Bamboo Resources, Trade, and Utilisation

• Published in: Multifaceted Bamboo: Engineered Products and Other Applications
• Main Author: Lee S.H.; Md Tahir P.; Osman Al-Edrus S.S.; Uyup M.K.A.
• Format: Book chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Nature 2023
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85156091725&doi=10.1007%2f978-981-19-9327-5_1&partnerID=40&md5=292507bb053b5b1897eef6f893abe10d

Bamboo belongs to the Poaceae family, a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants known as grasses. The Poaceae family is divided into 12 subfamilies, with bamboo belonging to the Bambusoideae subfamily. There are three clades, or tribes, within the Bambusoideae subfamily: Olyreae, Bambuseae, and Arundinarieae. Olyreae refers to New World herbaceous species, whereas Bambuseae and Arundinarieae are tropical and temperate woody bamboos, respectively. These three tribes collectively contain over 1, 400 species in 119 genera. Bamboo grows well in both tropical and subtropical climates. There are 35 million hectares of bamboo growing around the world, in solitary patches, mixed forests, or large swaths of pure bamboo forest. In the year of 2019, international trade of bamboo products reached over around USD 3.054 billion. Bamboo is a versatile woody resource because all of its parts are useful and can be catered for a variety of purposes. Top, upper middle, lower middle, base, shoots, and leaves are the six parts of the bamboo plant. Every part of the bamboo plant can be used to make a variety of products. Some of these materials are already in use in the textile, paper, construction, furniture, food, and agriculture industries. This chapter reviewed the bamboo resources around the world, its international trade and utilisation. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.