Ethiopia's Bamboo Development Strategy and Action Plan 2019-2030.

The Ethiopia's Bamboo Development Strategy and Action Plan 2019-2030 has as objective to transform and sustainably manage bamboo resources by focusing on the development of green industries and livelihood promotion to produce value-added products catering for domestic, regional and global markets. The following guiding principles underpin this Strategy and Action Plan: a) Market driven: The market has a fundamental role in driving the sector. However, necessary support shall be given by the government; b) Decent job creation for rural youth and women; c) Climate resilient green economy: can play an important role in poverty alleviation, employment generation, economy development and environmental and forest protection (bamboo forests contribute to soil and water conservation). Being a renewable resource, bamboo is a perfect raw material for producing low-carbon, circular and environmentally friendly, resource-efficient products; d) Enhancing farmers’ livelihood security: In Ethiopia, the majority of the population depends on agriculture as its primary source of livelihood and income. Bamboo, with its annual harvesting cycle, labour-intensive production, potentially diverse products and value addition, can become one of the main economic resources for smallholder farmers; e) Reducing pressure on forests as bamboo can be alternative to timber. Bamboo can be promoted to enhance energy security of rural and urban households. It can also be promoted as a timber substitute for producing furniture, panels and boards for domestic consumption and exports; and f) Enhancing ecosystem services: Bamboo can be promoted to perform ecosystem functions, such as soil erosion control, water quantity and quality improvement, landslide control and overall improvement of watershed.
This strategy formulates directions and actions that shall create an enabling institutional framework and build capacities to promote sustainable management of the available resources and foster new bamboo plantations. They follow: 1) Establish Bamboo Clusters; 2) Manage Existing Bamboo Resources; 3) Promote the Establishment of New Bamboo Plantations; 4) Develop Value Chains; 5) Create an Enabling Market Environment; 6) Enhance Skills; 7) Build Human Capital and a Knowledge Management System; 8) Develop Partnerships and Mobilise Resources; 9) Create Enabling Institutions, Governance Mechanisms and Incentive Modality; 10) Monitoring and Evaluation.