CQU's Dr Grant Zhu and Professor David Midmore recently travelled to the Philippines to participate in a 2-day conference on 'Australia-Philippines Partnership in Bamboo for Sustainable Development' at the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources R&D (PCARRD), Los Banos.

Opened by the Director of PCARRD, Dr Patricio Faylon, the conference attracted over 50 representatives from private industry, government, non-government organisations and universities, and included participants from Indonesia and Vietnam.

The conference was organised to raise awareness of the development potential of bamboo, both in rural sectors and as an industrial commodity.

Professor Midmore said the presence of entrepreneurs and design specialists, as well as export agencies, reinforced the expanding recognition of bamboo on the international scene.

Presentations focused around the outcomes of a major research project, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), on improving bamboo field production and utilisation.

Professor Midmore spoke of the international importance of bamboo, both in terms of financial returns and in terms of the ecosystem services that it provides, and provided some specific production data from the Northern Territory.

Dr Zhu spoke on bamboo experiments conducted in South-East Queensland.

During the conference, in late November, a number of technical bulletins were released, summarising the key messages from the research undertaken in parallel in the Philippines.

Photo (above): CQU's Dr Grant Zhu at the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources R&D (PCARRD), Los Banos.

Photo (below): An earlier bamboo training session in Australia.