Sustainable and socially responsible African bamboo supply chain

In search of a reliable bamboo feedstock supply chain for the fiber extraction processes of Bambooder, our attention was drawn to African bamboo. In the tropical regions of Africa, bamboo is readily available in large quantities. Countries such as Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda have implemented policies wherein bamboo plays a critical role in reforestation, creation of a green and socially responsible economy, and creation of new value chains¹. This has led to increased availability of bamboo and professionalization of the local supply chain. Traditionally, bamboo was used as a construction material in these countries, but nowadays they are expanding their product range, now including feedstock for bamboo fiber extraction.

One example of a company that has established a reliable supply chain of bamboo in Africa is Bamboo Uganda. As the name reflects, the company is located in Uganda. Their focus is on realizing a sustainable green bamboo economy in Uganda and researching the development of a bamboo value chain with a maximum economic, social, and environmental impact. Bamboo Uganda's vision is to rethink, promote, and redesign an available but underappreciated resource, with the aim to transform agriculture, develop ecological construction alternatives, generate renewable energy solutions, fight deforestation, and fuel a green economy, thus boosting the local private sector and the national economy at large.

The vision of Bamboo Uganda, as described above, is perfectly in line with our own mission and vision of being the frontrunner in the 100% fossil-free and renewable composite industry and enabling improved sustainability of daily life through biobased composite materials. It is therefore that we have joined forces with Bamboo Uganda to realize a reliable source of sustainable and socially responsible bamboo as feedstock for our fiber extraction processes. With this collaboration, we not only ensure a guaranteed supply chain of high-quality feedstock for our process, but we also help to develop the Ugandan economy and provide fair wages and fair working conditions to the local community. This allows us to contribute to a total of 10 UN Sustainable Development Goals and deliver our share to the Joint African Union and European Union Innovation Agenda.

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Uganda National Bamboo Strategy and Action Plan 2019-2029 | Wood Energy Catalogue | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (fao.org)

NationalBambooPolicy.pdf (kefri.org)