Bamboo Institute

The Bamboo Institute’s Bamboo Nursery Project in Liquica District, TimorLeste, focuses on cultivating bamboo across 2,000 hectares to combat coastal erosion, improve soil stability, and empower local communities with bamboo preprocessing skills. The initiative aims to create sustainable income opportunities by training community groups to process bamboo for use in furniture, handicrafts, and biomass pellets for clean-burning cookstoves, promoting renewable energy and public health. With an integrated approach to environmental conservation and community development, the project is positioned as a key driver of sustainable progress in the region. The ABIC funding will support nursery expansion, seedling production, community training, and procurement of bamboo processing equipment, with a focus on monitoring and evaluation. In the next six months, 21,000 bamboo seedlings will be planted by trained local communities, with the Bamboo Institute serving as the off-taker for six tons of split bamboo, generating $2,800 for the community. Over the next two years, the Bamboo Institute aims to establish 10,000 hectares of bamboo to further mitigate coastal erosion and enhance environmental resilience, becoming a central hub for the sustainable empowerment of local bamboo growers and off-takers in Timor-Leste.