Plant Resources of South-East Asia. Bamboos

S. Dransfield and E.A. Widjaja (Editors)

Prosea, short for Plant Resources of South-East Asia, is an international programme focused on South-East Asia. Its purpose is to make available the wealth of dispersed knowledge on plant resources for education, extension, research and industry through a computerized data bank and an illustrated multivolume handbook. A thorough knowledge of plant resources is essential for human life and plays a key role in ecologically balanced land-use systems. Extensive information on the plants growing in the region is needed to enable the plant resources of each country to be used optimally. A large international team of experts is preparing the texts on particular species or genera, which are being published in commodity groups. All taxa are treated in a similar manner with details on uses, botany, ecology, agronomy or silviculture, genetic resources, breeding, prospects and literature.

This volume deals with the bamboos of South-East Asia. For centuries bamboos have been of great importance in rural communities in tropical Asia, being used intensively as a sustainable resource for numerous purposes.
Bamboos are often classified as minor or non-timber forest products and their value or potential value has been largely underestimated. In recent years the commercialization of bamboo exploitation for commodities such as bamboo shoots, bamboo boards, chopsticks, pulp for paper manufacture, and bamboo handicrafts, has caused an increase in the demand for the raw material. This necessitates sustainable management of natural stands and the establishment of bamboo plantations. Reliable and up-to-date information, however, is scarce. In this volume, 45 major bamboo species are highlighted extensively and illustrated, and the characteristics of another 30 minor species are given in brief. The introduction deals with general aspects of bamboo and a glossary explains the terms used.

Printed version:
Title: Plant Resources of South-East Asia. No 7. Bamboos. S. Dransfield and E.A. Widjaja (Editors).
Year of publication: 1995.
Copyright: Prosea Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia; Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands.
ISBN: 9073348358 (hardbound), 9798316215 (paperback).

CD-rom version:
Title: Plant Resources of South-East Asia. Rattans and bamboos.
Year of publication: 2001.
Copyright: ETI & Prosea Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia; Pudoc, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
ISBN: 90-75000-19-7