Guest guest Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from The Star Online URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2004/5/18/features/7959619 & sec=f\ eatures ________________________ Tuesday May 18, 2004 The Bamboo, a versatile plant By PAUL BROWN and PATRICIA REANEY With half of the world & #8217;s bamboo species in danger of extinction, what hope is there left for the panda whose diet consists of only bamboo? As many as half of the world & #8217;s 1,200 woody bamboo species, one of the planet & #8217;s most useful but least studied plants, face extinction because of forest destruction, according to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) in Cambridge, south-east England. In the first comprehensive study of the bamboo, scientists say that trade in these plants is worth as much as bananas or American beef, yet their value has been largely ignored. The extraordinary lifestyle of bamboos & #8211; individuals of each species flower once simultaneously every 20 to 100 years and then die & #8211; makes them difficult to study, and vulnerable to rapid deforestation. Bamboo, an ancient form of giant grass, is called the “wood of the poor” in India and the “friend of the people” in China because of its diverse use in everything from food and cooking to furniture, paper, musical instruments, boats and houses. Some species can grow at great speed, up to 1.2m a day. A single bamboo clump can produce up to 14.4km of usable pole in its lifetime. They are a major food source both for animals and people. The most famous animal which relies on bamboo for its survival is the giant panda, but many other specialist creatures, including a tiny bat that lives in bamboo beetle holes, the mountain gorilla, the lemurs of Madagascar and spectacled bears, all need species of bamboo to survive. The report Bamboo Diversity, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), maps for the first time the location of all the known species. The most alarming finding was that 250 woody bamboo species have less than 2,000sqkm (about the size of London) remaining within their ranges. It also pinpointed areas of high concentrations of bamboo in southern China, Madagascar, and parts of the south-east Amazon and Atlantic forest of Brazil. UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer: “Bamboos are some of the oldest and most fascinating life forms on earth with high economic and conservation value. Many curious and unique species depend on bamboo. The trade is very valuable but until now the status and condition have been largely ignored. “This new report highlights how vital it now is for the international community to take a far greater interest in these extraordinary plant species.” The lead author of the report team, Nadia Bystriakova said: “The & #8216;at risk & #8217; status of bamboo must be recognised and measures taken to slow the loss of forest in the areas where bamboo is vulnerable.” Co-author Valerie Kapos described the report as a global wake-up call and used existing knowledge about the range of bamboo species and combined it with current forest distribution to determine the impact of deforestation on bamboo species. “Now we need to look much more closely at the dynamics of what is going on. We need to look more closely at the processes that are threatening the species, determine which species are the most threatened, and take conservation action in the areas where those species are concentrated,” said Kapos, a WCMC ecologist. Many bamboos are grown commercially, particularly in China and other parts of Asia, but species that might be useful are in danger of disappearing before they have been studied. Ian Hunter, the director-general of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, an organisation set up to try to prevent bamboo from disappearing, said some species must be collected and conserved to avoid them going extinct. Peter Wyse-Jackson, Interim Chairman of the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation, has welcomed the report and comments that it is an important contribution to implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity & #8217;s Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which aims to halt the current and continuing loss of plant diversity. “By assessing conservation status, identifying areas important for bamboo diversity and in-situ conservation of threatened species, and providing information on the use of wild species, the Bamboo Biodiversity report contributes directly to implementation of the Global Strategy and achievement of its targets.” & #8211; Agencies <TABLE WIDTH= " 400 " BORDER= " 0 " CELLSPACING= " 0 " CELLPADDING= " 5 " ALIGN= " CENTER " BGCOLOR= " #FFCCCC " > <TR><TD>Bamboo Facts <li>Although very few bamboo species are listed as endangered by the IUCN-World Conservation Union, one third to one half of the world & #8217;s 1,200 woody bamboos may now be in danger of extinction because so little forest habitat remains within their ranges. <li>These include one African species, 10 endemic species in Madagascar and 95 species in the Americas that have less than 2,000sqkm of forest remaining within their ranges. Over 180 woody bamboo species in the Asia Pacific region have similarly limited amounts of natural forest habitat remaining. <li>Bamboos are important structural components of many forest ecosystems and play a major role in ecosystem dynamics through their distinctive cycles of mass flowering and subsequent die-off & #8211; in many species all individuals flower simultaneously (at intervals of a few years to decades depending on the species) and subsequently die. <li>Bamboos have over 1,500 documented uses, including housing, food, paper, handicrafts, irrigation systems and agricultural supports. <li>Worldwide, over 2.5 billion people trade in or use bamboo. Global domestic trade and subsistence use of bamboo are estimated to be worth US$4.5bil (RM17bil) per year and export of bamboo generates another US$2.7bil (RM10.2bil). <li>Contemporary architects are also using new techniques to combine bamboo with modern materials like reinforced concrete or steel to create some extraordinary structures including luxury housing, bridges and observation towers. In Colombia, for example bamboo is used as a building material instead of concrete in earthquake zones because it bends with the tremor and does not collapse. <li>China is the richest country in Asia in terms of bamboo resources with an estimate of 44,000 to 70,000sqkm of bamboo. Annual production of bamboo poles in China is seven million tonnes & #8211; one third of the total world production. China is also the leading exporter of bamboo shoots as food, worth nearly £100mil (RM680mil) a year. <li>In the Amazon, huge areas of forest are entirely dominated by bamboo. They may total as much as 180,000sqkm. & #8211; UNEP</TD></TR></TABLE> <p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2003 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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