Bamboozled by Bamboo
While it is heartening to hear that two years (See “Bamboo resumes its ancient glory under major production drive” in Business Times, Sept. 23 issue) had been spent studying the viability of establishing a 10,000-hectare bamboo monoculture, one wonders as to what the two years of study has yielded.
Bamboo trees
It has obviously missed the fact that bamboo is a shallow rooted plant being a type of grass that does not lend itself to recharging the aquifer as efficiently as the native forest. In fact if one visits the bamboo monocultures in India, Viet Nam or Indonesia it becomes very clear that these monocultures exclude the original biodiversity of the place, from birds and other animals to the medicinal plants and non-timber forest products of people.Bamboo monocultures will not compensate in any way for the forests that Sri Lanka has lost. The loss of forests in Sri Lanka cannot be addressed through the establishment of monocultures be it Bamboo, Pinus or Eucalyptus. The history of Bamboo as pointed out seems to suggest that the rural community abandoned from working with Bamboo because of fear of official reprisals. If that is the case, just releasing the plant from official control will ensure its use in the rural landscape no major project is neededThe figures projected to suggests 10,000 hectares (ha) of land that is supposed to provide 80,000 jobs. But once the bamboo is planted there will be only a few jobs in maintenance as it takes a few years for maturity, further 10,000 ha
of bamboo monoculture if in the dry zone will become an enormous fire hazard as the dry spells due to climate change intensify.
In short, huge bamboo monocultures will not help this nation in any way. The problems these will create will far outweigh any benefits so one wonders what use this project will be for Sri Lanka. I will welcome a response from Dr Kentaro Aoki, Associate Expert, UNIDO or if interested I will be glad to debate Dr Kentaro on any public platform on the value of this project for Sri Lanka. (The writer is a well-known environmentalist and chairman of Rainforest Rescue International, a grassroots environmental group).
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