Nairobi, October 31 (Xinhua) — Overview | China Kenya Bamboo Industry Technology Transfer Cooperation Helps Kenya Turn Bamboo into a “Treasure”
On October 31, the United Nations Environment Programme International Ecosystem Management Partnership Program, together with the China Africa Joint Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the local government of Kenya, launched a bamboo planting training and technology transfer project in Bushia County, Kenya, to promote the sustainable development of the country’s bamboo industry and turn bamboo into a “treasure”.
Busia County is located in western Kenya, adjacent to Lake Victoria, and has abundant forestry resources. The project, titled “Enhancing Livelihoods and Coping with Climate Change through Ecosystem Restoration: China Kenya Bamboo Technology Transfer Cooperation,” has received support from the Kenya Wildlife Research and Training Institute, the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, and relevant universities and institutions in China and Kenya, and is expected to benefit thousands of farmers.
Wang Guoqin, the project manager of the International Ecosystem Management Partnership Program of the United Nations Environment Programme, stated that the project aims to enhance people’s awareness of the ecological protection of bamboo forests, thereby improving the quality and scale of Kenya’s bamboo industry and promoting local socio-economic development.
According to the 2020 Global Forest Resources Assessment report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, bamboo is mainly produced in Asia, the Americas, and Africa. However, due to the lack of awareness and utilization technology of the value of bamboo in many countries and regions, the utilization rate of bamboo is relatively low. For example, dozens of countries in Africa have natural bamboo forests, but most of them have not been valued and the bamboo industry has not been developed.
China is the country with the richest bamboo resources in the world and one of the earliest countries to develop and use bamboo. In China, the bamboo industry covers a wide range, from papermaking and scaffolding to luxury flooring and food production, where bamboo is used as a raw material. At the opening ceremony of the Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation in 2018, China proposed to build a China Africa bamboo center to help Africa develop bamboo and rattan industries. This has become the fundamental principle for Chinese forest scarecrows to carry out bamboo and rattan cooperation with Africa, striving to help African countries turn “bamboo” into “gold”.
According to Lou Yiping, a project technical expert and professor at Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University in China, the technology transfer cooperation project of China Kenya Bamboo Industry is expected to cover an area of 100 hectares and will generate huge ecological and economic benefits. He said that after multiple field visits, training, bamboo product exhibitions, and so on, Kenyan farmers have learned about the bamboo industry. Nowadays, many farmers actively learn and plant bamboo, hoping that this project can become another business card for China Kenya cooperation.
Dan Opilio, the official in charge of environmental and climate change affairs in Busia County, Kenya, expressed gratitude for the arrival of Chinese experts. He said that although Kenya has a lot of bamboo, due to the lack of advanced concepts and technologies, most farmers only use bamboo to build fences, and it is difficult to become rich by guarding the bamboo forest for a long time. We hope that China’s advanced concepts and technologies can help Kenya transform its bamboo resources into commodities that benefit farmers and promote sustainable social development. “Opilio believes that large-scale bamboo planting will also help Kenya achieve its” 15 billion trees “planting initiative.
Zud Ogura, a farmer from Busia County, said, “I didn’t know bamboo could be used to make musical instruments, furniture, and so on. It wasn’t until Chinese experts came to Kenya to teach bamboo industry knowledge for free that I realized how precious bamboo is.” He said he would humbly learn Chinese concepts and techniques and plant bamboo on his 3-hectare land at home.
It is reported that the technology transfer cooperation project period of China Kenya Bamboo Industry is from 2024 to 2026. The project plans to pilot the restoration of bamboo forest riverbanks, summarize and promote the experience, and improve Kenya’s ecological restoration and socio-economic development capabilities, making contributions to China Africa cooperation and the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.