Clear Cut vs. Living Forests

It’s already week 2 of bamboo month!! WOOP! How many of our 100 cheeky bamboo benefits can you remember from last week?

Well, for this week’s bamboo month blog post we have chosen to get a bit sciencey with it. We’re going to be comparing clear cut forests to living forests. This is a really important concept for understanding why bamboo products are better for the environment than traditional tree-based ones. Grab your lab coat and magnifying glass and let’s get stuck into to the science…

So, what is a clear-cut forest? A clear-cut forest is where all the trees have been cut down completely killing the forest, with no chance of it naturally regrowing. For a lot of tree-based products, such as toilet roll, this is the method used to get the timber.

This has some devastating impacts:

• By removing the forest completely, this destroys all the habitats for animals, insects, fungi and microorganisms, meaning that there is no biodiversity in the area.
• Without the trees fixing the soil into place, rain and wind can easily erode the soil and then pollute local rivers or lakes.
• Removing trees also affects rain patterns changing the water cycle.
• And yes, finally… YOU GUESSED IT! Trees are our carbon sinks, absorbing CO2 and helping regulate earth’s temperatures. When you cut them down, they release all of it!

SO, clearly not a good idea, huh? Well, that’s why we’ve been such clever clogs and made all of our products out of bamboo. But you’re still cutting down a plant, doesn’t it do the same thing, we hear you all cry out. NO! Let’s explain…

When harvesting bamboo, farmers cut the bamboo shoots just above the roots. This means that the plant is still alive and can regrow back to full maturity in about 2-5 years, that’s 30X faster than trees can grow by the way! This avoids human replanting as it naturally regrows. This makes bamboo a regenerative resource.

Another important aspect is that when bamboo is harvested, a whole forest isn’t cleared at one time. Farmers carefully select which bamboo shoots have grown to full maturity, leaving a living forest that can support all of the biodiversity in the forest. This also means that the bamboo forest’s functions of absorbing 30% more carbon and releasing 35% more oxygen that trees, continues! Also, all the problems with soil erosion aren’t here as the wide shallow roots of bamboo fix the soil.

We hope this helped to explain the benefits of using these regenerative LIVING bamboo forests instead of killing trees for timber. Hope you’re ready for week 3 of bamboo month, it’s due to be an absolute banger!