Accomplished Activities

Introduction

Bamboo is one of the non-timber forest products, which support the livelihood of millions of local people in small-scale cottage industries in Ethiopia since time immemorial. It is very important to Ethiopia, because of the fact that, the country's high forest coverage estimated is only 3.56% which is still alarmingly decreasing, while bamboo can be a substitute for almost all wood products. It is a commodity, indigenous to various countries in Africa; Ethiopia for example hosts a total area of 1.3 million hectares of bamboo representing the largest bamboo source in Africa accounting 67% of the African bamboo resources, and about 7% of the world total. The development of industrial Utilization of bamboo would help to solve problems of housing, furniture shortage and provide more job opportunities. Apart from providing the above-mentioned wide range of uses, bamboo plays a crucial role in environmental protection. It is one the fastest growing and highest yielding renewable resource. In spite of the lack of skills and technology beyond some traditional uses and applications, the economic and development potentials of bamboo as an alternate “cash” crop can be enhanced through use of its comparatively rich endowments in natural resources as a platform to stimulate growth and development. Naturally, only two bamboo species, namely Yushania alpina and Oxytenanthera abyssinica are growing in Ethiopia.

In this regard, actionable measures to develop bamboo resources have been taken by developing this regional bamboo project in East Africa particularly in Ethiopia and Kenya with a total cost of US$ 2.5 million, out of it a grant of US$ 1.6 million has been contributed by CFC along with UNIDO co-financing of US$ 166,000, US$ 351,000 from the Government of Ethiopia, and US$ 368,000 from Kenyan side. The project has officially launched its implementation starting from January 2006.

As the first Regional Project Steering Committee (RPSC) meeting in Nairobi (April 2006) had laid down the first milestones, the second RPSC Meeting held in Ethiopia in January 2007 has concluded the first year of the project implementation which consists of the main project set-up and study activities such as:

* Setting up of project offices, establishing communication facilities, purchasing of project vehicles, hiring the relevant project staffs, introduce project staff to the UN-administration,
* Select the project priority areas based on suitable selection criteria and conduct baseline survey on each target villages
* Conduct various studies as a basis for project planning and implementation
* Start procurement of bamboo processing tools, equipments, seedlings, etc
* Start training of staffs, participate in international trainings and workshops
* Start trainings of beneficiaries(farmers & micro entrepreneurs) on bamboo cultivation and processing
* Organize stakeholders’ awareness creation workshops at middle and higher level.

The Project in Ethiopia Side has accomplished activities on the following Components:

Component 1: Technology transfer and skills development for increased productivity

Component 2: Developing capacity for the sustainable supply of raw materials

Component 3: Increasing market access

Read/Download Full Report:

* IPE Project progress report for EAB [pdf]
* UNIDO-IPE-EAB Project progress report [pdf]
* Project final report 2006 [pdf]

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