Bamboo planting on Brasil and world economy

Bamboo offers several economical advantages:

1. Fast growing
Propagation of a bamboo plantation, after stablished, is very fast. Plantation stablishment time takes up from five to seven years, and an individual bamboo gets mature in three to four years, fastest than any tree. After the third or fourth year you can already start collecting shoots and culms. Bamboo can produce 10 tons/ha or more per year. Bamboo can replace wood in many cases, diminishing ambiental impact with deforestation.

2. Stablishing, managing and yielding ease
Bamboo does not need complex technics to be stablished as a plantation. Managing is done by irrigation, without poison control. Each yield makes bamboo stronger and can be done with manual tools. Transportation is easy, for its lightness.

3. Adaptable utilities
Bamboo can be used as a substitute of agronomical products in marnial areas, to opmize production of more valuable crops, as sugar cane. Its varied industrial potentials turn bamboo into a dynamic resource, being transfered to the desired production at the moment. Can be used as fuel, paper, construction poles, food, etc...

4. Ecological mean
Bamboo is a ecological responsible material ("ecologizer"), because renew great part of worlds air, helps clean polluted water and soils, and substitute wood in several aplications.

5. Cultural insertion
Bamboo is already very exploited and known in Asia, pushing a seven billion american dolars each year. One billion people live in bamboo houses over the world. Cultures use bamboo in many aspects of life, death, music, feeding, rituals, etc...

Bamboo is taken as a, economical development mean in many countries. In Nepal and Philipines there is big bamboo forestation programs, to stimulate local economy and produce paper, food and habitation. China and India have big and old bamboo forests, and keep planting. Hawaii is trying to develop a bamboo forestation project to create jobs for a mass of sugar cane plantation unemployed. Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica develop national bamboo projects, with forestation and development of a popular bamboo habitation culture, to replace wood.

Greenhouses and Nurserys

There is bamboo nurserys spread all over the world, where one can find many species. Generally specimens are sold for collection, gardening and landscape planning. In this case beautifull and exotic species are choosen. In Brazil there is few specialized nurserys, but a great number deals with bamboo. Mainly in São Paulo, where many japanese gardeners passed their bamboo tradition ahead. At present we see many studies about in vitro bamboo propagation, producing thousands of propagules. These studies are essential to industrial enterprises that use bamboo as a resource. Search in links area, at nurserys section to get acess to many nurserys web sites.