This document discusses the importance of bamboo and rattan species for biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of tropical forests. It outlines that tropical forests contain high biodiversity but are under threat from unsustainable practices. It suggests that conserving bamboo and rattan species through sustainable forest management practices, including community involvement and protection of habitats, can help meet biodiversity goals while supporting livelihoods. Specific actions recommended include domestication of bamboo and rattan, restoration of degraded lands with these species, and incentivizing conservation through programs like payments for ecosystem services.

1. PROF. DONG SHIKUI
REGIONAL CHAIR
&
MADHAV KARKI, PH.D.
DEPUTY CHAIR,
IUCN COMMISSION ON ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT
Sustainable Management of
Tropical Forest: Increasing Role of
Bamboo and Rattan

2. Outline
 Role of tropical forest in biodiversity conservation
 Status of Tropical Forests in Asia
 Forest degradation and loss of Bamboo and Rattan
biodiversity,
 Sustainable management for sustainable supply of
tropical forest products
 Specific actions suggested
 Conclusion and way forward

3. IUCN Red list Species: Threat Categories

4. Importance of forests in biodiversity
conservation
 Forests (31% land) are amongst the most biologically-
rich terrestrial systems (>1/2 of the terrestrial plant and
animal spp.)
 Forest biodiversity underpins a wide ranges of ecosystem
goods and services (EGS) for human well-being including
bamboo and rattan (B&R) resources:
 Conserving forest biodiversity is a prerequisite for the
long-term and broad flow of B&R supply.
 Tropical moist forests are home to the largest number of
threatened B&R species of any biome,
 Many scientifically unexplored species are getting lost
along with forest habitats (MEA, 2005).

5. Unsustainable Tropical Forest Use and
Biocultural diversity Loss
 Biodiversity loss: Unsustainable forest operations and
other pressures (e.g., gathering of fuel wood, fodder
and food) leads to permanent losses in biodiversity.
 Livelihoods of forest dwellers: Unsustainable Forestry
also adversely affect livelihoods of indigenous and local
communities by reducing access to forest resources
(e.g., B&R species), and
 Bio-cultural heritage: Loss of forest resources also
destroys B&R based cultural or spiritual sites and
indigenous and local knowledge & practices, .


6. People’s perception on biodiversity loss in
the world

7. Conserving B&R biodiversity through
Sustainable TFM
1. Enforcing national regulations in a participatory
manner; involving local communities in tropical forest
management (TFM) and community conservation.
2. Establishing TFM plans in which biodiversity
conservation objectives are clearly and explicitly
mentioned;
3. Protecting native and locally important species and
habitats of special concern (e.g. B&R species);
4. Planning the allocation of production forests at a
landscape scale maintaining continuous natural forests
for high bamboo and rattan biodiversity.

8. Conserving B&R Sp. through Sustainable
TFM
5. Raising public and political awareness on
international/national laws on importance of B&R
biodiversity conservation (Aichi goals & targets of
CBD) .
6. Establishing multi-stakeholder and multi-
disciplinary approaches across landscapes to ensure
coordination and co-operation.
7. Insuring protection and/or establishment of natural
forest within plantation forests to maintain high
conservation value with B&R diversity

9. Wild Management and Domestication of B&R
•Joint selection of commercially viable B&R species in
consultation with private traders and manufacturers;
• Seed, Rhizomes and saplings collection by selecting
native species for ex-situ cultivation;
• Joint planning with private sector companies for organic
production & marketing of B&R species;
• Quality testing of product samples (stem, nodes, skins
etc., etc);
• Signing of MoU with company for 3-5 years of buy-back
arrangement of B&R products.

10. Forest Land Restoration with B&R species
1 Vast areas of degraded wasteland and degraded
forest/grazing land can be rehabilitated with the B&R
plantation following ecosystem based approaches:
1. Forest Restoration with multi-purpose tropical
tress and bamboo and rattan species to perform
forest functions;
2. Active collaboration and negotiation among
multiple stakeholders including private sectors; and
3. Working across a landscape.

11. • Forested protected areas house critical
biodiversity areas and help safeguard a range of
ecosystem goods and services;
. Protected B&R areas protect biological diversity,
cultural landscapes and evolutionary processes;
. Effective protected area management help
reduce poverty by supporting livelihoods,
. B&R mix forests pprovides social and cultural
governance and subsistence values in TFM
B&R Biodiversity in Protected Forest Areas

12. Tropical Forest Biodiversity through
Sustainable B&R Management
• Up to 96% of the value of forests is derived from
non-timber forest products (NTFPs) including B&R
species (MEA 2005).
• Most of the non-timber products are dominated
by natural products such as rattan products.
• Maintaining Tropical Forests as nature’s garden
for food, shelter, livelihood, nutrition and
medicine protects TF.
• Giving B&R conservation & production top
priority in TFM schemes

13. B&R Management can enhance Good
Forest Governance
 Good forest governance, including clear
tenure rights and proper law enforcement,
plays a crucial role for the sustainable use of
B&R resources.
 The most successful approaches for B&R
governance are based on a ‘tri-partite
approach’, with government, civil society,
and the private sector jointly agreeing upon
necessary reforms and improvements.

14. Tropical Forest Biodiversity Conservation
Through B&R Management
 Prevent Unsustainable, unregulated and
unauthorized harvesting:
 Include Bamboo and Rattan components in
the national, state and local government
development strategies and policies (e.g.
SFM, NBSAP, SDG programmes)
 Transform shifting cultivation into well
managed rotation agro forestry with
dominance of NTFPs and B&R sp.

15. Introduce Incentivised Mechanisms (e.g.
PES, REDD+) for B&R production
 Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) provides
economic incentives to land owners to supply
environmental services including B&R products.
 Carbon and other environmental services such as
water, carbon and livelihoods are developing rapidly;
 Launch REDD+ for carbon sequestration, watershed
services, biodiversity conservation, and eco-tourism.
 PES and REDD+ provide multiple goals of
preserving environment, conserving biodiversity and
contributing to poverty reduction (UNEP and IUCN).

16. B&R and Global Targets Agreements
 Promotion of B&R in TFM can help Asia Pacific
countries achieve Aichi Biodiversity targets, esp. 14,
15 and 16 and 18 (under the CBD and Nagoya
Protocol);
 B&R conservation and cultivation can also help
achieve a number of SDGs especially related to
poverty, hunger, climate change, terrestrial and
aquatic biodiversity conservation (SDG 1,2, 13, 14,
and 15).

17. Conclusion and Way Forward
 Bamboo and Rattan species are globally valuable sources
of livelihood products, and they are disappearing at a
high speed.
 Both conservation strategies (e.g. in situ and ex situ
conservation and cultivation practices) and sustainable
forest resource management should be promoted for
achieving TFM.
 Multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary
and multi-objectives forest management can conserve
and sustainably produce B&R requirements
 Market-based approaches such as Value Chain
Development should be applied to improve yield and
harness the potential of B&R resources.