Bennett: The bamboo initiative

Saturday, July 16, 2011

MALAKAS and Maganda put great value on the bamboo as part of Philippine literature. To convert them now into the Malakas and Magandang economy would be even greater with the outcome of the Baguio-Benguet Bamboo Initiative that is inspired by the Philippine Bamboo Foundation with Benguet Congressman Ronald Cosalan, Baguio Congressman Bernardo Vergara, and Bishop Carlito Cenzon.

The Lin'an Province experience in China inspires the leaders to take up bamboo forestry to mitigate the soil erosion and pollution in these parts. These serious problems were part of the Lin'anwake up call in the early 1970s. After 40 years and almost afforesting 70 percent of their area, Lin'an doesn't only have carbon credits to sell to industrial areas but also a growing USD 11 billion from the scientific production of bamboo varieties that produce an array of products that are sold in the world market.

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China has been leading in the use of bamboo for afforestation because bamboo was not recognized as a forestry species because it is a grass and not a tree. Until they showed the world that poverty can be resolved in the farms by giving families by-products that could be sold at high value for food and other needs, no one accepted bamboo as a plant that could sequester carbon and also produce a livelihood.

Ed Manda, president of the PBF, challenged Baguio and Benguet to duplicate the China experience in three years by way of putting up nurseries so that planting materials could be shared among farmers. He challenged the farmers with the post card image of Kennon Road that could look like a province in China where bamboo was the main vegetation.

Bishop Cenzon mobilized the parishes to set up nurseries too, if only to share the plantlets with more parishes until all are able to cover patches of erosion prone areas with an erosion control variety.

But the more interesting part is when the Cordillera watershed restores its forest cover with the bamboo that they can readily harvest for domestic use but most of all that can earn them dollars if regularly produced to make floor boards or housing materials.

As the forest cover is restored, the Cordilleras will then be in a position to sell the carbon credits to the industrial countries as payment for their sins of pollution. As the water becomes clear when it flows down to Pangasinan, it will also not run dry. This would mean that more resources can be supported with the increased water supply and mitigation of erosion. The juju may return to our streams and rivers.

It makes perfect sense to use the bamboo. I look forward to the next three years of regreening our environment. No more ketchup mountains and no more threats to lives and properties.

Wouldn't it be grand to see this in my remaining lifetime a conservative USD2 billion from these mountains. Malakas and Maganda would not only be legends but become the name of the economic status of Baguio and Benguet.