NGO "ANOTHER WAY" (STICHTING BAKENS VERZET), NETHERLANDS, SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED SELF-FINANCING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES

“Within the bamboo villages, bamboo has proven to be an important resource to the majority of households at all income levels, although the specific role it played in livelihoods varied according to the socioeconomic status of the households.” (Hogarth N.J and Belcher B., The contribution of bamboo to household income and rural livelihoods in a poor and mountainous county in Guangxi, China, International Forestry Review, Vol. 15 (1), 2013, Commonwealth Forestry Association, Craven Arms, 2013.)

The use of bamboo for afforestation and reforestation (AR) projects within the framework of integrated development projects is important for CDM financing under the Kyoto protocol.

For information on the potential of bamboo for CDM AR projects see : Lobovikov, M., Yiping, L., et al, The poor man’s carbon sink. Bamboo on climate change and poverty alleviation, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Forestry Department, Non-Wood Forest Products, working document no. 8, Rome, 2009. This work contains a complete bibliography with some 160 references. Another good resource is Yiping L. Yanxia L. et al, Bamboo and Climate Change Mitigation, International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), Beijing, 2010.

The annual productivity of bamboo varies from 5 to 12 tonnes of biomass per hectare with some 2000-10000 shoots or culms per hectare. This corresponds to 9 to 22 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year. Small-scale projects cover up to 15000 tonnes of CO2 per year. This means that the plantation area required is a minimum of 1700 hectares for full density planting (10.000 culms per hectare) to a maximum of 9000 hectares for minimum density planting (2.000 culms per hectare). At about Euro 14 per tonne CO2 (14^th November 2009), income from a small-scale bamboo AR project can reach Euro 210.000 for 15000 tonnes of CO2 savings per year, or Euro 1.470.000 over a CDM payment period of seven years. This alone is 39% of the initial formal money cost of an integrated development project. The payment period is limited to seven years because the plantation reaches full maturity then, and any new growth is offset by systematic harvesting. Apart from the initial CDM income, bamboo plantations provide on-going value added and productive occupations for the local populations.

An integrated development project will usually have about 200 local development units, each with up to 50 families (up to 250 people). Bamboo has surface roots and be watered during dry seasons. Each unit will need to attend to a minimum of 6.8 hectares and a maximum of 36 hectares, depending on the density of planting, with about 13.600 plants. In drier environments less intensive plantations can be expected, so an area of roughly 650m x 650m (about 40 hectares) can be foreseen. Plantation maintenance, harvesting and on-going processing of the harvested bamboo creates numerous occupational possibilities but, when combined with work needed for other afforestation and reforestation (AR) applications, will fully stretch the physical resources of the local populations. Each bamboo plantation is a long-term on-going enterprise, and extensions to the bamboo initiative are not foreseen.

Since the bamboo projects generate CDM income over the short term, that is during the first seven years of operation, the income from each project area’s bamboo plantations will usually be dedicated to the repayment of the initial capital costs of the integrated development project in question. After repayment of the full initial capital amount, residual income is paid to the Local Cooperative for the on-going management and maintenance of the project structures. All the inhabitants in each project area are automatically members of the Cooperative. The Cooperative may decide either to distribute the funds to its members and/or use the funds for the extension of the structures it provides.

Assuming the execution of up to 2500 integrated development projects for West Africa (excluding Nigeria and Ghana) the scheme for bamboo plantations would produce at least Euro 3.675.000.000 in all. General application of the concepts in Nigeria would deliver roughly the same benefits. Poor countries do not pay CDM registration and issuance costs. The amounts cited above are, however, subject to the deduction of DOE (designated operational entity) validation and verification costs. It is assumed these can be reduced to a nominal figure within the framework of a widely applicable general convention of the type foreseen.

2. Bamboo cultivation : water requirements.

A disadvantage of bamboo cultivation is that it needs a good supply of water, which is not always available in developing countries, especially in arid and semi-arid areas.

For ecological reasons, integrated development projects do not provide for industrial-level or extensive irrigation schemes. This means that available rainwater in water-scarce areas might need to be supplemented by labour-intensive hand-fed drip irrigation, possibly through the recycling of urine and grey water from households.

For more information on water requirements of bamboo crops and their yearly distribution see Aspects of Bamboo Agronomy, Kleinhenz B. and Midmore J., Academic Press, North Rockhampton, 2001.

Minimum annual rainfall requirements for bamboo are indicated at 1000 mm., but higher rainfall levels are preferable. The distribution of water supply according to specific growing phases is important. Bamboo plants have shallow, bushy roots which are good for holding and stabilising moisture in the soil. At the same time, if they are allowed to dry out, bamboo production will be low.

Typical planting densities are 1000-2500 plants per hectare (monopodial species) and 150-300 clumps per hectare (pachymorph species) on an areas of typically 650m x 650m. Bamboo plants respond well to the application of all types of organic manures. Charcoal from bamboo itself fixes carbon in the soil and retains water and soil nutrients.

For more details refer to part 4 of section 09. CDM funding indications for the selected applications and methodologies.

3. The main features of bamboo.

“Bamboos provide raw material for about 1500 known commercial products (Scurlock, Dayton et al. 2000). These range from handicrafts, such as woven baskets, to edible bamboo shoots produced by about 200 species, to high value industrial goods, such as pulp, paper and textiles, bio-fuels, charcoal, housing, panels, flooring and furniture (Lobovikov, Paudel et al. 2007) ” [Lobovikov, M., Yiping, L., et al, The poor man’s carbon sink. Bamboo on climate change and poverty alleviation, cited above, p.13.] Where they are used to produce durable goods, large percentages of carbon savings are retained over a long term in the products. Note, however, that harvested wood products are still not accepted for carbon accounting under the Kyoto Protocol, though this issue is under discussion.

Bamboo plantations produce wide-spread occupational possibilities.

Flowering of bamboo plants should be avoided. Like other grasses, flowering may be the end of the life cycle of some bamboo species and may lead to death of the plant and loss of the sequestered carbon. However the average flowering interval of bamboo is in the region of 30 years.

Bamboo attributes for climate change ” [ from Lobovikov, M., Yiping, L., et al, The poor man’s carbon sink. Bamboo on climate change and poverty alleviation, cited above, Table 3, p.28]

Attribute	Advantage	Disadvantage

Short rotation.	Early returns; flexibility in land use and high nutrient exports; high frequency of adaptation to climate change; consequence of losing stand; smaller needed for sustained-yield operation; fits well into crediting periods and tCER concept; fits capital intensity; short exposure to risks.	Lowers potential site-degrading interventions, e.g. area compaction; no l-CERs.
Continuous yields.	Continuous economic returns, employment, labour demand.
Uneven-aged management .	Multitude of products; no clear-cuts; less soil nutrient losses and site deterioration; weeding, herbicide use, establishment-stage risks.	Difficult access to interior of sympodial clumps; lower more difficult monitoring; thinning rules.
Persisting rhizomes after culm harvest.	Low decline in biomass and carbon store: easy regeneration.	May impede intermittent or subsequent agricultural use.
Plethora of products.	Very high conversion efficiency, low conversion losses; flexible reaction to market fluctuations; continuous economic benefits along supply chain from cottage industry to large-scale industrial production.
High appeal to consumers.	High economic returns for bamboo products from T-shirts to medicines to floor panels.
Wood substitute.	Reduces demand for timber.
Establishment vegetatively .	Cheap, easy, independent of seed years.
Labour intensive.	Creates employment or self- employments; sensitive to rising wages at industrial scale capital extensive; employment for women, youths.
Light when air-dry.	Manual skidding and transport, animal use, no soil compaction.
Possible integration into agro-forestry schemes.	Reduces slash and burn agriculture and/or deforestation; opportunities for climate change adaptation; synergies mitigation/adaptation.	Allelopathy (“invasion of other plant systems”) possible.
May species, worldwide distribution.	Adaptation to specific sites and climate change possible; use as introduced species; overlap with CDM countries.
Rapid below-ground growth.	Site reclamation and organic matter and carbon accumulation.	Possible invasiveness; slope failures on dense root mass.
C3 – plant.	Increases production at higher CO2 concentrations .	More sensitive to drought than C4 plants.
Anatomy and physiology.	Low ash-, silica- and water content as bio-fuel.	Challenging carbon monitoring; emissions of methane and NMVOC; cyanide content.