FEATURED VIDEO: Harnessing the Eco Superpowers of Bamboo

By Desmond Brown Reprint | | Print |

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Apr 28 2017 (IPS) - The bamboo plant can be found in abundance in several Caribbean countries, but the director of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), Dr. Hans Friederich, says its importance in dealing with climate change has been missed by many of these countries.
“Bamboo and rattan, to a lesser extent, have been in a way forgotten as mechanisms that can help countries both with mitigation of climate change and with adaptation. And I think, certainly for the Caribbean, for Jamaica, both aspects are important,” Friederich told IPS.

“Mitigation, because carbon is sequestered by bamboo. It is a plant, it does photosynthesis, but it happens to be the fastest growing plant in the world so the absorption of CO2 by bamboo forests is quite significant.”

INBAR has facilitated a trip to China for a group of Jamaicans to show them how the Chinese are using bamboo as a source of energy, as a charcoal source – to replicate that intelligence and that experience in Jamaica and help the island develop a bamboo industry.