By Douglas Saefoa and David Spring
PT Authors
Bamboo conjures images of Asian jungles, rattan furniture and slow chewing giant pandas. Used for centuries as a construction material and raw material for producing paper pulp, it is also a food source for humans and animals. Its unique and versatile properties make it both potentially useful and potentially variable as an engineering product. This article explores renewed interest in the uses of bamboo in Fiji and how confidence is growing over its promise to address multi-dimensional issues facing Fiji and other Pacific island nations.
Clumping bamboo efforts
In Fiji, the government and private interests are together developing the framework by which bamboo can be grown as a livelihood, harvested as a construction material and matured in land restoration. It also has uses in furniture making, paper, textiles, food and production of charcoal. Bamboo is able to grow in degraded lands to help stop soil erosion, while restoring soil nutrients.
The Fiji Bamboo Association (FBA) was established in 2019 with a vision to combine the efforts of the bamboo industry and transform people’s livelihoods and environmental sustainability in Fiji. In 2020, the Fijian government joined the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR), in a clear demonstration of its intent to invest in deriving the benefits of bamboo. Through INBAR’s support and collaboration with the Pacific Islands Development Forum, the Fiji Bamboo Centre will be opened in 2023, under the Ministry of Forestry and guidance from FBA, to co-ordinate all “bamboo-related activity” in Fiji.
Fiji’s Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation is also committed to seeing the success of the industry. In 2017, then Minister, Hon. Mereseini Vuniwaqa, articulated at COP23 how bamboo can be “used to create diversified income streams for particularly vulnerable groups, such as women, as well as create resilient… housing.” Bamboo can therefore play a role in the empowerment of women, children and the rural poor, as well as adaptation and mitigation of climate change.
Bending to the climate
This is a welcome return for bamboo in Fiji, after Chinese efforts in the 1970s faltered due to lack of interest and investment. The situation has now reversed, driven chiefly by climate change concerns. In the construction industry, efforts to reduce carbon released by harvesting timber, emissions from steel and concrete manufacturing, reducing shipping emissions, and reducing soil erosion are supported by the economics of producing local, sustainable alternative products. Given Fiji’s topical climate, bamboo is an obvious choice.
Bamboo exhibits material properties which make it well-suited as a disaster-resilient building material. Its bending strength enables it to deflect under wind loads without breaking and to absorb earthquake energy. This could reduce the cost and recovery period of natural disasters, as buildings survive and do not have to be rebuilt.
Fiji has one native bamboo species (Schizostacyum glaucifolium) and up to 20 others. Research is underway to determine the most appropriate bamboo species to use as a sustainable material. FBA are looking at introducing seedlings of different species into the country that are better suited for the construction industry and for food, while cognisant of avoiding invasive species.
Bamboo ticks a lot of boxes for a range of donors too – climate resilience, female participation, private sector growth, carbon storage, Sustainable Development Goals – making it ideal for attracting funding.
Putting in the ‘boo
Using bamboo to make paper and chairs may be relatively straightforward, but can it be used as a construction product? A kava bar is one thing, but a government building, conference centre or multi-story tower? It’s not in the building code, so which standard is applicable to the use of bamboo?
FBA presented at the recent Fiji Construction Industry Council’s annual conference on the uses of bamboo in construction to try to address some of these concerns. The key to using bamboo in construction, at a scale beyond simple shelters, is to reduce the variability of its properties. To engineers, variability means unreliability. The way to reduce this variability is already well known to structural engineers who use timber for large construction – composite or laminated members.
Composite bamboo is a manufactured product which uses a combination of bamboo fibre and epoxy. Composite can be produced in shapes and sizes to suit engineering applications such as beams, framing timbers and flooring structures. It can also be used for architectural applications common to timber, such as flooring and paneling. The use of bio-epoxy, produced from algae, can make this product completely sustainable.
Bamboo can also be used as beams, rafters and columns in its natural form, but, similar to regular timber, needs to be treated with boric acid to prevent termite attack.
Standards need to be developed and implemented to enable the production industry to be regulated and for specifiers and builders to gain confidence in the use of bamboo. Mark Borg, FBA’s CEO spoke with PT and described the situation, “Country building codes need to be updated with guidelines on the use of bamboo in construction. We do not have to reinvent the wheel here either… many countries have already done so and we just need to adapt these to our own circumstances.”
Borg is right – many countries, including tropical countries, East Asian countries and those who identify as Small Island Developing States (SIDS) – have adopted bamboo as a solution to various challenges. East Asia has a very mature industry and could be studied for applicability. International standards exist for the structural design and material testing of round (culm) bamboo, to meet minimum requirements, for structures up to two storeys (7m) in height. These have also been codified in some countries and Fiji would do well to expedite an update to the National Building Code to include specific requirements for the design and use of bamboo.
The new cane?
The bamboo industry is worth USD 60 billion globally. If Fiji can develop the agriculture and manufacturing to grow, harvest and produce bamboo building products, a global market awaits. The post-colonial evolution of the sugar cane industry in Fiji and the just use of traditional land may be an avenue for good bamboo farming practice. Government policy to support and protect the industry will be essential to producing bamboo at scale, for domestic use and export. Business growth to support the sector will also expand - consider treatment and drying centres as well as transportation of input and output products.
Solomon Islands uses more bamboo than Fiji, but the industry there is not harmonised. Tonga is a member of INBAR and would likely be a willing ally in any joint Pacific efforts. Given the universal challenges facing the Pacific and the potential presented by bamboo, a collaborative approach to technology sharing, manufacturing centres and decentralised participation will distribute the benefits broadly. In time, perhaps bamboo will conjure images of Pacific resilience and partnership.
Solomon Islands 
Papua New Guinea 
