The founder of the Bamboo Foundation-The Gambia (BFG), Mr. Omar Darboe of Dumbuto Village in Kiang West, Lower River Region (LRR), has pointed out that the bamboo plant could serve as ‘an alternative’ to timber in the country.
He regarded the grass and colony plant as a sustainable natural resource that would engender socioeconomic development; a source of income generation for many poor people, especially rural dwellers and a tool for environmental protection in the Gambia.
Darboe, an alumni member of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)– a leadership fellowship run by the US State Department for young African leaders– revealed that the sole objective of his Bamboo foundation was to help promote and develop bamboo farming in this country.
He explained to this medium that in December 2020, they received a small grant from the Ministry of Environment to start a bamboo home nursery garden where they have now propagated bamboo seedlings of different varieties for transplantation to some parts of the country.
The Dumbuto native explained the BFG is a nonprofit making organization that seeks to promote the cultivation of the bamboo plant to the Gambians, noting in the past few years, they had involved many stakeholders including the Gambia’s Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, local farmers, environmental organizations, NGOs and rural communities in bamboo farming and propagation.
“We are working on providing quality bamboo seedlings of different varieties to communities and individuals who have interest in bamboo, at affordable prices,” Darboe informed.
While seeing bamboo farming as a new thing to Gambians, he added the potentials of the plant, as one of the fastest growing plant on earth, is yet to be exploited in this part of Africa.
However, he went further to indicate that many Gambians have shown interest in bamboo farming-thanks to their efforts in promoting the plant as a sustainable income generation source and an environmental protection tool.
On the achievements registered so far, the BFG founder cited their sensitization of many communities and individuals who were interested in bamboos in the past three years, and propagation of more than ‘20,000 bamboo cuttings and seedlings across the country.
But he referred to lack of funds to invest in bamboo seedling productions and propagation as a challenge they are facing, and thus called on the government and other key stakeholders, philanthropists and environmental organizations to come to their aid, so as to enable them establish a bigger bamboo nursery garden and propagation center in the country.
His next step is to develop a one-kilometer farmland in his native village into a bamboo nursery garden, propagation center and a plantation. As Darboe explained, it would also serve as an education center for farmers, school children, environmentalists and other persons interested in learning about the bamboo business and its potentials in mitigating the effects of climate change as well as poverty reduction.
There are over 1,400 different varieties or species of bamboo, and according to UNEP, the plant has more than 2,000 uses or item list.
Darboe maintains there is a good market for the bamboo plant and its numerous finished products as the world moves towards the reduction of timber and plastic products.
He suggested: “Therefore, bamboo products can serve as an alternative replacement for timber and plastic products in the country in order to help the fight against climate change, deforestation and land degradation which is alarming to a small and vulnerable country like the Gambia.” He also argued that bamboo could help protect the environment and the forest cover, reasoning it has a maturity rate of three to four years for harvest compare to normal trees that takes 20 to 30 years for maturity to occur; and at the same time, ‘bamboo can help to cool down the micro climate’ and help in the reduction of carbon emissions.
Stating bamboo is used for so many things, Darboe referred to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) statement that the plant has over 2,000 uses, ranging from affordable building materials, furniture of all kinds, bicycles, clothing, paper pulp, toothpicks, forks and knives, bowls and plates, scaffolding materials, and that domestically, the plant is used to make fences, mats, baskets of all kinds, canoes and houses, among other things.
The Bamboo Foundation chief used the opportunity to urge government of the Gambia to promote and develop the bamboo sector for a sustainable green economy, as he intimated this could reduce poverty among many youth and rural communities.
Describing the bamboo plant as the ‘green gold’, Darboe stressed it has the potential to protect the environment.
