Gib Cooper, Executive Director of BOTA
 Dear Friend,While we are planting and enjoying our favorite bamboo, many native American bamboo species are ignored and even being destroyed in their home countries. Recently, in Mexico, I observed several ways bamboo habitat is disappearing. As people move further into the mountains, logging and land clearing activities expose islands of bamboo habitat. Herds of goats or cattle often follow to forage on the fragile vegetation and bamboo. These same areas may fall under slash-and-burn maize farming. Even bamboo in national parks and reserves may be at risk. In more settled areas, other small islands of bamboo are found clinging precariously to the roadside, protected only by pavement and pasture fencing. We are now taking action for the future. Native plants are disappearing rapidly. The only solution is cooperation with local botanic gardens and nurseries to collect the plants for local establishment and cultivation. We have a major long-term project funded by individual, business and bamboo society contributions, under the administration of the American Bamboo Society (ABS) and with the support and endorsement of the Oregon Bamboo Association (OBA), Southern California Chapter of the American Bamboo Society and Quail Botanical Gardens.Your commitment to the future of our American bamboo will help rescue our favorite plant from the uncertainty of population growth in Mexico and Brazil and set the example for Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador and Chile further down the road. Please send a tax deductible donation and be a part of saving American bamboo.Sincerely yours,Gib Cooper
|
Gilberto Cortes, Regional Director
 Bamboo is not only a plant that is used to construct houses, or to be used as an ornamental plant. Bamboo constitutes more than 1200 species worldwide, of which approximately 450 are located in America. Although some of these species are used commercially, many other remaining species have often ignored and little studied by those who dedicate themselves to bamboo.Many of the wild, natural or native species of bamboo that grow naturally in the forests of North and South America are mostly found under pressures caused by the man and that has their conservation status remaining in a critical state. Combined with this it is important to mention the biological aspects of the bamboo plant, that in many cases and for strictly genetic reasons, it is not possible to have the natural variability that is based on sexual reproduction of the bamboo plant: the cycles of sexual reproduction of bamboo go beyond annual flowering, as happens in most plants.Conservation action for bamboo in the Americas is the objective of Bamboo of the Americas (BOTA), a project of the American Bamboo Society (ABS) and with other related institutions has taken on this commitment for the bamboos. Through several courses of action, BOTA has initiated the formation of the National Collection of Bamboo in Mexico and given economic support to many people and institutions who take on investigations related to the conservation of these plants.Sincerely yours,Gilberto Cortes
|
