Tropical timber, bamboo and rattan could help bridge supply gap for environmentally friendly materials  

Participants in the Global Bamboo Congress 2018 (BARC2018) held late last month agreed that the tropical timber and bamboo and rattan sectors need to work together to meet the increasing demand for forest products due to population growth, close the supply gap for sustainable building materials, and conserve tropical forests. There was consensus that tropical timber, bamboo and rattan co-exist and complement each other as commodities, and the ecosystems of which they are part play important roles in climate-change mitigation and adaptation.

As an important first step towards greater interaction between the sectors, ITTO and the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during BARC2018 to strengthen cooperation between the two organizations.