE AIR WE BREATHE...
Bamboo is the fastest growing canopy for the regreening
of degraded lands, and its stands release 35% more
oxygen than equivalent stands of trees. Some bamboo
even sequester up to 12 tons of carbon dioxide from
the air per hectare. Bamboo can also lower light intensity
and protects against ultraviolet rays. Traditional
belief holds that being in a bamboo grove - the favorite
dwelling place of Buddha - restores calmness to emotions
and stimulates creativity.
Carbon
Sequestration Information
Net production and carbon cycling in a bamboo Phyllostachys
pubescens stand.
AU: Isagi-Y; Kawahara-T; Kamo-K; Ito-H
AD: Kansai Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products
Research
Institute, Momoyama, Fushimi, Kyoto 612, Japan.
SO: Plant-Ecology. 1997, 130: 1, 41-52; 48 ref.
PY: 1997
LA: English
AB: Phyllostachys pubescens is one of the largest
bamboo species with a leptomorphic (a type of rhizomatous
system with solitary culms scattered rather evenly)
root system in the world. The species originates in
China and has been naturalized in neighbouring countries.
It was introduced in 1746 into Japan because of the
economic value of the young sprouts and culm woods.
It escaped from the planted areas and expanded by
invading the native vegetation. In order to clarify
the basic ecological characteristics of the species,carbon
fixation and cycling were determined in a stand of
Phyllostachys pubescens in Kyoto Prefecture. The standing
culm density and average DBH (diameter at breast
height) in 1991 were 7100 ha-1 and 11.3 cm, respectively.
The above-ground biomass was 116.5 t ha-1 for culms,
15.5 t ha-1 for branches, 5.9 t ha-1 for leaves and
137.9 t ha-1 in total. The total above-ground biomass
is one of the largest among the world's bamboo communities.
The biomass of rhizomes and fine roots was 16.7 t
ha-1 and 27.9 t ha-1, respectively. Annual soil respiration
was 52.3 t CO2 ha-1, the highest among those
determined in Japan. The gross annual production was
high, at 32.8 t C ha-1, and allocation of annual
gross production to the root system was also
high at 11 t C ha-1 - 34% of gross production, and
46% of the fluxes out of the leaves. This pattern
of allocation results in a net annual above-ground
production of 18.1 t ha-1, which is within the
average range of productivity of forests under similar
climatic conditions. The correspondence of the
allocation pattern of the species with its successful
range expansion is discussed.
DE: asexual-reproduction; biological-production; biomass-production;
carbon-cycle; bamboos-; nutrients-; distribution-;
carbon-; photosynthesis-; stand-characteristics; biomass-;
cycling
AN: 950608033
TI: Carbon stock and cycling in a bamboo Phyllostachys
bambusoides stand.
AU: Isagi-Y
AD: Laboratory of Silviculture, Kansai Research Center,
Forestry
and Forest Products Research Institute, Kyoto 612,
Japan.
SO: Ecological-Research. 1994, 9: 1, 47-55; 42 ref.
PY: 1994
LA: English
AB: Gross production and carbon cycling in a Phyllostachys
bambusoides stand in Kyoto Prefecture, central Japan,
were determined, and then a compartment model showing
the carbon stock and cycling within the ecosystem
was developed. Aboveground carbon stock was 52.3 t/ha,
increasing at an annual rate of 3.6 t/ha. Belowground
carbon stock was 20.8 t/ha in the root system and
92.0 t/ha in the soil. Aboveground annual net C production
was 11.2 t/ha. Belowground annual net C production
was crudely estimated at 4.5 t/ha. Gross annual
production was estimated at 41.8 t/ha by summing the
amount of outflow to the environment and the
increment in biomass. Leaves consumed 13.7 t
C/ha per year by respiration; the rest (41.8 - 13.7
= 28.1 t C/ha per year) was surplus production
of leaves and flowed into the other compartments.
Annual amounts of construction and maintenance
respiration of aboveground compartments were 3.4 and
18.5 t/ha, respectively. The annual amount of
soil respiration was 11.2 t/ha. Soil respiration
levels of 4.3 and 3.1 t C/ha per year were estimated
for the flow of root respiration and root detritus.
The proportion of net to gross production was
37%, which fell within the range of young and
mature forests. A shorter life span of culms,
compared to tree trunks, resulted in smaller biomass
accumulation ratio (biomass/net production)
in the ecosystem, of 4.66.
DE: bamboos-; respiration-; biomass-; carbon-; models-;
carbon-
cycle; biomass-production; simulation-; cycling-
EROSION
CONTROL ...
A peerless erosion control agent,. it's net like root
system create an effective mechanism for watershed
protection, stitching the soil together along fragile
riverbanks, deforested areas, and in places prone
to earthquakes and mud slides. Because of their wide-spreading
root system, uniquely shaped leaves, and dense litter
on the forest floor, the sum of stem flow rate and
canopy intercept of bamboo is 25% which means that
bamboo greatly reduces rain run off, preventing massive
soil erosion and keeping up to twice as much water
in the watershed. Bamboo is a pioneering plant and
can be grown in soil damaged by overgrazing and poor
agricultural techniques. Unlike with most trees
proper harvesting does not kill the bamboo plant so
topsoil is held in place.
SAVING
RAINFORESTS ...
Bamboo is one of the strongest building materials.
Bamboo's tensile strength is 28,000 pounds per square
inch versus 23,000 pounds per square inch for steel.
In the tropics it is possible to plant and 'grow your
own home;. in Costa Rica, 1000 houses of bamboo are
built annually with material coming only from a 60
hectare bamboo plantation. If an equivalent project
used timber, it would require 500 hectares of our
diminishing tropical rainforests. Using bamboo to
replace timber saves the rainforests. With a 10-30%
annual increase in biomass versus 2 to 5% for trees,
bamboo creates greater yields of raw material for
use. One clump can produce 200 poles in the three
to five years. Bamboo generates a crop
every year.
A RENEWABLE
RESOURCE ...
Bamboo is a high-yield renewable resource: "Ply
boo" is now being used for wall paneling and
floor tiles; bamboo pulp for paper-making; briquettes
for fuel, raw material for housing construction; and
rebar for reinforced concrete beams. There are 1500
species of bamboo on the earth. This diversity makes
bamboo adaptable to many environments. It can be harvested
in 3-5 years versus 10-20 years for most softwoods.
Bamboo tolerates extremes of precipitation, from 30-250
inches of annual rainfall.
HOUSING
...
Bamboo related industries already provide income,
food, and housing to over 2.2 billion people worldwide.
There is a 3-5 year return on investment for a new
bamboo plantation versus 8-10 years for rattan. The
governments of India and China, with 15 million hectares
of bamboo reserves collectively, are poised to focus
attention on the economic factors of bamboo and its
protection. In Limon, Costa Rica, only bamboo houses
from the national Bamboo Project stood after their
violent earthquake in 1992. Flexible and lightweight,
bamboo enables structures to "dance" in
earthquakes. Go to the "Comparative Strength
of Bamboo or Grow Your Own House page.
FOOD
...
Bamboo shoots provide nutrition for millions of people
worldwide. In Japan, the antioxidant properties of
pulverized bamboo skin can prevent bacterial growth,
and it is used as a natural food preservative. Bamboo
:litter: make fodder for animas and food for fish.
Taiwan alone consumes 80,000 tons of bamboo shoots
annually, constituting a $50 million industry.
`Bamboo leaves are normally utilized as fodder during
scarcity. Young bamboo leaves and twigs are a favorite
meal for elephants and the Panda. D. strictus leaves
have (on dry matter basis) crude protein,15.09; crude
fiber,23.15; ether extract 1.43; ash 18.03; phosphorus-170
and calcium -1550 mg/100g respectively. Their digestible
crude protein
and total digestible nutrient contents are 93.34 and
48.9% respectively. The leaves of B.arundinacea have
crude protein 18.64;crude fiber, 24.1; ether extract
4.1; N- free extract 41.4; ash-11.75%; phosphorus-170
mg and calcium 56mg/100g respectively. The digestible
crude protein and total digestible nutrient contents
are 13.5 and 46.5% respectively. The protein contained
methionine and lysine. Copper and zinc are also found.
The nutrient contents differed significantly in samples
collected from high altitudes.
For B.vulgaris the figures are crude protein,10.1;crude
fiber 21.7; ether extract, 2.5 and ash, 21.3%; phosphorus-86,iron-13.4,vitamin
B1, 0.1;vitamin B2- 2.54, and carotene 12.3 mg/100g
respectively. The meal is used as a supplement to
vitamin A deficient diets for chicks '.
For further details contact either the Bamboo Information
Center in India -at KFRI -Tropical species, or The
Bamboo Information Center in China-at CAF,Beijing
- Temperate species.
AN ANCIENT
MEDICINE ...
Bamboo has for centuries been used in Ayurvedic medicine
and Chinese herbal medicine . Tabasheer, the powdered,
hardened secretion from bamboo is used internally
to treat asthma, coughs and can be used as an aphrodisiac.
In China, ingredients from the root of the black bamboo
help treat kidney disease. Roots and leaves have also
been used to treat venereal disease and cancer. Sap
is said to reduce fever, and ash will cure prickly
heat. A village in Indonesia reports that the water
form within the culm is used to treat broken bones
effectively and that the tabasheer is used to promote
fertility in their cows. Current research points to
bamboo's potential in a number of medicinal uses.
A LANDSCAPE
DESIGN ELEMENT & WASTE WATER SYSTEM ...
Bamboo is an exquisite component of landscape design.
For the human environment bamboo provides shade, wind
break, acoustical barriers, and aesthetic beauty.
"The Bamboo Forest is an ecological wastewater
utilization system that essentially grows away, waste,
producing a marketable crop in the process. Comprised
of a subsurface evaporation-transpiration bed planted
with bamboo and other rapid-growing, non-invasive
plants, the system is engineered to provide an aerobic
rhizosphere (the home of living organisms in the root
system), in which damaging polluting components are
transformed into plant nutrients" Go to the Discover
magazine article on Bamboo used to treat waste water!
INTEGRALLY
INVOLVED IN CULTURE AND THE ARTS ...
Bamboo is a mystical plant: a symbol of strength,
flexibility, tenacity, and endurance. Throughout Asia,
bamboo has for centuries been integral to religious
ceremonies, art, music, and daily life. It can be
found in the paper, the brush, and the inspiration
for poems and paintings. Some of the earliest historical
records form the 2nd century B.C. were written on
green bamboo strips.
As evidenced by all of the above qualities, bamboo
rightfully deserves its nickname, "the miracle
plant." The EBF in Indonesia and Holland and
the IBF in Hawaii strive to promote the use of bamboo
and educate others about the greatly misunderstood
and underutilized benefits of using and preserving
this plant. One of the main ways in which we hope
to accomplish this is through our educational and
agro forestry programs worldwide, our consultant services
and by your continued participation and support.
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