Sunday, May 06, 2007

2007 Bamboo Study Tour in Zhejiang and Sichuan Province, China








15-24 April 2007
East African Bamboo Project is a bamboo project in Ethiopia and Kenya funded by Common Fund for Commodities, implemented by UNIDO and monitored by INBAR. As request of the project, INBAR organized 2007 bamboo study tour in Zhejiang and Sichuang provinces of China together with the project. There were 18 participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Australia, Malaysia, India and Netherlands, including Mr. Ahmed Nasser, the State Minister of Ethiopian Ministry of Rural Development and Agriculture and Permanent Sectary of Kenya Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource and Dr. Coosje Hoogendoorn, Director General of INBAR.
In Zhejiang we visited some leading bamboo flooring manufacturers like DASSO(who produced bamboo fire-proof ceiling in Madrid international airport, which won 2006 Sterlinz prize. DASSO is producing bamboo veneer for 70,000 BMW cars’ interior decoration), Yafeng(who produces strand woven bamboo lumber and floor), Yongyu(bamboo floor), Shengbang(bamboo concrete form), Xieqiang(bamboo curtain and mat); modern Kangxing bamboo shoot processing company, Shenshi Bio-product company(bamboo extract like flavonoid, bamboo beer), Jianzhong bamboo charcoal company(charcoal and vinegar), some primitive processing workshops(bamboo strips), Huachun bamboo furniture company, Jitai bamboo processing machine company and Anji bamboo product market(several hundred bamboo products including bamboo clothes). We also visited the biggest bamboo botanic garden in the world, Anji Bamboo Garden, which has more than 300 bamboo species, and Chinese Bamboo Museum in this garden; High-yield bamboo plantation, bamboo film production base and eco-tourism sites, ornamental bamboo nursery, Baisha eco-tourism village,Hangzhou West Lake and China Silk Museum in Hangzhou. We visited some bamboo research institutions like The Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry of Chinese Academy of Forestry, Zhejiang Forestry College(visiting bamboo products showroom, bamboo charcoal, bamboo tissue culture lab).
We had dialogues with local politicians and experts on bamboo sector policies and technology by two workshops in Zhejiang Forestry College and Anji County Government. In the workshop in Anji we had dialogues between some local bamboo enterprisers and our tour participants, which encourage the enterprisers to invest in other bamboo production countries like Africa and Malaysia etc.
Invited by Mr. Wang Chao, the Assistant Minister, Ethiopian delegation had visited Ministry of Commence of China.
In Chengdu, Sichuan province, we visited Wangjiang bamboo park(near 200 bamboo species), Living Water Park(which shows waster water treatment by plants and biotechnology), Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda, world famous Dujiangyan Water Project and INBAR bamboo handicrafts training base in Qingshen.
The participants were deeply impressed by the economic benefits, social benefits and the ecological benefits that brought about by bamboos, specially the great achievements by Chinese bamboo sector. Many government officials from East African countries expressed their eagerness in learning Chinese bamboo experience to promote the bamboo industry development in their own countries. Participants suggested INBAR to organize this kind of tour in the future.


















No comments: