In recent years, increased consumer interest in corporate social accountability and environmental standards has encouraged the development of certification schemes for commodities, reassuring consumers and offering potential price premiums to commodity producers. On April 2, 2009, an international workshop on the Opportunities and Challenges of Certification for Commodities Harvested/Extracted by the Rural Poor was held. […]

This Working Paper explores how bamboos can help us a resource to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change by: absorbing and storing carbon; protecting forests and watersheds; insulating environments against extreme weather; providing low-cost, green housing and infrastructure; providing cleaner biofuels; providing renewable, sustainable resource for generating incomes; and increasing the range […]

This report examines in depth the situation China is facing through the loss of biodiversity in commercial bamboo forests in China.

Bamboo’s fast growth is one of its many attributes which make it a useful resource for mankind. It is also commonly seen as an indication of a high ability to capture and sequester atmospheric carbon and consequently mitigate climate change, in a similar way that trees do. This report analyses the work carried out to […]

The INBAR-implemented Bamboo Biodiversity Project was one of eighteen projects under the umbrella of the 2007 – 2010 EU-China Biodiversity Programme. Working in the commercially-important Phyllostachys pubescens (Moso bamboo) and endangered Qiongzhuea tumidinodia (Qiong bamboo) forests, the project developed a series of management methods that maintain high levels of biodiversity in the forests, whilst enabling […]