Bamboo going

Half the world's 1,200 woody bamboo species, one of the planet's most useful but least studied plants, face extinction because of forest destruction, according to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge.

In the first comprehensive study of the bamboo scientists say that trade in these plants is worth as much as bananas or US beef, yet their value has been largely ignored.

The extraordinary lifestyle of bamboos - individuals of each species flower once simultaneously every 20 to 100 years and then die - makes them difficult to study, and vulnerable to rapid deforestation.

Bamboos are an ancient form of giant grass and can grow at great speed, up to 1.2 metres a day.

They are a major food source both for animals and people.

The most famous animal which relies on bamboo for its survival is the giant panda, but many other specialist creatures, including a tiny bat that lives in bamboo beetle holes, the mountain gorilla, the lemurs of Madagascar and spectacled bears all need species of bamboo to survive.

The report, sponsored by the UN Environment Programme, maps for the first time the location of all the known species.

The most alarming finding was that 250 woody bamboo species have less than 2,000 square kilometres (about the size of London) remaining within their ranges.

Many bamboos are grown commercially, particularly in China and other parts of Asia, but species that might be useful are in danger of disappearing before they have been studied.

China is the richest country in Asia in terms of bamboo resources with an estimate of 44,000-70,000 square kilometres.

Annual production of bamboo poles in China is 7m tonnes - one third of total world production.

China is also the leading exporter of bamboo shoots as food, worth nearly £100m a year.

Among the internationally traded products from cultivated bamboo, which is valued at £1.7bn, are furniture and paper.

There are 1,500 documented uses of bamboo and an estimated 2.5 billion people trade or use bamboo and depend on it for food, construction materials, furniture, handicrafts, acupuncture needles and even musical instruments.

In Colombia, for example bamboo is used as a building material instead of concrete in earthquake zones because it bends with the tremor and does not collapse.

Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said: "Bamboos are some of the oldest and most fascinating life forms on earth with high economic and conservation value.

Many curious and unique species depend on bamboo.

The trade is very valuable but until now the status and condition have been largely ignored.

"This new report highlights how vital it now is for the international community to take a far greater interest in these extraordinary plant species."

The lead author of the report team, Nadia Bystriakova said: "The 'at risk' status of bamboo must be recognised and measures taken to slow the loss of forest in the areas where bamboo is vulnerable."

Ian Hunter, the director general of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, an organisation set up to try to prevent bamboo disappearing, said some species must be collected and conserved to avoid them going extinct.

The Guardian