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The “Miracle Plant” of SE Asia, and Possibly, the World

The “Miracle Plant” of SE Asia, and Possibly, the World

The Bamboo Experience, Laos

On my first day in Luang Prabang, Laos, a fellow traveler at my hostel recommended that I spend a day at “The Bamboo Experience.” Of her weeklong stay in the area, she told me this was her favorite activity she undertook; yes, even more so than the majestic Kuang Si Falls. It was a bit on the pricey side, but I decided to take her advice and booked it.

The Bamboo Experience is a half-day course on all the traditional and local uses of bamboo, taught on a small property outside Luang Prabang. Bamboo is known as the “miracle plant” in Laos, as well as other neighboring Southeast Asian countries, and has been used for thousands of years as the primary material in making homes, tools, art, and even food. Upon arriving, I immediately noticed several bamboo clumps growing at the edges of the property. I, along with the other guests, were escorted through a quaint vegetable garden lined with bamboo fencing and bamboo benches, and into the main building, which of course, was constructed almost entirely with bamboo.

To begin the day, we were given a brief overview of the bamboo plant and shown several items the people of Laos would typically make from bamboo. This included everything from fish traps, to straws, rice steamers, mats, and musical instruments.

The people of Laos have used bamboo to make household items like these pictured for thousands of years.

Next, we participated in a bamboo weaving class, where we learned how to weave thin paper-like strips of bamboo into small coffee coasters. The process is similar to knitting a quilt, but with bamboo instead of soft yarn and thread. Weaving was traditional done by Laotian women, who spent hours creating intricate and durable mats, flooring, nets, hats, and a host of other materials. It took a few attempts before I was able to lock the pattern down, but once I finally got it, I moved along with a rhythmic flow, and I must say, the final product didn’t come out too bad!

Weaving bamboo coffee coasters

Following was a cooking class that used bamboo shoots as the main ingredient, accompanied by other traditional Laotian ingredients, which once cooked and prepared, we enjoyed as a delicious and beautifully presented lunch.

To end the day, we were treated to a traditional Hmong song and dance, performed with a large flute-like instrument made from bamboo that produced a sound similar to that of a didgeridoo.

Out cooking teacher shows us how to prepare rice in a bamboo rice steamer, a type of basket made by weaving strips of bamboo.
Minced pork, onion, and crushed garlic stuffed in bamboo shoots and fried in oil. I probably ate around 20 of these. So good!

Overall, it was a fun and informative experience that opened up the world of bamboo to my eyes. The people of Laos have used the plant in their daily lives for thousands of years, but what about the rest of the world? Could we all turn to bamboo? I wanted to learn more about this “Miracle Plant” and see if it truly could be a sustainable alternative to timber and a viable solution to the issues of deforestation, habitat loss, soil erosion, and climate change that our world faces today.

Bamboo as a Sustainable Alternative

Where does it grow?

There are over a thousand species of bamboo worldwide, normally growing in tropical or sub-tropical climates in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Although bamboo species can be found in a range of differing climates, such as the high Himalayas and the cold, snowy winters of northern Japan, in general, bamboo will grow in the humid climates of the middle latitudes.

Characteristics

Bamboo, typically thought of as a tree or hardwood, is actually a type of grass and is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. It will reach maturity, and its maximum height, in a matter of years, or even months. Many trees that are generally felled for timber, in comparison, often take decades to centuries to reach maturity. This means, when bamboo is cut and harvested, it will regrow to the same height and can be harvested again within a couple years. In contrast to trees, bamboo does not need to be replanted, but will continue to regrow again and again after it has been cut. This is a reason many experts believe bamboo can be a sustainable alternative to timber to help alleviate deforestation and pressures on the Earth’s old growth forests.

There are an estimated 1400 different species of bamboo worldwide. With so many differing species, each species of bamboo contains characteristics that make it more suitable for a specific traditional purpose, or use. For example, some species are larger in circumference–suitable for construction of homes and bridges, and some smaller–for items like straws, instruments, or fish hooks. Other species may have long sections between nodes (the rings, or “ends,” that are evenly spaced along a bamboo pole and seem to connect it together), which is perfect for slicing off long strips to be used in weaving, and some will be short and stubby, making the pole much stronger and resistant to snapping under pressure.

David Trujillo, a structural engineer and advocate of replacing steel and concrete with bamboo, details the many benefits of bamboo in his TedTalk on the subject (watch it here). According to Trujillo, the fibers in the wall of bamboo are three times stronger than steel, and with nodes for support and an efficient natural hollow shape, bamboo is lighter and stronger than steel. Perhaps, more importantly, bamboo is also much cheaper than steel, both in terms of monetary costs as well as carbon costs. Where a significant amount of carbon dioxide is released in the production of steel, bamboo stores carbon and is, therefore, carbon neutral, or even carbon negative, in its production and use. Thus, if we began using bamboo instead of steel or concrete, we would not only be producing less carbon, but actually capturing and storing carbon that is already in the atmosphere.

Uses

Each year in Luang Prabang, Laos, at the start of the dry season, when the Nam Khan River at its lowest flow, locals construct a bamboo bridge across the river to connect the two sides of the city. Once the rains begin, the bridge is taken down for the duration of the wet season, until built up again the following year. This bridge has become a favorite for tourists visiting the city, but locals still use it for its original and practical purpose of transportation. This is just another traditional use for bamboo in this region of the world.

The seasonal bamboo bridge spanning the Nam Khan River in Luang Prabang, Laos. I jumped on it to test its durability and I can assure you, its much stronger than it looks!

Globally, bamboo is today used for items ranging from paper, to toothbrushes, floorboards, and even to the fibers in clothing and bedding.

While bamboo has long been used, in regions where it naturally grows, to build huts or small homes by those who are unable to afford other materials, some are beginning to use the plant to build massive luxury homes and buildings.

Elora Hardy, CEO of Ibuku, grew up in Bali, an island that is flush with natural bamboo forests. She started Ibuku as a way to reimagine how modern homes are designed and built, and now constructs luxury homes made almost entirely of bamboo across the island and other parts of Asia (Watch her TedTalk here). She explains how, for places like Bali where bamboo is abundant, it makes perfect sense to construct buildings with bamboo. It has the tensile strength of steel and the compressive strength of concrete, and is earthquake resistant–an important feature for buildings on an island that lies on a major tectonic plate. For an artist like Hardy, bamboo offers infinite opportunities for creativity as no two poles of bamboo are alike, and, thus, no two buildings she designs are alike. Bamboo is not straight and uniform, but curved and random, and each home must be designed based on the natural features of the bamboo that is used.

Combatting Environmental Degradation and Global Poverty

By replacing timber, the hope is, switching to bamboo products could reduce the rates of deforestation worldwide. The detrimental effects of deforestation have been widely documented, including habitat loss and species extinction, the release of carbon into the atmosphere, and soil erosion, among many others.

International Governmental Organizations like INBAR (International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation), a multilateral organization comprising of over 40 member states, promotes sustainable development in developing countries by using bamboo (and rattan) products to end poverty and develop environmentally-friendly economic practices.

According to INBAR’s website, “Bamboo and rattan are astounding resources with unique potential to combat poverty and natural resource challenges. They grow locally to some of the world’s poorest communities in the tropics and subtropics, and have many uses, providing a vast range of sustainable products, livelihood options and ecosystem services.”

By promoting the use of bamboo products and producing it locally in these poor regions where it grows, we can help alleviate some of the issues of both global poverty and environmental degradation.

By harvesting bamboo instead of timber, we can reduce deforestation of the world’s old growth forests. Already about half of the world’s forests have been cleared or degraded in favor of urban areas, crops, and livestock grazing. This has directly led to the habitat loss, and consequential extinction, of a number of species that require healthy forest habitat for survival. In addition, trees provide soil stability by holding the soil in place so it can absorb water and nutrients; when trees are cleared, the soil is susceptible to erosion and runoff, leaving the land degraded and unable to recover.

Planting bamboo could simultaneously reduce the amount of forest we need to clear, while also reducing soil erosion and promoting soil stability as bamboo also holds the soil in place where it is planted.

The World Resources Institute provides a map (find it here) shows how many of the world’s areas where deforestation is most prevalent, such as tropical rainforests in South America, Africa, and Indonesia, are also areas where bamboo grows naturally. Thus, bamboo can be planted to help restore the damaged forests in these habitats.

Based on the information provided, it seems as if switching to bamboo products is a simple solution to many of the global issues we face today. Commercial bamboo production and use is actually quite prevalent today, but the issues of poverty and environmental degradation still persist. How can that be?

In short, the methods most commercial operations are currently using to produce and transport bamboo products are contrary to the goal of sustainable development.

Is Bamboo Truly a “Green” Commodity?

Fair Trade

First, there are issues of fair trade as much of production of bamboo is outsourced to countries where labor wages are low, and the people working in these facilities to create the products make minimal profits from an increasingly lucrative industry.

Environmental Costs

The environmental costs can also be great. Often viewed as luxury items, bamboo products like clothes, linens, and flooring are often bought by consumers in the more affluent societies of the Global North–places where bamboo doesn’t grow naturally. The bamboo must be transported there somehow and this involves intercontinental shipping which produces great amounts of pollution.

In addition, bamboo must be treated before it can be used to build anything, otherwise it is at risk of pest damage and disease. To make the thin, soft fibers used in bamboo clothing and linens, the material must also be treated and processed. Both of these processes often use cheap, chemical solutions to treat the bamboo that can be harmful to human health and wildlife if not disposed of properly.

Of course, there are bamboo producers who use fair trade and environmentally-friendly methods to treat bamboo, though this is a more expensive and longer process, which means the final products are often on the higher-end.

Going Forward

At the moment, large, commercial bamboo production is not entirely sustainable. Though, when produced and used on a smaller, local level, such as it is used in Laos, the benefits of bamboo are immense.

There are people out there, such as Elora Hardy and David Trujillo, who are at the forefront of moving sustainable bamboo products into mainstream modern architecture and development. The possibilities of bamboo are certainly endless and exciting, and it seems there is potential this “woody” grass really can be the world’s “Miracle Plant.”

The Annapurna Conservation Area Project: A Case Study for Sustainability and Conservation in the Face of Tourism

Established in 1985, the Annapurna Conservation Area was the first conservation area created and managed by Nepal’s National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) and is Nepal’s largest protected area, covering an area of nearly 2,950 square miles. It is home to several different cultural groups including the Gurung, Manange, and Thakali, as well as incredibly rich biodiversity and unique landscapes like the Kali Gandaki Gorge–the deepest river gorge in the world, the world’s largest rhododendron forest, and Tilicho Lake–the world’s highest altitude freshwater lake. This blend of culture and natural beauty makes the Annapurna Conservation Area and its various treks–including the Annapurna Circuit and Annapurna Sanctuary–one of the most popular trekking destinations in the world, and the most visited in Nepal.

The Annapurna Conservation Area (highlighted in Orange) in Nepal.

Today, tens of thousands of tourists visit the area annually, most going on multi-day treks. There are over a thousand lodges and teashops where these trekkers stay and eat at during the treks, plus hundreds of other service-related amenities catered to tourists. The high traffic from tourism, coupled with increasing local populations, have placed immense pressure on natural resources and the local environment. Most notably, local environmental issues include deforestation for cooking fuel and pollution from discarded plastic waste and trash.

To remedy these problems, the NTNC launched the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) to manage tourism and conservation projects in the area. Some solutions the ACAP has developed include providing subsidies for alternative fuel and heating sources such as gas, kerosene, and solar, reducing the need for wood, and establishing several safe drinking water stations for trekkers along the popular trails.

In the Annapurna Sanctuary, viewed as a sacred land by local beliefs, wood fires and plastic water bottles are banned in an effort to reduce deforestation and pollution. For water, trekkers must bring their own reusable bottles and can fill up at any of the lodges along the trek.

Along the Annapurna Circuit, there are numerous safe drinking water stations, consisting of a large tank of filtered water, located in the larger villages that provide trekkers with drinking water for around 50 rupees a liter. These stations are run by local women’s groups, providing women, who are often uneducated and reduced to household work, with jobs. Thus, this scheme benefits everyone involved as plastic waste is reduced, local women are provided with jobs and income, and trekkers save money by refilling on water.

Safe Drinking Water Stations along the Annapurna Circuit trek.

Where increased tourism has threatened to damage the Annapurna region, ACAP is using it to benefit both the environment and local communities. All these initiatives are funded by the tourist fees and permits required to enter the Conservation Area. ACAP has also attempted to make local communities a major part of the solution by providing environmental and hospitality education, as well as fostering local economic development to ensure the communities are the ones to benefit from tourism revenue. Thus, the Annapurna Conservation Area Project has focused on using the positives of tourism–revenue, funding and education–to limit the potential negatives of tourism–environmental harm and economic divide.

In a world that expects to see increased numbers of global tourism, and continued issues with sustainability and conservation, similar destinations can look to the ACAP as a model for sustainable development and tourism.

The Last Generation of Skiers

The Last Generation of Skiers

Ski season is just around the corner! Since I am traveling and headed to warm and tropical Thailand next, my season will be a bit delayed this year until I arrive in Hokkaido, Japan in mid-January. Still, November days bring me thoughts of winter and dreams of snow. This post is from an article I wrote for Backcountry Magazine back in 2016. Read the original post here

 

One by one, beads of rain race down the window; tear drops reflecting the mood of this gloomy, midwinter day. The final scraps of snow from the last storm cling to the edges of my roof before gravity pulls them to the earth. Individual crystals of snow are swept away by the maddening flow of liquid, while others disintegrate into the soil, lost to the depths of the world. I hunker in my Bend, Oregon home, watching the streets fill with the morning showers. What was once a wintery world washes away like a withering thought. And in all this rain, I dream of powder.

I remember a time, not too long ago, when I would dance with the mountain; a rhythmic waltz in which mind, body and snow become one; an experience known only by subject and mountain: the art of skiing. As I stand at my window, rain pattering down outside, I close my eyes, feeling myself slide down the white slope, bouncing in and out of turns, legs springing and compressing into perfect tele position, each pole plant marking the birth of the next turn. The snow is thigh deep, yet I feel no resistance as I swiftly glide through it. Looking downhill, I spot my ski partners reapplying skins to their skis at the bottom of the glade. The warm sunlight transitions to the cool shadows of the looming lodge pole pines. I sense that I am invincible, completely seized by the wonders of gravity. With my companions expanding into my vision, I attempt one last turn, punching downhill with my uphill arm and, the next thing I know, I am flying.

I smash face first into the deep, soft powder. In a jumbled mess of skis, legs and poles, I surface with snow caked onto my face and crammed inside my ears. Smiling and laughing, I fall back and lounge in the powder pool I just created.

I startle out of my daydream as the rain intensifies. Powder skiing as I remember it is restricted to this lone image. The winter world that I became accustomed to every year after the last of the November leaves would descend from the trees is absent.

Staring out into the rain, I remember my days as a child, pressing my face against the window, rosy-cheeked and wide-eyed, to watch snow fall from the heavens. Seeing this magical crystallization of water came with a cluster of possibilities: snow days, the nearing of Christmas, the beginning of ski season. Now, I look back on these memories and remember all the enchanting goods that snow brought, and I think to myself, what will my future children see? Will they know the joys of snow as I did, as so many that came before me did? Will they know what it feels like to ski powder, the type that owns no bottom?

I often wonder what will become of skiing. The days when a foot of fresh justified skipping school, the early morning tours where the skintrack was the only sign of civilization and the endless journey of strengthening mind and body that came from climbing mountains and skiing back down.

Is all this only a fleeting memory that will be washed away with the snow, an idea lost to the past and a dream that will be never be realized? What does the future of skiing hold in this time of melt? For thousands of years, it has provided humans with more than just sport: a livelihood, a mode of transportation, a way to gather food when deep snow made it impossible to walk, and a relationship with the mountains that will vanish into deep crevasses.

As rain patters our January roof, I wonder, am I part of the last generation of skiers?

Photographer, freelance writer, traveler. Follow my journey as I voyage around the world.