Abstract
The African region has untapped bamboo resource potential with immense socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological significances. Despite the long history of bamboo in the region, its contribution is at the infant stage. Therefore, the present study aimed at reviewing the existing literature supported by research experience on bamboo resource in the region. The review process mainly focused on four main specific objectives. These include (1) review extensively African countries that owned the resource and identify the species in each country, (2) identify and document species, generic, and taxonomic tribes of each bamboo species, (3) assess and report bamboo area coverage from available nations, and (4) highlight the existing experiences of special opportunities, challenges, and successful achievements on bamboo resource in representative African countries. The review process found out that a total of 4.56 million ha total bamboo area and 115 bamboo species are reported from 48 African countries. Hence, the African region shares 12.3% of the global bamboo resource and contributed 7.3% of the total bamboo species. Of this, 89.6% of the region is endowed with indigenous bamboo species. Among indigenous species, O. abyssinica is the most widely distributed in 38 African countries. Madagascar ranked first with 37 indigenous species, while Ethiopia led by 25 introduced bamboo species. Nowadays, Ethiopia has 1.44 million ha total indigenous bamboo area coverage, which accounted for 31.6% of the African region and 3.89% of the world total. Therefore, more detail and comprehensive research on species taxonomy, resource base inventory, silvicultural applications, and socioeconomic study is recommended.
Highlights
Ethiopia has 1.44 million ha total indigenous bamboo area coverage, which accounted for 31.6% of the African region and 3.89% of the world total. erefore, more detail and comprehensive research on species taxonomy, resource base inventory, silvicultural applications, and socioeconomic study is recommended
The global distribution of bamboo resource can be classified into four major geographic regions [10,11,12] (Figure 1). ese major bamboo regions comprise the AsiaPacific region with more than 900 species [10, 11], American region with over 500 species [4], and the African region with 43 species [13,14,15]. e African region comprises the mainland Africa and the associated islands surrounding the continent including Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, São Tomeand Prıncipe, and Seychelles. ese regions are located at 51°N–42°S [12], 40°N–47°S [10,11,12], and 16°N–22°S [10, 11, 16] in their respective orders
Our extensive literature review showed that a total of 115 bamboo species are widely distributed among 48 countries in the African region (Table 1). is accounted for 7.3% of the global bamboo species and covered 82.8% of the African region. is covered vast areas which extend from western coast at Senegal to the eastern part at Mauritius, while it stretched from Morocco in the north to South Africa in the southern part
Summary
Bamboo belongs to the subfamily Bambusoideae and family Gramineae or Poaceae [1,2,3]. European, North American, and Australian regions are emerged due to the introduction of many bamboo species from Asia, Africa, and South America mostly for gardening, ornamentals, and other uses [10,11,12]. The African region has very little bamboo resource in terms of species diversity and area coverage almost entirely limited to tropical zones [4]. It comprises 7% of the world bamboo resource with total area coverage of over 2.8 million ha within six nations [7]. Erefore, it needs urgent call for special focus and action for the sustainable development and promotion of bamboo resource in the African region. is comprises (1) review extensively African countries that owned the resource and identify the species in each country by their scientific names, (2) identify and document bamboo species including their description and generic and taxonomic tribes of each bamboo species, (3) assess and report bamboo area coverage from African nations that have available information, and (4) highlight special opportunities, challenges, and successful achievements on bamboo resource in representative African countries
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