Celebrating Visionaries in Bamboo Innovation

Rafael Guillaumin was the son of a coffee family in Huatusco, Veracruz. In the early 1990’s he went looking for alternative crops and discovered bamboo. After working for over 50 years in the coffee sector, mainly as an exporter, he ventured into the manufacturing of lime and tourism due to the declining price of coffee. His business activities also included livestock, sugar cane, and eco-tourism activities. He served as an advisor of the Mexican Association of Coffee Exporters, as a member of the National Confederation of Coffee Producers, was Former President of the Produce Foundation Veracruz, A.C., General Director of Cordial Tourism (Hotel Los Cocuyos) Regional Councilor of INIFAP, Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Veracruzan Council of Bamboo Acknowledgments and subsequently he founded Bambuver.

Although Rafael was aware of bamboo as an ancestral product, in 1996 he discovered new uses of bamboo in other countries and saw it as a viable option to develop an agroforestry and commercial interest, which could contribute to the improvement of the environment, via reforestation.

Given this perspective, he had the vision of promoting the cultivation of bamboo throughout Mexico and established the company Bambuver AC, in 2000. The company grew strong, and to date, is dedicated to the promotion of the cultivation of bamboo for forestry, for construction purposes, for added value via technology and industrialization, and more recently as biomass for alternative energy.

Rafael Guillaumin spent 12 years traveling to many countries to learn all he could about bamboo cultivation, propagation, harvesting, and manufacturing. Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil and India, showed him adaptable technologies, appropriate species, and best management practices. It was a true exchange. He shared his personal knowledge and motivated farmers in the field to also work in bamboo. He planted nearly three million plants of different varieties in states such as Veracruz, Chiapas, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tabasco, Jalisco and Colima, among others.

More than a farmer, Rafael was a pioneer in industry. His work and projects generated demand for bamboo, and he developed markets and useful products for various applications. For all these reasons, Rafael Guillaumin Fentanes won the 2009 National Award for Forest Merit, in the non-timber forest category, convened by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, through the National Forestry Commission, delivered at the inaugural ceremony of the Forest Expo 2009 in Mexico City. Later, in the month of November of that same year, his work was recognized by the Colombian Bamboo Society, within the framework of the II Congress of Bamboo and Guadua, held in Armenia Colombia.

During the following years, Rafael Guillaumin continued his work promoting the culture of bamboo. In the year of 2010, he had the opportunity to participate in the construction project of the dome to house the commemorative stele of the 100 years of existence of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Throughout his career, he worked tirelessly to publicize bamboo in prestigious publications such as: Expansión, Content, El Financiero, La Jornada, Leading Magazine, among others. Thanks to his teachings and encouragement, Bambuver collaborators have been speakers at national and international events. He was a true mentor and friend of all who were interested in bamboo. He collaborated with many organizations and institutions, too, including Conacyt (2000 Bamboo Technology And Research Center), Conafor (2004 Alternative National Integral Development Of Bamboo), Conofovi (2002, Proposal For The Development Of A Methodology For The Construction Of Houses Using Bamboo As A Raw Material), Veracruz Bamboo Council, Veracruz University, UNAM (2001), Technological Institute of Orizaba (2002), DMCYT University of Guadalajara (2003), UAM-UNIT Xochilmilco, College of Postgraduates (2002 Forest Program), UNCADER, CRUO-UACH Autonomous University of Chapingo, Institute of Electrical Investigations, TEZCAPIF AC Alternative Therapeutic and Pedagogical Environmental Training Center, and many others

One of Rafael’s main objectives via Bambuver was always social actions. From different places in the marginalized areas, groups came to Bambuver to request information, receive instruction, and sometimes Rafael went to the localities to give the necessary training. For example, a group of peasants of the Sierra de San Luis Potosí, a group of peasants of the Sierra de Puebla, and, on the coast of Chiapas, more than 20 communities adopted the planting of bamboo as an element of protection against natural disasters, as a result of the ravages caused by Hurricane Stan in 2005. He taught five courses in the mountains of Totonacapan in Veracruz. His work is very evident in the region around Huatusco, where producers, craftsmen and workers have joined Bambuver AC to be trained and make a living. Just drive into the community of Huatusco, and you will see bamboo everywhere, thanks to Rafael!

The main objective of Rafael Guillaumin and Bambuver AC has not been the economic one. The main objective has been to make a difference; a difference in the community and the region and the state. It has managed to form an organization today that has an industrial unit producing raw materials for construction, decoration and the furniture industry, and has become a supplier of bamboo nursery plants for the development of commercial and ornamental plantations throughout the entire country.

Relevant Publications:

Reuters Published November 4, 2004, The Bamboo Steel Vegetable. International Publication, Entrepreneur Magazine Vol.2 No.001

Guillaumin Fentanes, R., 1999. Programs of Integral Development of Bamboo, Bambuver A.C.

Guillaumin Fentanes R., 2001. The Bamboo and its expectations. Agroentorno No. 26.29.

Guillaumin Fentanes R., 1999. Bamboo Vegetable Steel. Expansion No. 778: 95 El Financiero. March 11, 1999. Mexico, towards the production of bamboo sliver to make paper. The Financial.

May 12, 1999. A Natural Business. Reform.

September 20, 1999. Bamboo, in search of its commercialization. Reportage. Opinion, Xalapa section.

Assistance to International Congresses:

World Bamboo Congress, in Costa Rica, 1998, World Bamboo Congress in India, 2004, International Bamboo Congress, Manizales Colombia, 2004.

Rafael Guillaumin has been a man of work and conviction, no doubt, and at the end of his years, the greatest of his satisfactions and to which he dedicated passion and dedication, was the bamboo, which is why we remember him with such affection and admiration. He was known by his infinity of friends or collaborators as Don Rafael, Rafa, or Fallo. This singular man dedicated the best part of his life to plant bamboo, and in return, reaped joy, enthusiasm, and spiritual strength which overshadowed his natural physical deterioration. He harvested the recognition of thousands of visitors to his space which he alone transformed into bamboo forests.

His son, Maurico Guillaumin, (Chair of the 11WBC Mexico National Organizing Committee) says this about his father:

“ It is very natural to praise his memory as a pioneer in the country. I admire him, not for the absence of failures and failures, but for having converted all of them; in experience he has bequeathed us the knowledge that is acquired with the courage to try and with the humility to accept the error and correct it, and the generosity, for sharing it. He said it many times in his participation in forums, congresses, conferences or talks "I do not come to teach them, because I know little. I will feel very satisfied if in the end, I managed to sow in you, the interest to learn.” I am left with the desire to turn their stems <bamboo> into paper, into food, into energy. He left me in charge, yes. With what was without doubt, it was with the satisfaction of having sown the seed of what sooner rather than later, will become lungs that oxygenate our environment and make it more beautiful: Bamboo Forests.”

Rafael Guillaumin was like the bamboo, "The strong winds, perhaps doubled, but never broke." Mexico’s first World Bamboo Pioneer!