Overview
There is a push at the national and international levels to (re)introduce perennial species into cropping and ‘at-risk’ lands, capitalising upon their ecosystem service properties of containing soil and water erosion, protecting soil carbon reserves and sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide on a real-time basis. Bamboo is one such species. It has extensive social and economic importance in Asia, and it is gaining ground in Africa and Latin America. In Australia, it was introduced over the past 20 years as a potential plantation species, principally for bamboo shoots but also for timber, while in the Philippines, bamboo culms (poles) are a poor-person’s resource at the household level, and it is also commercially exploited. ACIAR funded research in Australia and the Philippines aimed to identify production practices that lead to sustainable harvesting of shoots and/or culms from newly established or old and degenerated stands of bamboo. Co-sponsored by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), a symposium was organised in November 2006 in the Philippines, to provide an opportunity for researchers to present their findings. The peer-reviewed papers contained herein provide an opportunity to fully report on the research. They will act as a valuable resource for people interested in the sustainable production and use of bamboo.
