by : Mr. Edgardo "Ed" Manda

RCMC Project Director - Bamboo for Life Project

RI District 3830 Deputy Chair for Environment - Reforestation

With shared vision to save and preserve Planet Earth, the challenge promply and collectively undertaken by an entire community matters a great deal.

Rotary is one of the civic organization moving its members to act in savinf the planet on a long term. In 1917, Arch C. Klump, Rotary International sixth (6) President and Founder of Rotary Foundation, had in mind the future of next generations. In establishing the foundation, Klump envisioned : "We should think in terms of years and generations. Rotary is a movement for centuries."

At the forefornt of the bandwagon, Rotary positions itself with major and long term environmental projects through stewardship of Planet Earth.

The Rotary Club of Makati Central (RCMC) under RI District 3830 forwards bamboo advocacy for the future generation. RCMC has tapped government agencies, local government units, private groups, the academic community, chamber of commerce, and other Rotary clubs to sustain this endeavour to plant and propagate bamboo.

Planet Earth is in peril and mankind must act fast. The solution is to make it green again.

Our forest are denuded and watersheds are barren, causing massive flooding. Half of the Philippines'30,000,000 hectares are identified as forest areas and, of these, 1.382,881 hectares are proclaimed watershed reserves. However, as we see it, most of our forests need to be replanted now, or else..

But trees will take ten (10) to twenty (20) years to mature. Why not plant bamboo? Without doubt, bamboo is the fastest means to regreen our forests, as affirmed by our country's top foresters based in the University of the Philippines Los Banos, Laguna Campus.

Then Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes had the foresight to integrate bamboo in the country's reforestation program as a substitute to timber. And incumbent Environment Secretary Lito Atienza has recognized its significance in carbon sequestration.

Bamboo, which, by the way, is not a tree by a giant grass, can grow to as fast as four (4) feet a day, reach its ful height in about two (2) months, and fuly matures in four (4) to five (5) years. Some 1,500 varieties of bamboo grow naturally in temperature climates. Bamboo propagation requires very little maintenance, attention and capital.

More than 5,000 uses of the differnet parts of bamboo directly benefit people from Asia, Africa and South America.

In China alone, the production value of bamboo has contributed some $12 billion to the government coffers in 2006. The great vaue of bamboo was studied and validated by the Internationa Network of Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), a 35-country organization based in Beijing, China, that promotes sustainable bamboo deveopment for livelihood and environmental protection.

Often ignored and given little importance, bamboo is te most available abundant resource in the country side. Income can be derived from all the parts of bamboo in lesser time, as multiple harvest a year can be made from the second up to its 120th year.