TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Sept. 19 (PIA) -- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Bohol and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) partnered in a five-day pop-up exhibit showcasing bamboo and its by-products and the environmental premium of the fastest growing grass in the world from September 19-23 at the Island City Mall.

“Considered as perfect substitute for lumber, bamboo have more tensile strength compared to other forest tree species, its legendary carbon sequestration power is about 400 times compared to forest trees,” said Bohol Bamboo Council Chair and Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer, Forester Ariel Rica.

Bamboos have been used in construction, furniture, paper making, textile, pharmaceuticals and household items in a vast array of usability.

In construction, bamboo can be a scaffolding, a structural support, floorings, walls, ceilings and even roof.
With new technologies, engineered bamboo is making a revolution in building materials.

Bamboo forests have also enormous positive benefits on the environment as this productive plant efficiently stores carbon, absorbing more carbon dioxide than trees, and generates a vast amount of oxygen, at 30% more than most plants and trees.

The bamboo roots in the ground, which makes the soil more stable, is excellent in restoring the land and preventing landslides.

Bamboos also help protect biodiversity and endangered species by creating homes for a variety of different animals as bamboo forests save and protect the species living in the forest, by providing both homes and food.

At the expo, both agencies presented the agribusiness and processing potential of the bamboo in a bid to build a scaffolding for the efforts in strengthening the bamboo industry, through various agency-based initiatives.

Bamboo seedlings and planting materials are also available at the expo.

Rica said the agency has been focusing on developing the bamboo industry since 2011 until now.

“Since then, Bohol has expanded its bamboo production areas to 3,723 hectares, and since then, some 1,144 hectares of the plantation are now harvestable,” Rica said.

“With these, by the next expo, we can already see bamboo trunks, as these are perfect substitute for lumber,” he continued.

Even if these bamboos are planted within timberland areas, the DENR has awarded tenurial instruments to organizations planting these in Community-Based Forest Management Agreements, so they can be harvested, Rica added as he shared the DENR dream of allowing people living in the forest fringes as well as micro, small, medium enterprises (MSME) to gain income.

Rica said they are poised to award 73 of the more than 100 people’s organizations with the tenurial instruments for more bamboo production areas to support the project.

For the expo, Rica thanked the DTI for sponsoring the exhibit and assured the agency’s 100% support.

In her opening statement, DTI Bohol Provincial Director Maria Soledad Balistoy said “we wish to contribute to the development of the bamboo industry through capability building training for value adding, as the DTI also looks at the business and not just its livelihood potential.”

To support the needs of the MSMEs on furniture and bamboo crafts, DTI also facilitates in formulating bamboo industry development strategies, Balistoy said. (RAHC/PIA7 Bohol)