considered the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia – has been
announced as one of 25 winners of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) Equator Prize 2010.
“This is the first time a
project on Vietnam’s bamboo has been honoured in the world,” Tuoi Tre
(Youth) newspaper quoted Dr Diep Thi My Hanh, who chairs the project on
“Phu An Bamboo Ecological Museum and Botanical Reserve” in the southern
province of Binh Duong, as saying on August 24.
The Phu An Bamboo
Village is a cooperation project between Binh Duong province and Ho
Chi Minh City National University , France ’s Rhone Alpes Region and
Pilat Natural Park of France. It has an initial investment of nearly 675
million EUR.
Six years after implementation, the ecological
reserve in Binh Duong province has a collection of about 130 species of
bamboo belonging to 17 varieties. Among them are rare and precious
varieties of each region in the country such as ivory bamboo and
yellow-striped bamboo.
The 10ha reserve also includes a
museum made from bamboo displaying equipment, instruments and works made
from bamboo materials such as music instruments, and a research area
for scientists and students who want to learn about bamboo and growing
and developing this tropical tree.
The Phu An Bamboo Village is
likely to turn into Asia’s bamboo reserve, said Dr. Gabriel de Taffin,
regional director of the French Agricultural Research Centre for
International Development (CIRAD) in Southeast Asia .
According
to Hanh, bamboo grows fast, is used for different purposes, and is
particularly useful in absorbing carbon dioxide and fighting climate
change.
Apart from protecting the biodiversity of bamboo, the Phu
An Bamboo Village is a centre for research and technological transfer
on the applications of bamboo in life and environmental protection, Hanh
said.
Dr. Hanh now researches the applications of bamboo in
absorbing heavy metal present in soil, bamboo fibre in replacing
composite material, and cellulose from bamboo as water-resistant
material, and production of biological clothes or nylon bags.
The
Equator Prize is an award for initiatives in natural resource
conservation that meets the goal of poverty reduction, community
development, gender equality, focusing on women, environmental
protection, and serving sustainable development.
Equator Prize
2010 winners will be celebrated at a high level event at the American
Museum of Natural History on September 20, 2010. Representatives from
winning communities will also participate in the Community Summit
dialogue space, to be held in conjunction with the United Nations
General Assembly in New York./.
