Bamboo and Rattan Development in China

Bamboo and rattan as important multipurpose plants can provide food, shelter, clothing, tools, and many other basic needs for both the subsistence and income generation for thousands upon thousands of people living in the developing world.

Bamboo, previously called the "Poor Man's Timber" or later the "green gold", is a good substitute for wood. Management of bamboo resources can make great contribution to alleviate deforestation while meeting the great demands for wood products. It is good raw material for a whole range of products from industrial/engineering applications (construction, pulp and paper, composite products) to household utilities (farming tools, furniture, etc.). Bamboo shoots are a valuable food source as well. Besides the productive purposes, bamboo can be widely used in watershed management, soil conservation and the like, thus making great contribution to environmental protection.

Bamboo is deeply rooted in Asia's culture and civilization. Ancient Chinese started to use bamboos from about 7,000 years ago, and many Chinese words created based on bamboos were found from the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shell of the Shang Dynasty (16^th- 11^th century B.C.). Chinese history and culture have been recorded on bamboo slips for almost 800 years so that the Chinese characters, which are characterized by pictographs and expressing meaning, could be fixed. Since the creation of the writing brush and paper making from bamboo in the Ching and Jing Dynasty, a distinctive Chinese calligraphy art has been formed. Later, bamboo paintings, carvings, weaving handicrafts were produced, which further developed Chinese 'bamboo culture'.

Rattan cane is a good raw material for furniture, handicrafts and other products with great commercial value. As rattan mostly occur in the tropical forests, it is considered as one of the most important Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) from tropical forests. With the increasing global environmental pressure due to deforestation and other causes. Rattan can be one of optimal solutions for alternative income generation in implementation of any natural forest conservation programs.

Bamboo and rattan, as "minor forest products" called traditionally, contribute much for the rural households well beings. However, the use of bamboo and rattan has been much expanded and is moving upmarket, contributing to national and international economy quite a lot. It is estimated that the production and the national /international trade values of China have reached US$ 2 billions. There are around 32000 processing enterprises (1992) where the employee reached 758,700 and among them, 60-70% are women.

Forest area in the world, especially in tropical and subtropical regions, is dramatically reducing due to heavily damaging by human being. On the contrary, in some Asian countries, the area of bamboo stands is raising continuously. Especially in China, the increasing rate of pure bamboo stands is 2.45% (average of 30 years). If including the mixed bamboo forest in remote high mountainous region, the total area reaches 6.8 million hectares, which are ranging from tropical, subtropical to temperate zone and in both alpine and plain area.

Unite: million ha.

Based on the end uses or function, all the bamboo stands in China can be divided into 5 types.

3.1.1. Bamboo timber stands

It is pure bamboo stands and mainly produces bamboo culm, from which 12 million tons/year of culms can be harvested. Among them, half of each will be used for farmers and for commercial purpose respectively. Because of different management, taken there, such stands can be further divided into 3 kinds as follows (Table 3).

a. Stands of intensive management. It occupies 15% of the total pure stands, the productivity of which is around 7-10 t. /ha.yr and the maximum in the best site can be 35 t. /ha.yr.

b. Stands with mid-level management. About 25% of the total, the productivity of which is 3.5-6.9 t./ha.yr.

c. Stands of extensive management. It is 60% of the total and usually over harvested. Its productivity is around 1.5 t. /ha.yr.

3.1.2 Bamboo shoot stands

Intensively managed pure stands for producing edible shoots. There are more than 50 fine species in China, which can produce edible shoots, but usually Phyllostachys edulis, Ph. Praecox, Ph. Vivax, Ph. Iridenscens, Dendrocalamus latiflorus, D. Oldhami, D. Giganteus, D. Beecheynus var pubescens etc. are adopted.

The area of real bamboo shoot stand is only 100,000 hectares, the productivity of which is around 10-20 t. /ha.yr. but the maximum can be 30-35 t. /ha.yr. The other 3 million hectare stands can produce both shoots and culms. It is because of environment stress and some other reasons during the growth period, and about 45-60% shoots will be died back. If harvested them before their death, the shoots can be used as vegetable or for processing other edible products. The total shoot yield is around 1.9 million tons in China.

3. 1.3. Bamboo pulp stands

The species adopted for bamboo pulp stands are: Phyllostachys, Pleioblastus, Bambusa, Dendrocalamus, Sinocalamux and Chimonobambusa.

3.1.4 Bamboo stands for ornamental purpose

The total annual output value from bamboos amounts to 16 billion RMB Yuan, among which just the culms and shoots' are 7.8 billions of RMB Yuan with fast increasing over time (see Table 6).

(output: Million Tons; Value: Million Yuan)

The value of international trade was 439 million US dollars in 1995, including 155 million from bamboo shoots product and 164 million from weaving bamboo products. But the export of bamboo shoots only occupied 18.9% of the total shoot products and the others are for domestic consumption while the export of the weaving arts/products reached two thirds of the total production.

The success of bamboo production and economics development is because of the economical system changing and policy reform in the latest two decades, the progress of which is as follows.

In 1979 China initiated the major policy reforms that paved the way for a transition from a centrally planned to a market economy (Hu and Jiang, 1993). This change unleashed one of the largest development efforts ever undertaken, with worldwide repercussions. In less than two decades, China moved from an autarchic peasant economy to an incipient industrialized country with an export-oriented economy. Over the past 15 years the economy grew at 9.3% annually, the GNP multiplied by 2.78, and export trends are increasingly positive in recent years (World Bank, 1996; World Bank, 1997; Yatsko, 1997).

The backbone of the transformation of the agricultural sector was the shift from collectively run farms based in the commune to family farms based on the "household responsibility system" (Prosterman and Hanstad, 1990). The basis of the household responsibility system is a transfer of land use rights by the commune or natural village to farmers from that village to manage the land for their own benefit. Forestry is an integral component of rural economics and land use systems in mountainous areas of China. As such, the agricultural reform also triggered a parallel reform of the forest sector. Forestry reform has been in three stages (Li, 1996; Ruiz Perez et al., 1996). The first stage, from the end of 1978 to October 1984, focused on reforming the forest management system, through implementing the household responsibility system for forest lands. The second stage, from October 1984 to the end of 1991, changed the resource allocation system, removing restrictions imposed by the traditional system on forest management by farmers, in particular the practice of monopolized purchasing. The third stage, since 1992, has concentrated on improving macroeconomic conditions and accelerating the market mechanisms. Several trading centers for timber and other forest products have been set up and the price for more than 90% of timber is now determined by the market.

This reform, however, had to face some specific challenges derived from the size of forest holdings and the nature of forest activities. Therefore, the incentives and land right arrangements for forest management frequently had to be modified from the standard arable land arrangements. These modifications included:

a. development of specific forest use right documents;

b. allowing longer term leases and the possibility to contract large areas, especially for reforestation of degraded or waste lands;

c. establishment and enforcement of management standards (in order to guarantee an appropriate tree cover and to prevent degradation of the resource stock); and

d. provision of some (albeit limited) financial incentives to induce farmers to reforest.

Within this general framework, forest policies show a high degree of variability among provinces or even among counties in the same province.

One of the observed trends has been the replacement of some older plantations that had declining production after the second or third rotation, notably the Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) and some species of Pinus, with new types of plantations characterized by shorter rotations, more ability to respond to market demands and higher income. Bamboo is one of the most popular plantation species wherever natural conditions allow and there is a market opportunity.

So nowadays in most of the bamboo production areas, the shifting system of mountainous lands has been tested, which will make the policies more perfect for promoting bamboos.

China's rattan resources are limited, which cannot meet the needs of processing industries. Every year, China imports a great amount of raw canes. The average annual import, from 1991 to 1995, was 27,470 tons valued at 31.57 million US dollars. Rattan products were also imported, 2.29 million US dollars were spent for import of rattan products in 1995. At the same time, the export of Chinese rattan products was growing. The export value of recent years increases quickly, from 52.12 million US dollars in 1991 to 118 million US dollars in 1995. But in general, Chinese rattan products are mainly produced to fulfill the need of the domestic market. The analysis showed that China's rattan resources are far to reach the needs from rattan processing industry, anyhow, those industries have given working opportunities.

Besides, the policy mentioned for bamboos is also suitable here.

Figure 3 shows a basic structure of institutions that are engaged in bamboo and rattan related research activities.

From Figure 3 it is clearly shown that there are three different sectors involved in bamboo and rattan related research activities. The key sector is the State Forestry Administration (formerly the Ministry of Forestry). The Chinese Academy of Forestry, as the national forestry research center, holds the key role in coordinating and carrying out bamboo and rattan related research activities through out the country. At the same time, forestry universities and colleges are major partners. At this core part, strategic research and applied research were the priorities. At the provinces in bamboo/rattan producing areas, bamboo and rattan researches were also carried out by the provincial institute of forestry or forestry colleges. In most cases, more applied research were carried out at provincial level. Another key research force in bamboo and rattan is the system of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In most cases, the research institutes in botany, geography, and the like are the key ones engaged in bamboo and rattan research. The CAS system involved more in basic research such as taxonomy, biological and ecological properties etc.. Besides the CAS and SFA system, there are also other sectors in material/industry/socioeconomics involved in bamboo and rattan oriented researches.

Bamboo and rattan as multipurpose forest plants, especially bamboo, have produced the most important NWFPs in China. Because of the hard working of researchers, producers and managers in many years, they reached a certain level right now. When the new century is coming, if we want them to develop sustainablly and raise to a higher new step, we have to take science and technology as the first productivity to continue more researches in this sector.

Based on the situation in China, the author propose that for bamboo some studies as following could be taken up.

Redefinition of current inventory work and taxonomic fieldwork could be defined in terms of a much-needed database linking:

1) taxonomic research and the production of country and regional monographs;

2) ethnobotanical information including utilization aspects;

3) data from research on correlations between species and their properties; and

4) incorporating data from urgent strategic work on patterns of diversity using experimental methods.

Both basic and applying researches in this area should be considered. Therefor, the results can reach a higher new step than before, for so many past studies have already laid out a quite good foundation.

• Basic researches may be involved in:

1) mechanism and function of bamboo stands' soil and water conservation, which could be in various levels such as in natural stands, plantation, bamboo and tree mixed stands, different soil measures and various rainfall types etc.;

2) photosynthesis of bamboo stands and its effects on the world carbon balance, which includes relationship among photosynthesis, transpiration and environmental factors i.e. temperature, humidity, CO₂, light, especially when the concentration of CO₂ is increasing what the short-term and long-term effects are to light, bamboos' physiologic-ecology and carbon sequestration.

3) bamboo-agroforestry and its soil and water conservation function, which includes principles for model improving, soil and water control capacity and adjustment regulation for high-stable yield etc..

• Applying researches may include:

1) Ecosystem management technology for the recovery and maintainance of stability of long-term site productivity for both natural stand and plantation, which includes the techniques of long-term site productivity evaluation, predication, adjustment, and ecological function maintainance, especially focusing on the recovery of degraded land, soil microbes and enzymes.

2) Ecological management model for high yield and efficient, optimum, orientated cultivation technology, which should be involved in mechanism modeling of physiological conformity, utilization of function, yield dynamic modeling and model establishing techniques of high yielding and efficient stands.

Bamboo is a perennial plant with one gregarious flowering in its life and the long cycle of flowering has given great difficulties in its breeding. Even though some studies on chromosome, pollen, etc. have been carried out yet the systematic breeding study is less touched. Nowadays, some high techniques such as molecular bio-technology are mature, which can be adopted for accelerating the improvement of bamboo germplasm so some studies on population selection, provenance test and crossing should be laid out for giving more genetic variation to selection and obtaining superior varieties and clones.

Best way for conducting researches in this area is involvement and participation of producers and government managers, which not only encourage farmers to pay much attention to production and cultivation of market because of the benefits they can obtain from their activities but also awake governments to improve their policies for promoting bamboos. Those researches can be a case study in small area or a global cooperative one in several countries for sharing the best experience through comparison.

For rattan some following researches could be considered.

1) Collection, conservation, evaluation and utilization of rattan germplasm resources in the world;

2) Introduction of external fine commercial rattan species, especially those with larger diameter, for which the proper propagation techniques should be studies; and

3) Population and individual selection and breeding, and genetic improved seed orchard establishment technology.

1) Selecting proper species of rattan and tree for intercroping;

2) Establishment of optimal intercroping model with proper spacing, intercroping proportion, patterns etc.; and

3) Sustainable management techniques with harvest age, intensity, rotation and soil loosening etc..

1) First processing techniques of raw materials in field;

2) Raw material preservation and reprocessing technology;

3) Design of new products; and

4) Utilization of by-products such as rattan tips and fruits.

Anyhow, ' Fine species' (including superior varieties, provenances and clones), ' optimal cultivation methods' and ' best economy and policy situation ' are the most important three factors for sustainable management of bamboo and rattan based on the auther's experiences. But if we want to develop them sustainablely, some more factors, e.g. processing, information, training and disease and pest control, should also be considered and studied sufficiently.