Using Bamboo In The Modern Economy

So, apart from it being the primary diet of pandas, bamboo is one of the most dynamic, fabrication materials available to mankind. It uses, availability and flexibility are second to none. Here is a short synopsis of the way in which bamboo is utilised on a world wide basis today.

  • Bamboo is not only highly fashionable for decorative purposes but useful too. As it is a viable replacement for wood, in Far Eastern countries, it is the primary building material. Bamboo is in fact one of the strongest building materials available and even provided the first re-greening in Hiroshima after the atomic blast in 1945. Bamboo's tensile strength is 28,000 per square inch versus 23,000 for steel. In the tropics it is even 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 indication of the strength of bamboo in cane form is the way it has grown to become an essential structural material in earthquake architecture. In Limon, Costa Rica, only the bamboo houses from the National Bamboo Project stood after their violent earthquake in 1992. Flexible and lightweight bamboo enables structures to dance in earthquakes.
     
  • Perhaps this is the reason bamboo is now a critical element of the economy. Did you know that bamboo and its related industries already provide income, food and housing to over 2.2 billion people worldwide? There is a 3-5 year return on investment for a new bamboo plantation versus 8-10 years for rattan. Governments such as India, China and Burma with 19,800,000 hectares of bamboo reserves collectively, have begun to focus attention on the economic factors of bamboo production.
     
  • Bamboo is also a useful soil conservation tool and an exquisite component of landscape design, providing shade, wind break, acoustical barriers and aesthetic beauty, along with it's anti-erosion properties creating an effective watershed, stitching the soil together along fragile river banks, deforested areas, and in places prone to earthquakes and mud slides. It has a sum of stem flow rate and canopy intercept of 25% which means that bamboo greatly reduces rain run-off, preventing massive soil erosion in the areas it is utilised.
  • • In the tropics it is even 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.