catscradle said:
I thought that bamboo depletion was a big problem, leading to a big problems for pandas. At least that's what I heard.
Perhaps in China, which is the only place in the world that Pandas live (other than zoos). There are estimated to be only about 1000 Pandas left in the wild.
Some bamboo facts:
A sixty foot tree cut for market takes 60 years to replace. A sixty foot bamboo cut for market takes 59 days to replace.
Over one billion people in the world live in bamboo houses.
The world trade in bamboo and rattan is currently estimated at 14 billion US dollars every year.
Bamboos are giant, woody grasses which put out several full length, full diameter, naturally pre-finished, ready-to-use culms ("stems") each year. A single bamboo clump can produce up to 15 kilometres of usable pole (up to 30 cm in diameter) in its lifetime.
It has a tropical and subtropical (cosmopolitan) distribution, ranging from 46 N to 47S latitude, reaching elevations as high as 4,000 m in the Himalayas and parts of China. Bamboo is very adaptable, with some species being deciduous and others evergreen.
Its use in food and cooking goes far back in history. Exports of bamboo shoots from Taiwan alone amount to $50 million (US). Apart from traditional uses, bamboo has many new applications as a substitute for fast depleting wood and as an alternative to more expensive materials.
Modern paper industry has expanded to such an extent that 2.2 million tonnes of bamboo are used in India for this purpose.
Bamboo furniture is an expanding business. In the Philippines, between 1985-1994, exports rose from $625,000 to $1.2 million.
Bamboo's role in the construction field is equally substantial. Hundreds of millions of people live in houses made from bamboo. In Bangladesh, 73% of the population live in bamboo houses. It provides pillars, walls, window frames, rafters, room separators, ceilings and roofs.
In Borneo and in the Naga Hills of India, large communal houses of 100 feet in length have been built of bamboo. Throughout rural Asia it is used for building bridges, from the sophisticated technology of suspension bridges to the simpler pontoon bridges. Bamboo scaffoldings are found throughout Asia, and they are employed on the high rise structures of Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Bamboo is also used for musical instruments of all three types: percussion or hammer instruments, wind instruments, and stringed instruments. In Java, 20 different musical instruments have been fashioned of bamboo. The flute may have been invented by cave people toying with a hollow bamboo stem.
http://www.inbar.int/facts.htm
-CM
for a cue but I thought it was interesting.
