Framework For Assessing Ecosystem Services From Bamboo Forests

Framework for assessing ecosystem services from bamboo forests

Bamboo is well known for supporting people’s livelihoods, and is widely used in landscape restoration programs while providing a wide range of ecosystem goods and services. However, while marketable goods from bamboo such as shoots for food and timber for construction, flooring and furniture are well known, the ecosystem services (ES) supply from bamboo is not, due to limited research. To date, very few studies highlight the role of bamboo forests in providing multiple ES that have local and global value. Lack of an appropriate framework and tools is considered a barrier to assessing the ES from bamboo forests. Therefore, this study attempts to develop an easy-to-apply framework to assess ES from bamboo and test them in three countries in Asia and Africa – Nepal, Indonesia and Ethiopia – in order to understand the relative supply capacity of the key ES from bamboo forests. The literature related to ES and assessment frameworks was reviewed so as to design an appropriate assessment framework for bamboo forests. This study offers an easy-to-apply framework that can be used widely. The research shows that the ES supply capacity of bamboo forests is higher than for industrial planted forest while it is lower than for the natural forests in all case study sites. The ES assessment from bamboo forests poses several challenges: defining and classifying ES, limited data, and complex relationships in trade-offs and synergies of ES that should be kept in mind while designing the framework.

Asia-Pacific roadmap for innovative technologies in the forest sector

The preservation of forests, sustainable forest management (SFM), forest landscape restoration (FLR) and the need to make the most of precious forest resources are priority issues in the policy and sustainable development agenda of the Asia-Pacific region. Innovation will be key in the coming decades to meet the increasing demand for wood and other forest products while halting and reversing deforestation, in line with the commitment taken at COP26 in Glasgow by the international community. However, uptake of innovative technologies has been slow and uneven in the Asia-Pacific region, and there remains a gap between political commitments and the investments – in education, capacity building, and infrastructure development – required to put them into practice. This technical report examines the potential and barriers to disseminating and deploying innovative technologies for SFM in the region and provides overarching recommendations and specific options for decision-makers. It delineates and informs the process by which decision-makers and actors can identify: the potential of innovative technologies to advance SFM; their potential impacts; constraints to technology uptake and scaling up, and how to overcome these constraints and facilitate adoption.

Asia-Pacific roadmap for innovative technologies in the forest sector