“The once lowly ‘kawayan’ has come of age!” I can’t think of a better way to start this paragraph except for the sentence above. Indeed, the bamboo’s time has come and it will only take few more advocates before it dominates the world.
This month, I had an opportunity to partner with Central Books Publish on Demand team to review this book titled Bamboo The Timber of the 21st Century written by Conrado S. Perreras. I must admit that this is very much different compared to my usual book reviews for this literary piece is a research about Bamboos and how it can be a sustainable replacement for any wood works. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the book itself when I first heard of the title but once I got hold of the actual book, I changed mind. I didn’t expect to receive a book printed in glossy and smooth magazine type of paper. And from that moment, I knew I’m about to learn a lot.
This book brings back memories from my childhood. Our dirty kitchen used to have bamboos as its walls and even some of our furniture are made of bamboos. In fact, there are bamboos planted near our house and we would occasionally see owls and big lizard called “bayawak”. I also remember how my dad used to cook “labong” or bamboo shoots, it has a very strange smell and taste but I eat it anyway. Looking back, I never really did fully understand the importance and relevance of bamboos, thankfully this book has opened my eyes for more possibilities that Bamboos can offer.
Technically, Bamboo is not a wood. It belongs to the grass family like rice and corn but it is almost categorized as such for it exhibits woody appearance, texture, weight, hardness, and strength. Bamboos are used as substitute for a lot of products made from wood. Bamboos are known to be resilient. They are often described to be strong and adaptable. They can overcome typhoons and fire and other environmental conditions. They have really fast growth rate and no serious known pest and diseases infestation. Apart from being a substitute to wood works, bamboos are also effective in controlling soil erosion and can be used in watersheds to aid in its water yielding.
All of these attributes has led the author to bring the Bamboo industry to a larger scale. After enumerating the characteristics of Bamboos and what it can contribute to our lives, Perreras then proceeded to identify the problems in the Bamboo industry that needed immediate attention. Few examples stated in the Chapter 4 are “a) Inadequate supply of bamboo poles. The current supply falls at least 33% short of demand. b) Bamboo producers are unaware of the significance of choosing the right species to plant. When deciding what material to employ for a certain bamboo product, species is a critical consideration. c) Techniques for propagating bamboo are not commonly recognized” among others. Another problem that Perreras pointed out is, the total land area covered by bamboo in the Philippines is insufficient to sustain a strong and viable industry. Perreras managed to list all these necessary details with supporting facts.
Although the bamboo has been steadily gaining a popularity in the wood works sector, there are things needed to be done. According to Perreras’ conclusion, plantations covering large enough areas of species shown to be suitable for generating the desired industrial goods are the most effective and practical method to provide a solution to the bamboo industry’s problem of insufficient raw material supply. Perreras recommended to only choose those species with proven economic value such as kawayang tinik, bayog, giant bamboo, bolo, and buho. And to fulfill the growing raw material requirements of the bamboo sector, the amount of planted bamboo should be raised to at least 125,000 hectares, or more than three times the current total.
Overall, this book is a great help to those who are very much interested in the Bamboo Industry most specially exporting them.
Great thanks to Publish On Demand and Central Books for allowing me to review this book.
Abookdevourer 
Reblogged this on Life Of Coco.
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