President Abadie’s Address

Michel Abadie

Dear bamboo friends,

As the new President of the World Bamboo Organization, I would like to share with you my best wishes for this New Year. I will take this opportunity to say that I measure the great honor for me to be elected to this position. I accept it with a great sense of humility and responsibility.

Today, as I discover the pathway to go, narrow and full of surprises, I embrace the challenge. But we are not alone on this journey. With us, there are millions of people concerned with bamboo. From the field and the forest to the factory and the merchant, from the design studio to the laboratory, from the universities to the political power, people are more and more aware of this potentially renewable resource. In the last decade, bamboo has become a major economic crop.

In 2010, the world bamboo market was about $7 billion USD. Within the next few years, it is expected to reach $15 to 20 billion USD by 2017.

But more than this economic aspect, bamboo is also truly an environmental plant.

I remember the words of Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN Secretary General, during the Bangkok 2009 WBC organized by WBO: “The potential advantages of bamboo for the environment and economic development cannot be understated… Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs too. So let us look at bamboo in terms of sustainable development and the environment… From a social perspective, bamboo is also important because it has a great potential as a source of productive employment… However, to realize the potential of bamboo, interventions are needed, particularly in the fields of forestry and land use, industry, technology, and finance.”

More recently, on September 18, 2010, it was the words of Shri M. Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India at the World Bamboo Day in Kohima (Nagaland): “The importance of bamboo is enhanced in the backdrop of global concerns of ecology and environment and the looming threat of global warming and climate change. Bamboo is emerging as the most viable wood substitute. Unlike steel and plastic, it is eco-friendly, being not only biodegradable but also having enormous capacity to sequester carbon. Furthermore, as the fastest growing plant on earth, it is a renewable resource with short gestation.”

It is because we are all involved in that changing world that we have a challenge to solve. Bamboo lovers as well as bamboo growers, bamboo makers as well as bamboo bankers. We all have the responsibility to promote bamboo. Not only once a year on World Bamboo Day, but day by day with a few daily words or acts.

The WBO, to take part in promoting the use of bamboo, will enact a vital three-direction strategy: sharing, sharing and sharing!

>  Sharing the idea of mobility as a part of the environmental perspective.

>  Sharing our knowledge as part of our capability and expertise.

>  Sharing communication as part of our ability to inform.

During this coming year, we will take the time to develop and enlarge these three points for promoting bamboo. We will do it! Step by step! In the spirit of millions of people who live from this plant, because we will promote bamboo as a material for the future. And the future is now!

Sincerely,

Michel Abadie

WBO President, 2011-2013