Bamboo: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

This new book presents an abundance of important information and case studies that deal with bamboo farming and its effects from and on climate change adaptation and mitigation. There is a lack of research on the role of bamboo in climate change adaptation and mitigation; this volume helps to fill that gap by providing information that will enable policymakers to consider bamboo farming and its implications in carbon trading.

Bamboo represents one of the world’s highest yielding renewable natural resources and is an important source of non-timber forest products for subsistence use as well as for materials with many commercial and industrial uses. There are over 1500 documented applications of bamboo products, including materials for bridges, construction, furniture, agricultural tools, handicrafts, papers, textiles, boards, edible, and bioenergy applications. With their fast growth rate and rapid propagation, bamboo forests have a high C storage potential, especially when the harvested culms are transformed into durable products and thereby prolonging the C storage.

Environmentalists love bamboo for its quick growth and for the fact that it can be harvested without harming the environment. This volume is a rich resource on the role of bamboo in ecological farming and climate change mitigation.

Key features of the book include:

• Explores the role of bamboo on climate change and environment and ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change

• Considers overlooked bamboo biomass resources

• Explains carbon capture and storage potential in bamboo

• Assesses opportunities for carbon farming and carbon trading in bamboo

• Looks at the role on bamboo cultivation on the livelihood of rural populations

• Details the soil properties needed for bamboo-based agroforestry systems

Arun Jyoti Nath, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Ecology and Environmental Science at Assam University, Silchar, India, and a PLOS ONE Academic Editor since 2017. He is an ecologist with diverse experience in research and teaching. He holds a BSc degree in Botany, an MSc degree in Ecology, and a PhD degree in plant ecology and management. He has over 15 years of experience in bamboo research. His research focuses on ecosystem carbon dynamics at regional and landscape scale.

Gudeta W. Sileshi, PhD, is a senior scientist in agro-ecology and was formerly the regional representative of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in southern Africa and a lecturer at the Alemaya University of Agriculture in Ethiopia. He is currently a freelance consultant in agriculture and the environment and a Senior Fellow in the School of Agriculture, Earth and Environmental Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has over 25 years of experience in agricultural research and development. His major research interest is in production ecology linking plot level patterns to landscape level processes and ecosystem services. With over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and three co-edited books, he has widely published on forest ecology, sustainable agriculture and food security across sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian sub-continent. He holds a BSc degree in biology, an MSc degree in agriculture, and a PhD degree in insect ecology.

Ashesh Kumar Das, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Ecology and Environmental Science at Assam University in Silchar, Assam, India. His research interests include tree diversity and ecology, carbon management in forest and agricultural ecosystem, and soil ecology. Professor Das has published over 120 peer-reviewed research papers in leading journals.