Bamboo Power: Ecological, Economic, and Cultural Value of a Remarkable Resource | InformativeBD

N. Kambale Ndavaro,  ADMT. Hegbe,  JD. Minengu Mayulu,  W. Muhindo Sahani,  SSH. Biaou, and AK. Natta, from the different institute of Congo and Benin. wrote a Review article about, Bamboo Power: Ecological, Economic, and Cultural Value of a Remarkable Resource. Entitled, Bamboos (Bambusiadeae): plant resources with ecological, socio-economic and cultural virtues: A review. This research paper published by the Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences | JBES. an open access scholarly research journal on Biodiversity. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences| INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

Bamboos (Bambusiadeae) are plant resources with several virtues and uses. However, the fragmentary, partial and dispersed aspect of the information relating to the benefits of bamboo does not make it possible to easily understand the potential of the latter, in order to promote their sustainability. This article reviews knowledge on the ecological, socio-economic and cultural importance of bamboos throughout the world in the light of the various studies that have been carried out on these subjects. Literature data show that bamboos play an invaluable role in environmental protection. They sequester large quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide, stabilize slopes against edaphic erosion and intervene in ecological sanitation. A privileged habitat for several animal and plant species, bamboos play a major ecological role in the conservation of biodiversity. In addition, bamboos represent an important source of income for many households. There are, in fact, several products made from bamboo, from textiles to paper and cooking. Bamboos are also used in housing construction, handicrafts and traditional medicine. Finally, in some societies, bamboos are among the plants that have become true cultural markers or emblems of human history. Considering the ecosystem goods and services of bamboos, it is necessary to promote their conservation on the basis of conclusive technical data. Thus, future studies should be conducted to identify current threats to bamboo worldwide.

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Introduction 

Bamboos (Bambusiadeae) are one of the largest groups of Poaceae and comprise about 75-107 genera (Bhatt et al., 2005) distributed between 1250-1600 species (Yuen et al., 2017; Polesi et al., 2021). Generally considered cumbersome and not very useful plants, bamboos are nevertheless among the most precious plant resources in the world, as they have several virtues and several uses (Kalanzi et al., 2017; Dje Bi et al., 2020). Indeed, bamboo contributes to the socio-economic development not only of marginalized areas, but also of urban environments (Somashekar et al., 2018; INBAR, 2020). All the organs of these giant grasses are used by humans for multiple purposes (Bitariho and Mosango, 2005; Hessavi et al., 2019; Dje Bi et al., 2020). Some ethnobotanical and ethnoecological studies report a diversity of uses of bamboo by populations in several countries in tropical regions (Kalanzi et al., 2017; Shahzad et al., 2021). Through their various uses, bamboos represent an important source of income and employment for many households, both rural and urban (Ramananantoandro et al., 2013; Dje Bi et al., 2017; Mridusmita, 2018). A privileged habitat for several animal and plant species, bamboos play a very important ecological role in the conservation of biodiversity (Bystriakova et al., 2004; Randrianarimanana et al., 2012; Safari et al., 2015). In the current context of global changes, bamboos contribute effectively to the protection of the environment (Ramananantoandro et al., 2013; INBAR, 2020) and also constitute an important element of the cultural heritage of several peoples around the world (Eblic, 2008; Dougoud, 2013; Guichard-Anguis, 2017).

However, the fragmentary, partial and dispersed aspect of the information relating to the benefits of bamboo does not allow us to grasp the enormous potential of these tall grasses. In fact, bamboos are still relatively little used in certain countries in the tropics where these giant grasses grow. Certainly, this comes from a lack of local tradition and technique for their use, on the one hand, but also and above all from a lack of documented information in a global, structured and very precise way on the multiple virtues of bamboos, on the other hand. These deficits of structured and precise documentation constitute a major limit to the optimal valorization of these phytoresources as well as to their conservation and sustainable management. To deal with this problem, this study takes stock of the state of knowledge on the ecological, socio-economic and cultural importance of bamboos in the world.

The interest of this bibliographic research is therefore operational. It serves to facilitate access to a greater range of information relating to the ecosystem services of bamboos, with a view to optimizing their uses and motivating human communities in the rural world of tropical regions to promote their sustainability, in order to be able to contribute effectively in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which aim, among other things, to eliminate poverty, hunger and ensure food security in the world (Dje Bi et al., 2020).

To achieve this, a documentary search was carried out on the Web using the search engines Google, Google Scholar, Scopus and ScienceDirect. The research equations were formulated using the following key words: Bamboos, ecosystem services, environmental protection, income, cultural heritage. In addition to these search engines, two bibliographic databases were queried, namely AGORA and OARE. As suggested by Gillet et al. (2016), books and scientific articles that were redundant and deviated from the research topic were eliminated, retaining only those containing as many bibliographic references as possible. This made it possible to select the references appearing in this bibliographical synthesis and whose automatic recording in Harvard style was done using the Zotero software. A total of 144 documents (articles, books and theses) relating to the importance of bamboo in the world were selected.

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