A Ghanaian woman proudly shows bamboo bracelets made by a local community and promoted at an International Trade Fair organised by the Ghana Trade Fair Authority (COURTESY OF INBAR)

Africa's ability to achieve sustainable economic growth will depend on a functioning green economy capable of serving the needs of its growing population. As they work to create stronger economies that will bring jobs and prosperity, Africa's leaders are also facing a new climate reality: rising temperatures, drought and increasingly unpredictable rainfall.

Water scarcity, land degradation and the emergence of new pests and diseases are compelling them to act. African decision makers were active in the recent UN Conference of Parties (COP21) climate change negotiations in Paris, for instance--contributing ideas, exploring solutions and pushing for a settlement to reduce emissions.  

Sustainability was also at the core of discussions at the Forum on Cooperation between Africa and China (FOCAC) in Johannesburg. At the meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the next phase of China's strategic partnership with Africa, pledging $60 billion in sustainable development investment over the coming three years. This will add to the $3.1 billion that China has already committed toward South-South cooperation on climate change.  

As part of this growing economic partnership, China can help the continent mobilize a new green resource, which although widely available, has not yet reached its full potential. That resource is bamboo. 

China is the world's leading producer and processor of bamboo. From a subsistence crop three decades ago, the country's bamboo industry now generates around $30 billion yearly, and sustains more than 7 million jobs.  

Africa can build on Chinese expertise to develop its own abundant supplies of indigenous bamboo. Ethiopia, for example, has an estimated 500,000 hectares of indigenous bamboo. Other African countries have similar resources. 

Much of the bamboo development knowledge is shared by the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), the inter-governmental organization dedicated to improving the social, economic and environmental benefits of bamboo and rattan.  

Hosted by China and headquartered in Beijing, INBAR harnesses international expertise to develop bamboo sectors across Africa--18 of our 41 member states are African. Many are benefiting from the experience of Chinese agencies, such as the International Center for Bamboo and Rattan, the State Forestry Administration and the China Green Carbon Foundation.  

Over the past two decades, this cooperation has brought African experts and policy makers a wealth of practical knowledge on bamboo sector development, policy advice, and capacity strengthening in the areas of bamboo forest management and processing. That includes product development and design, and the creation of value chains to help develop local bamboo regions. 

The progress and growth of China's bamboo sector demonstrates how African countries can craft action plans for sustainable development using bamboo. Bamboo cultivation supports climate change mitigation and adaptation, land restoration and the creation of rural enterprises or larger businesses that could bring jobs and attract investment. 

For climate change mitigation, bamboo helps sequester carbon in many ways. It offers an alternative and highly renewable source of biomass energy, a substitute for wood fuel and charcoal, and for fossil fuels in power generation.  

Chinese experts teach locals in Ghana to use bamboo charcoal and energy efficient stoves. Bamboo provides a clean and renewable alternative to wood and offers communities a source of revenue from charcoal production (COURTESY OF INBAR)

Its production also drives local business and economic growth, and bamboo value chains link rural and forest communities to national and international markets. This economic importance is likely to increase as other forest resources come under increasing pressure, and as the imperative to mitigate climate change fosters less dependence on fossil fuels.  

Bamboo provides valuable 'environmental services' to countries and communities. The plant is used for rapidly restoring severely degraded lands. It thrives on problem soils and steep slopes that are unsuitable for other crops; forms an effective windbreak to reduce the erosion of precious top soil; and with sturdy roots, helps bind soil and regulates water flows. 

Bamboo also helps rural communities become less vulnerable to climate change once they include it in their sustainable forestry and agroforestry systems. Its rapid growth makes frequent harvesting possible, which limits exposure to disaster, and allows farmers to flexibly adapt their management and harvesting practices to new growing conditions as they emerge under changes to the climate.  

This resource will not solve all Africa's development problems, but in regions where it grows abundantly, it can offer significant benefits.  

Recently, we had the pleasure of welcoming to China nine mayors from forest towns in Cameroon to see for themselves the potential benefits of bamboo industries. They were truly surprised at the vast array of products that Chinese producers were making with bamboo-- from household items and crafts to high quality furniture, industrial pipes for high pressure water and chemical transfer, and many other items.  

While they will probably not be building a bamboo piano like the one they saw in our offices in the near future, the seed is planted. These local policy makers said that they now see the bamboo that grows in their local forests as a way to create local jobs, and especially, to kick-start youth employment. 

These interactions raise the question of how we can best transfer know-how to African communities. An effective approach that INBAR is using is the 'triangular south-south-north' partnership, which combines the transfer of Asian and Chinese expertise with marketing skills from wealthy consumer markets where the trend is toward green and environmentally-responsible products.    

The International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) is now facilitating a new initiative between the Netherlands, China and three African countries--Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. It links China's wealth of experience in harnessing bamboo for local market development and poverty alleviation and improving rural livelihoods, with the Netherlands bamboo sector expertise in areas such as production, marketing and standards.  

Elsewhere, a project in Ethiopia and Ghana developed bamboo firewood and charcoal production as an alternative to traditional fuel wood from trees--helping to slow crippling rates of deforestation in both countries.  

By the end of the initiative, over 600 hectares of new bamboo had been planted, over 10,000 hectares of existing stands had been placed under sustainable management, and the project had trained 4,000 individuals in bamboo cultivation, carbonization, and briquette production and use. The result: production of 500 tons of bamboo charcoal and usage in 10,000 households.  

Bamboo is also being used as a pioneer species to support a major land restoration initiative in Ethiopia, restoring degraded land at multiple demonstration sites over the next four years.  

As INBAR emerges from the COP21 meeting and countries develop their climate change action plans, it has a unique opportunity to ensure knowledge transfer in this field. These plans, which specify where countries will focus their mitigation/adaptation efforts, will help identify the areas where bamboo can add significant value--whether it's increasing forest cover, reducing land degradation, or supporting climate-smart agriculture.  

Commitments expressed at FOCAC further demonstrate the emergence of a strategic China-Africa partnership that African countries can tap into to realize this potential. If sustainability is to be a defining characteristic of China-Africa relations, bamboo needs to play a more prominent role.  

The author is the Director General of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan

Copyedited by Mara Lee Durrell

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