Bamboo could give Amazon new business potential
Bamboo is widely used for industrial applications, and, if properly treated, it can be used for building homes, flooring, furniture, pool decks, and even boats 
A light, robust and environment-friendly natural resource with promising market value, bamboo can become an important economic resource for Brazil, where it is abundant. Inspired by this, the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI) is working with the government of Acre state, in the Amazon, to create a Technological Vocational Center (CVT) that will provide professional training and bamboo processing.
While the plant is found throughout the country, the location was chosen because of its regional potential, concentrating most of the 6 million hectares of bamboo forests estimated to exist in the Amazon. The center will be located in the state capital, Rio Branco, where the timber will be laminated alongside research and development activity.
Eron Bezerra, the Ministry's Secretary of Science and Technology for Social Inclusion, explained that the goal is to turn the natural resource into an industrial material, which would create value and support income growth in the region, down from farming through the value chain. “Our plan is to pre-treat the fields. Unless we do so, there will hardly be any profits at the harvesting stage, because the raw materials make much less profit than the processed products,” he explained.
According to Renata Souza, Acre's Secretary of Science and Technology, the training programs for farmers and harvesting communities begin in August. “We expect to train 400 people. We want Acre to be an excellence center at [bamboo] research and engineering and draw investment to the region.”
She noted that the state has begun negotiations with a US company that is interested in building a bamboo flooring factory there. “The state's plan for the future is making the Bamboo CVT part of a regional technology park,” she completed.
Frederico Rosalino da Silva, who owns a sustainable construction firm in Brasília and uses bamboo for building warehouses, bungalows and tents, endorses the training strategy. “Finding skilled labor can be a challenge today. I think this market expansion should be based on a harvesting and smallholder farming culture – this would ensure greater income distribution and prevent bamboo from becoming a monoculture, like we saw with eucalyptus and pine,” he said.
In such countries as China and Colombia, among others, bamboo is widely used for industrial applications, and, if properly treated, it can be used for building homes, flooring, furniture, pool decks, and even boats. It is a growing market that has all the makings of a successful business in Brazil.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Bamboo could give Amazon new business potential
