JAMAICA is now head of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), which has a 40-country membership and a population of more than three billion people.

Chairman of the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) Professor Winston Davidson, who made the disclosure recently, said the INBAR Council at its recent meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, selected Jamaica as the new chair of the organisation, signifying its confidence in the country’s institutions to be always standards-driven.

“We have earned every vote that we got to lead this organisation; this is the outcome of a relentless process, and we must be proud when we are given this honour,” Davidson told a bamboo forum in St Mary, recently.

He noted that leadership of 40 sovereign Governments that are members of the inter-governmental organisation is an achievement that will enable Jamaica to develop its own bamboo industry as INBAR has demonstrated how the industry can protect the environment, while providing an income for the people.

“The INBAR countries have done a great job in demonstrating the use of bamboo in mitigating climate change, through the ability of bamboo to sequester carbon,” Davidson said.

“With information from INBAR, we are developing a new standards-led market-driven bamboo industry, and as we develop our new value chains, Jamaica will be seeking to grow managed bamboo plantations as our contribution to arresting climate change,” he added.

Davidson, during the forum, announced plans for an agro park as well as a facility to make products from bamboo to be sited at Holland Bamboo Avenue in St Elizabeth.

“The renewable nature of the new bamboo plantations, along with the existing 47,000 hectares of common bamboo, will be adequate to provide sustainability in our poverty alleviation strategy, and development agenda,” he told the gathering.

Davidson commended former State Minister in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce Michael Stern for the work he did to highlight the importance of the bamboo industry.

“We need to understand that wherever good products or good initiatives are developed, they deserve the support of all Jamaica,” he said.