**2. Role of bamboo in sustainable economic viability**

World bamboo sector in different countries are unique in terms of their scale and level of organization. Bamboo in many countries follows the global constraints on forests and timber, and the ongoing need to develop rural industries and improve poverty. Policies in the forest sector are critical in ensuring the healthy development of the bamboo. Depending on the particular condition, bamboo is treated as tree or agriculture crop. To avoid hindrance to sustainable development, this tree or crop is fitted in such policies to pose least threat to sustainable sector. Therefore, clear classification had been designed by different countries, which are well recognized and made in accordance with ecological conditions of bamboo. Bamboo has been recognized as multifunction species and single purpose for bamboo has been avoided by developing countries. In economically sound countries with significant bamboo sectors, different agencies and societies are working specifically on bamboo are playing an important role in formulating policies to ensure healthiness of agro-forestry and natural resources. For example, model systems opted by China should be utilized where there is strict need of it. Presently, the farmers are investing in the bamboo industry with making secure their right of uses manage and transfer resources.

The restricted use of bamboo in some contents of the world has provided limited knowledge about the economic feasibility of bamboo. To acquire more knowledge into building and maintenance costs of the initially described bamboo applications have been compared to more common building materials such as steel, timber and concrete taking environmental assessment and the same structural elements into account [17]. Some buildings have been executed in European countries with bamboo as the main structural material. Although, there are problems some of which had direct consequences of the use of bamboo. This influence of working with bamboo has been analyzed. Therefore, studies on critical factors of failure and success of the application of bamboo in Western European building projects have been carried out to provide solutions as to preventing measures or reduce the negative impacts of their causes [17].


**Table 2.** Commonly available bamboo species in Malaysia [20].

bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) are functioning at the international level. A well mechanized mode has been adopted at global level, for primary processing and product manufacturing. A collective effort by Choudhury and Sharma [15] to summarize the uses and importance of bamboo shoots on global level has provided enough knowledge to researchers associated with development and utilization of bamboo. The authors provided a global scenario of marketing the bamboo and earnings from it although considering it as underestimated natural resources at international level, even being found naturally or cultivated. The market value of bamboo in China and America is worth of millions dollars in terms of import and export marketing. USA imports tones of bamboo from many Asian countries for food items. India, an economically superpower country is alone doing bamboo marketing in millions of rupees.

World bamboo sector in different countries are unique in terms of their scale and level of organization. Bamboo in many countries follows the global constraints on forests and timber, and the ongoing need to develop rural industries and improve poverty. Policies in the forest sector are critical in ensuring the healthy development of the bamboo. Depending on the particular condition, bamboo is treated as tree or agriculture crop. To avoid hindrance to sustainable development, this tree or crop is fitted in such policies to pose least threat to sustainable sector. Therefore, clear classification had been designed by different countries, which are well recognized and made in accordance with ecological conditions of bamboo. Bamboo has been recognized as multifunction species and single purpose for bamboo has been avoided by developing countries. In economically sound countries with significant bamboo sectors, different agencies and societies are working specifically on bamboo are playing an important role in formulating policies to ensure healthiness of agro-forestry and natural resources. For example, model systems opted by China should be utilized where there is strict need of it. Presently, the farmers are investing in the bamboo industry with making secure their right of

The restricted use of bamboo in some contents of the world has provided limited knowledge about the economic feasibility of bamboo. To acquire more knowledge into building and maintenance costs of the initially described bamboo applications have been compared to more common building materials such as steel, timber and concrete taking environmental assessment and the same structural elements into account [17]. Some buildings have been executed in European countries with bamboo as the main structural material. Although, there are problems some of which had direct consequences of the use of bamboo. This influence of working with bamboo has been analyzed. Therefore, studies on critical factors of failure and success of the application of bamboo in Western European building projects have been carried out to provide solutions as to preventing measures or reduce the negative impacts of

As summary, various uses of bamboo are presented in **Table 1**.

**2. Role of bamboo in sustainable economic viability**

uses manage and transfer resources.

148 Bamboo - Current and Future Prospects

their causes [17].

In Malaysia, government has classified bamboo as a non-timber forest and is next in importance to rattan. It has been used as food as well as traditional and commercial products since ages. There are more than 50 species of bamboo reported in Malaysia, an integral part of forestry, but it is also commonly spread outside forests including farmlands, riverbanks, roadsides and urban areas. Based on Fourth National Forest Inventory, bamboo occupies about 7% of the total forest area in Peninsular Malaysia (the total area of Peninsular Malaysia is 131,600 km2 ). The list of bamboo species available in Malaysia with proper uses is given **Table 2**. The genera found in the country are *Bambusa*, *Dendrocalamus*, *Dinochloa*, *Gigantochloa*, *Racemobambos*, *Schizostachyum*, *Thyrsostachys*, *Chusqua*, *Phyllostachys* and *Yushania* [18]. Among all the species available, 14 Malaysian bamboo have been identified as commercial species [19] To maximize the exploration of bamboo industry in Malaysia, bamboo resources are needed to be maintained for industries particularly for joss sticks, chopsticks, basket-making, toothpicks and joss-papers. A systematic policies for the production bamboo is the need of present economic scenario of Malaysia, otherwise there will be depletion in demand of bamboo. The sustainable future of bamboo in Malaysia needs sustainable plantation of bamboo resources. In context to this, Malaysian government has disseminated trial of Malaysian commercial bamboos at few sites but not on the whole Peninsular Malaysia.

**3.1. Physical properties**

gravity, shrinkage and fracture roughness.

**Figure 1.** Terminology of a bamboo culm [33].

Utilization of bamboo has now advanced from traditional to structural applications such as composites and advanced materials [29, 30]. The advancement in usage of bamboo needs further understanding of the material characteristics such as the physical properties. Terminology of a bamboo culm is illustrated in **Figure 1**. Physical properties of the node and internode positions of bamboo have been investigated by Tamizi [31] with small size specimens (strips of bamboo). The statistical data obtained showed a great variation according to the sources and position of the samples obtained from the bamboo. It was observed that moisture content was higher at the inner layer and reduced in the outer layer of the bamboo culm. Liese [32] claimed that different bamboo species showed different moisture values which can be attributed to difference in some inherent factors such as age, anatomical features and chemical composition. But in this case, the age factor is not involved since all samples were taken from 3 years bamboo culms. In this chapter, discussion is focusing on moisture content, specific

Recent Advancement in Physico-Mechanical and Thermal Studies of Bamboo and Its Fibers

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The higher moisture content could be influenced by the anatomical structure of bamboo. The inner layer contains lower vascular bundles concentration which leads to higher moisture content as compared to outer layer as shown by Li [28]. This phenomenon is similar to nonwood plant, i.e., oil palm trunk which shown higher content of parenchyma in core part. Engler et al. [34] has reported the relation between moisture content and thermal use of one of the bamboo species. Authors stated that moisture content is one of the most relevant characteristics, which significantly influences the thermal use and efficiency. A comparison study with other species of wood has been done and authors revealed that the moisture content of bamboo was higher at an average of 136.9% and spreading widely. Related to the ages, the

*3.1.1. Moisture content*
