There are numerous efforts, large and small, to plant trees to absorb C02 to slow climate change. Bamboo trees don't often figure in these campaigns.
They should, as they are fast growing and can play an essential role in agroforestry. Especially in low-income countries, agroforestry is the key to providing incentives to plant and conserve trees, including bamboo.
Bamboo is an important part of rural life in much of Asia. This includes Nepal. It is eaten when young and used as a building material when mature.
Bamboo plants are abundant in the Sano Damar community in eastern Nepal. As with trees in the Amazon, Indonesia and other countries, bamboo in Nepal is often cleared to make way for agriculture. In addition to eliminating carbon absorbing plants, clearing bamboo increases the risk of soil erosion and, with it, flooding.
One way to prevent wholesale destruction of bamboo plants is to provide villagers with an incentive to protect and maintain them—and even plant more of them.
The key is to turn bamboo into a cash crop.
World Neighbors and its local partner teach communities how to plant and manage bamboo to produce surplus to sell in local markets. Techniques are built around organic methods that limit water use. The trees are tended, harvested and sold for building and other uses.
At harvest, a family grosses 45-80 US dollars. Since input costs are extremely low, profits increase household income by 5-10%.
Even more, families are trained to plant and harvest vegetable and fruit trees in their bamboo "forests." Fertilizer and pesticides are organic, made from household and animal waste. Specific planting techniques, similar to those used in the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), minimize water use. More, and more varied, produce grown among bamboo enhances nutrition and food security. Surplus is sold in local markets. Given the very low production costs, profit margins are high. Produce sales can increase family incomes by an additional 10% or more.
