Development & Aid, Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

DEVELOPMENT-CUBA: The Bamboo Revolution

Dalia Acosta

HOLGUIN, Cuba, Jan 31 2005 (IPS) - Bamboo has been used for centuries in Cuba to build fences, gates, corrals and hunting traps, but now the island’s farmers are learning more about the multitude of practical uses and environmental benefits that make this plant a vital resource in other regions of the world.

Furniture, handicrafts and even a house constructed of bamboo are the most visible fruits of a local sustainable development project being carried out in the eastern Cuban province of Holguín by the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (COSUDE).

"Campesinos have to see something to believe it. If they can’t see it and touch it, they won’t accept it," said Miriam Peña, a Cuban biologist who has been involved with the project for over ten years.

One of the main objectives pursued by Peña and her colleagues has been to change the traditional ideas that have been passed down from generation to generation over the course of centuries.

"It was quite common for bamboo plants to be growing in the corner of people’s yards and going completely unused," she noted.

Today, however, "bamboo is recognised as an economic resource, a source of income, and a means of protecting the land. Campesino families know that if they plant bamboo, there are industries that will buy it. A new economic sector is emerging," she said.

Bamboo is the name used for any of the tall, fast-growing grasses with woody stems that make up the Bambusoideae subfamily of the Poaceae (grass) family of plants. There are roughly 1,035 species grouped into 90 genera, and seven of these species are found in Cuba, including four that are native to the island.

Bamboos grow in a variety of regions and climates around the world, and form a very hard yet lightweight wood. They are perennial plants, and most importantly, they grow to maturity with extraordinary speed.

"While a wood-yielding tree can take between 15 to 20 years to grow, bamboo needs barely five years. It also protects the soil and river basins: wherever there is bamboo growing, rivers don’t dry out, and the water is potable," said Peña.

As a result, the project’s benefits are numerous and varied, ranging from the creation of a sustainable source of both wood and employment to the protection of the soil and the habitat of a large number of animal species.

Evelio Torres has sown a veritable bamboo forest, "plant by plant", in the Mayabe Valley, located on the outskirts of the city of Holguín, the provincial capital.

The land it occupies was once badly eroded and practically lifeless. "But now the birds and reptiles have come back," Torres told IPS.

This bamboo "plantation" is used as a demonstration area for both teaching and research purposes. It is also home to a germplasm bank that can produce up to 50,000 seedlings annually, enough to sow 200 hectares.

A similar area has been set up in the eastern section of the province of Holguín, and in the vicinity of both, small local industries are being developed for the production of furniture, crafts and plywood made from bamboo.

In Holguín, a province with numerous municipalities in mountainous regions, almost 80 percent of farmers are members of ANAP. And of the province’s 29,880 registered ANAP members in late 2003, a total of 2,088 were women.

One of them, Mayda Sablón, told IPS that bamboo had changed her life. After three months of training, she was made the director of a workshop for the processing of bamboo and the manufacture of furniture and crafts. The workshop also employs 11 other women.

"At one point it was suggested that men should run the cutting machines for the processing of the stalks, but we women said that we could do that part too, no matter how difficult it was. We can’t let the men have everything," said Sablón.

Most of the women employed in the workshop in the community of La Palma, located 20 kilometres from the city of Holguín, were homemakers until they became involved in the bamboo project. The local farming cooperative only called on them when extra labour power was needed for harvesting.

According to Peña, in addition to providing jobs for women, the project has also given them a greater voice in decision-making within the community.

The furniture they produce is already being used in the local daycare centre and other community facilities, and the project also encompasses the sale of bamboo crafts in three kiosks set up on the side of the highway outside La Palma, which leads to the beach resort of Guardalavaca, one of Cuba’s most popular international tourism destinations.

Nevertheless, the highest expectations for the project are linked to a house in the cooperative that is reminiscent of traditional rural homes in Cuba, but is in fact highly innovative.

Midemnys Rodríguez and her husband, Ramses González, built the house they have been living in for the past year with their own hands. The furniture, lamps, decorations, roof beams and even the walls are all made of bamboo.

"We used to live in a little old wooden house on this very spot. Now we’ve planted bamboo next to our new house, so if the roof or a piece of furniture ever needs fixing, we’ve got the materials right in our own backyard," said Rodríguez.

There are plans to build another 20 bamboo houses in the community.

"These houses are capable of standing up quite well to intense weather conditions like heavy rains and hurricanes, for a period of around 30 years," said José Fernando Martirena, a professor in the department of construction at the Central University of Las Villas, in central Cuba.

Experts believe that an expansion in the cultivation and processing of bamboo could meet 75 percent of the Caribbean island’s need for wood to build new housing.

A processing plant planned for the community of El Sitio in eastern Holguín alone could eventually produce 500 cubic metres of plywood a year for use in home construction projects.

Peña believes that the possibilities offered by bamboo are endless. "And once people get hooked on it, they’re devoted to it forever," she told IPS.