Global Bamboo Products

Substituting timber, creating sustainable livelihoods and reforesting with bamboo
Biodiversity
Anyinam
Ghana

Global Bamboo Products Ghana relieves pressure on dwindling forests through reforestation and bamboo agroforestry, producing and marketing bamboo and other non-timber forest products (NTFP), and training rural community members in handicraft production and alternative livelihood options such as bee-keeping and bamboo charcoal production.

Global Bamboo Products Ghana Ltd. (GBPL) owns and operates a bamboo plantation and nursery and a handicraft training centre. It also markets bamboo and rattan handicrafts. The initiative provides the community with a kiln for producing bamboo charcoal, which GBPL then buys and markets. The plan is to expand into industrial bamboo products such as flooring, panels and plyboard.


The bamboo plantation is innovative, being the first in a degraded forest reserve in Ghana. In addition, the production of high-quality industrial bamboo products creates a new local industry: timber substitutes.


Eco-Inclusive Impacts
Global Bamboo Products Ghana relieves pressure on dwindling forests through reforestation and bamboo agroforestry, producing and marketing bamboo and other non-timber forest products (NTFP), and training rural community members in handicraft production and alternative livelihood options.
  • Providing handicraft training to up to 100 young people, enabling them to earn up to USD 150 a month.
  • Providing community members, mostly women, with beehives. 
  • Contracting 150 farmers to plant bamboo and use the plantation land for agro-forestry.
  • Reducing pressure on dwindling forests by reforesting 100 hectares with bamboo, supporting agro-forestry, developing and promoting non-timber forest products.
  • Teaching rural communities how to generate income without clearing forests for agricultural use.
  • Building a stable and growing market for its artisans’ handicrafts.
  • Developing a local industrial bamboo product industry.

 

 

Partners

This initiative works on the full bamboo value chain from reforestation to production and marketing of substitutes for timber products, creating alternative sources of income for rural communities. The approach further relieves pressure on forests by inter-cropping plantations with food crops to prevent forest clearance for agricultural production.

Global Bamboo Products Ltd. (GBPL) is involved in bamboo cultivation and the production of bamboo and other non-timber forest products.

The Bamboo and Rattan Development Programme (BARADEP) of the Ghanaian Government provides technical assistance and in-kind support.

The International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) provides capacity-building and technical assistance.

BNARI Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute acts as a research partner in the area of bamboo tissue cultivation.