Bamboo project benefit Sichuan farmers

Holding a computer keyboard made of bamboo, Markus Ederer was all smiles and said: "It is novel."

The EU ambassador to China was fascinated by the keyboard among many bamboo products on display in the Shangri-la Hotel in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, on Friday.

Markus Ederer, the EU ambassador to China, is fascinated by a bamboo computer keyboard, among the many bamboo products on display in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Friday. The exhibition was part of the closing ceremony for the EU-Switch Asia Project.  [Photo by Huang Zhiling / chinadaily.com.cn]

The exhibition was part of the closing ceremony of the EU-Switch Asia Project, which brings together the delegation of the European Union to China, the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, and the Sichuan Department of Forestry.

"After four years of implementation, I am pleased to see the project has achieved its expected results," Ederer said. "The past four years have also been a period of rehabilitation and reconstruction in the earthquake-affected areas."

The project was established to help residents cope in the aftermath of the magnitude-8.0 earthquake that rocked Sichuan in May 2008. Nearly 70,000 people lost their lives and millions were displaced from their homes during the disaster.

The project aimed to establish a sustainable supply chain for bamboo products and boost employment and income in the disaster-stricken areas.

More than 23,000 rural households in eight counties in Sichuan - all bamboo growing areas - benefited from cooperatives set up by the project.

"Disaster relief and rebuilding efforts put a lot of pressure on Sichuan’s natural resources," said Coosje Hoogendoorn, director-general of INBAR.

"This project helped manage these resources responsibly and has laid the groundwork for a mechanism for sustainable economic development in the area for years to come," she said.

"Bamboo is a very stable investment as an agricultural crop," said Robert Gorris, general manager of the Benelux Chamber of Commerce, Beijing. "It provides a continued income if sustainably managed, enabling it to become an important tool in diversifying investment portfolios."

In the future, INBAR hopes to be able to share the methods used in the project with partners around the world.

"The project addressed the triple bottom-line of the local communities - ecology, economy and society," said Lou Yiping, director of INBAR’s Environmental Sustainability Program. "The supply-chain model has the potential to benefit more communities in other bamboo producing areas of China and the world."