The Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), gathered in Mexico to design a global strategy for tackling climate change, has heard that bamboo can help drive the green growth that is needed to address the twin challenges of climate change and poverty.
Addressing the high level session of the climate summit, the Director General of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) called on negotiators to provide the tools and incentives to develop new
ways in which the world’s growing population can tackle climate change and development.
“The clearest message I’ve heard over the last two weeks is that we can’t separate climate objectives and development objectives,” said
Dr Coosje Hoogendoorn, who leads the first global intergovernmental organization to be based in China.
“Climate change is a MAD challenge; one that requires simultaneous action on Mitigation, Adaptation and Development. We cannot
underestimate the difficulty of combining these objectives, and we’d be naïve to think that we can maximize the outcomes of all three at the
same time. But we cannot separate them. And that is why the word, the acronym ‘MAD’ is so appropriate for the challenge we are facing.”
Hoogendoorn gave the example of elevated bamboo housing, which can simultaneously help communities _mitigate_ climate change by storing
carbon in the bamboo panels and beams and by reducing their reliance on more energy intensive building materials like concrete and steel;
_adapt_ to the impacts of climate change by providing safe homes that can withstand flooding and storm events; and achieve sustainable
economic _development_ by creating income and employment in harvesting, processing, transport and construction of the houses.
“The challenge of climate change is immense and complex, but the solutions don’t always have to be. Simple solutions like building bamboo houses can often make a difference.”
NEW RESEARCH FROM CHINA
The potential of bamboo to mitigate climate change by storing carbon has not been clear up till now. INBAR has released a new research
report at the Cancun climate summit - _Bamboo and climate change mitigation: A comparative analysis of carbon sequestration_ - which indicates that not
only can bamboo absorb carbon from the atmosphere at least as fast as similar, fast-growing tree species, it requires active management and harvesting to optimise its storage capacity.

“We carried out a comparative analysis of the carbon sequestration performance of bamboo, Chinese Fir and Eucalyptus, and so long as
bamboo forests are actively managed, they tended to absorb just as much, if not
more carbon than the other species,” said Dr Lou Yiping, Director of INBAR’s Environmental Sustainability Programme and lead author of the report. “What this means is we don’t have to lock up bamboo forests to capture the carbon. And this means income and employment.
China has over 5 million hectares of bamboo forest cover, for which estimates of total carbon stock range from 605 to 835 Teragrams.
China’s bamboo industry is by far the largest in the world, trading over US$1.4 billion in 2008, and employing an estimated 5.8 million people directly. Many more millions are involved in part-time or indirect employment involving bamboo.
“China’s bamboo industry leads the world, so we want to encourage the Chinese government to continue to prioritise bamboo in its low-carbon development plans,” added Dr Lou. “In this way, China could provide a model for green growth, which other developing countries can follow, that successfully links climate and development objectives.”
For more information or to arrange an interview with one of our spokespeople, please contact:
· Tim Cronin (English): tcronin@inbar.int [1]
· Violeta Gonzalez (Spanish): vgonzalez@inbar.int [2]
· Lou Yiping (Chinese - in Cancun): yplou@inbar.int [3]
· Jin Wei (Chinese - in Beijing): wjin@inbar.int [4]
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR BAMBOO AND RATTAN (INBAR)
INBAR is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to reducing poverty, conserving the environment and creating fairer trade using
bamboo and rattan. INBAR was established in 1997 and represents a growing number of member countries all over the world. Headquarters are
in China and there are regional offices in Ghana, Ethiopia, India and Ecuador. INBAR connects a global network of governmental,
non-governmental, corporate and community partners in over 50 countries.
For more information, go to www.inbar.int [5]
Links:
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[1] mailto:tcronin@inbar.int
[2] mailto:vgonzalez@inbar.int
[3] mailto:yplou@inbar.int
[4] mailto:wjin@inbar.int
[5] http://www.inbar.int/