Life-giving bamboo stocks under threat

By MICHAEL McCARTHY

Bad news for the giant panda - many types of bamboo, the bear's staple food and one of the world's most important plant families, are in trouble because of massive deforestation, a study reports.

As many as half of the 1200 woody bamboo species may be in danger of extinction because of the continuing destruction of their forest habitat, says the report.

As a result, large numbers of unusual and vulnerable animals that depend almost entirely on bamboo for food and shelter - not only pandas, but a range of species from lemurs and mountain gorillas to the world's smallest bat - face an even greater struggle for survival.

The study, produced by the UN's World Conservation Monitoring Centre and Inbar (the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan), is the most comprehensive ever done on the subject, and uses novel analyses to combine data on the distribution of bamboo species and on existing forest cover.

It shows that many bamboos, including relatives of those cultivated commercially, have tiny amounts of forest remaining within their native ranges. Some 250 woody bamboo species have less than 2000sq km of forest remaining within their ranges.

Bamboos are essentially giant woody grasses. Their extraordinary life cycle - individuals of each species flower once simultaneously every 20 to 100 years and then die - make them especially vulnerable to rapid deforestation that is restricting the areas in which they can survive.

They not only provide habitats for large numbers of other species, but are used for an enormous range of human purposes, from construction and handicrafts to food. International trade in bamboo products, mostly from cultivated sources, is worth more than $2 billion a year.

"Trade in these plants is worth as much as bananas or American beef," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, the monitoring centre's parent body.

"Yet until now, their status and condition have been largely ignored, with many species taken for granted.

"This new report highlights how vital it now is for the international community to take a far greater interest in these extraordinary plant species."

Inbar director-general Ian Hunter said the survival of many potentially important bamboo species "may be threatened as they grow in forests that are shrinking under human pressure".

The commercial potential of many wild species of bamboo has yet to be evaluated, but among the products derived from it are edible bamboo shoots, furniture and paper.

Millions of people depend on wild bamboos for food, construction material, furniture and even musical instruments. Uses range from acupuncture needles to zithers, from flooring to firewood and paper to posts.

The report identifies unique and endangered species whose fate is intimately linked with bamboo. In Asia, these include the giant and red pandas and Himalayan black bear. At least 15 species of bird live almost exclusively in bamboo.

In Africa, mountain gorillas depend on bamboo for up to 90 per cent of their diet in some seasons. The survival in the wild of the mountain bongo, a large antelope, depends on conserving the bamboo thickets to which it migrates during the dry season.

In Madagascar, the endangered greater and golden bamboo lemurs and the world's rarest tortoise, the ploughshare, are also intimately connected with bamboos.

In South America, the spectacled bear, the mountain tapir and many endangered bird species rely on bamboo.

- INDEPENDENT