1. Introduction

Bamboo belongs to the subfamily Bambusoideae and may be grown in any temperate climate zones in Asia, Africa, and Latin America [1]. The total area of bamboo forests is 22.0 10 ha, which account for about 1% of the total global forest area [2]. Over the last 3 decades, bamboo has evolved from being a raw material for basic goods into a material base of an increasingly diversified array of products; recently, bamboo has been recognized as a potentially important

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and eproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

source of cultural and environmental services [3]. Bamboo species, particularly the large clump bamboo, have enormous potential as an energy source. The bamboo industry plays an important role in economy and society development in China and other countries worldwide [4]. With the expansion of bamboo forests, their importance in people's lives has also increased. Hence, scholars have focused on developing bamboo forest production, increasing the bamboo forest yield, and establishing methods for rational use of bamboo resources in global forestry production.

China has the most abundant bamboo resources worldwide and the richest bamboo culture. Bamboo greatly influences not only the Chinese history and culture but also people's daily life. Although the total forest area in many countries has decreased drastically, the area of bamboo forests has consistently increased at a rate of 3% annually [5].

In recent years, significant advances have been achieved in bamboo cultivation and development, carbon fixation and storage, and ecological and environmental functions in China. This chapter reviews the traditional utilization methods of bamboo resources in China.

3. Utilization types of bamboo resources in China

mechanical production of bamboo have continuously improved.

ing industry and daily life of Chinese people.

southern rural areas.

tourism.

Bamboo plays an important role in the development of Chinese historical culture. Through the ages, bamboo has been gaining an increasing attention from Chinese people. As one of the fastest growing plants, bamboo has become one of the most important forest resources and has a high commercial value and ecological function. Bamboo is indispensable in the manufactur-

Table 1. Statistics of increase in bamboo resources in major provinces and autonomous regions in China (unit: 10,000 ha).

Provinces 1980 1995 2005 2013 Provinces 1980 1995 2005 2013 Fujian 56.71 64.08 91.07 106.75 Guangxi 8.60 13.80 16.32 34.09 Jiangxi 58.20 70.93 93.47 99.89 Guizhou 2.40 3.87 4.43 15.69 Hunan 53.30 68.35 88.80 77.83 Jiangsu 1.80 2.23 2.87 3.37 Zhejiang 45.20 62.45 72.60 83.34 Sichuan 1.60 1.90 2.60 54.90 Anhui 15.30 20.34 24.53 33.72 Taiwan 0.50 0.63 0.80 — Guangdong 11.27 31.80 17.80 44.62 Yunnan 0.30 — 0.48 11.04 Hubei 8.60 8.60 13.80 14.40 Henan 0.29 0.47 1.67 2.74

Review of the Resources and Utilization of Bamboo in China

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China is a developing country that has a large number of population dependent on agriculture. Many of their production equipment and supplies are made of bamboo, especially in the

Since ancient times, bamboo has been widely used in the daily life of people in rural China. Therefore, most of the bamboos produced in China are used in rural and agricultural production. Bamboo resources in China were traditionally utilized by local farmers as minor forest products with weak linkage in the market. In recent years, with the fast pace of modernization, bamboo plants have replaced wood because of their advantages, such as fast growth, high yield, short rotation, and easy management. The bamboo processing industry has gathered momentum and entered a new stage. By the end of the twentieth century, dozens of countries established bamboo-based paper milling, with annual output of more than 1 million tons of bamboo paper and bamboo pulp production capacity of 4 million tons. Fine processing of bamboo has also gained increasing attention to produce a new type of artificial bamboo board with features similar to those of wood. Research and production of bamboo products have reached the practical level and production scale. The wood-based panel industry has been in the forefront in terms of variety and scale worldwide. Furthermore, the quality and process of

Table 2 shows the methods for utilizing bamboos. The main application of bamboo in China is divided into two parts: economic use and ecological utilization. Economic utilization can be roughly divided into timber bamboo, shoots bamboo, skin bamboo, and art and crafts bamboo. Ecological value can be divided into water conservation forest and ecological forest
