Why Bamboo? Bamboo has a role to play. Perhaps the environmental crises at hand have not touched your life, but the time will come. The earth desperately needs the attention and action of all of us 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 People, The Environment and Bamboo and give people the tools and information to then respond in their own way in their own world. Every action counts, every person counts...

AND BAMBOO HAS AN IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY. BAMBOO IS:

THE FACTS

BAMBOO IS:

The fastest growing woody plant on this planet. It grows one third faster than the fastest growing tree. Some species can grow up to 1 meter per day. One can almost watch it grow. This growth pattern makes it easily accessible in a minimal amount of time. It can be harvested in 3-5 years versus 10-20 years for most softwoods.?

A viable replacement for wood. Bamboo is one of the strongest building materials. Bamboo‘s tensile strength is 28,000 per square inch versus 23,000 for steel. In the tropics it‘s possible to plant and grow your own bamboo home. In a plot 20m x 20m2, in the course of 5 years, two 8m x 8m homes can be constructed from the harvest. Every year after that the yield is one additional house per plot.

An enduring natural resource. Bamboo can be selectively harvested annually. Bamboo provided the first re-greening in Hiroshima after the atomic blast in 1945. Thomas Edison successfully used a carbonized bamboo filament in his first experiment with the light bulb.

A renewable resource for agroforestry products. Bamboo is a high-yield renewable natural resource: ply bamboo is now being used for wall paneling, floor tiles; bamboo pulp, for paper making, briquettes for fuel, raw material for housing construction, and rebar for reinforced concrete beams.

An ancient medicine. Bamboo has for centuries been used in Ayurveda and Chinese acupuncture. 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. Current research point to bamboo‘s potential in a number of medicinal uses.

Integrally involved in culture and the arts. Bamboo is a mystical plant as a symbol of strength, flexibility, tenacity, endurance and compromise. Throughout Asia, bamboo has for centuries been integral to religions ceremonies, art, music and daily life. It is the paper, the brush and the inspiration of poems and paintings. Among the earliest historical records, 2nd century B.C. were written on green bamboo strips strung together in a bundle with silk thread. Instruments made of bamboo create unique resonance.