2. Basic situation of bamboo resources in China

Bamboo is a rapidly developing, renewable, widely distributed, low-cost, environmentimprovement resource. It has the potential to improve poverty alleviation and environment conservation [6]. Bamboos are plants belonging to the subfamily Bambusoideae. According to the data collected, there are 116 genera and 1439 species worldwide [7], of which 62% are native to Asia [8]. China has the most abundant and diverse bamboo species. In China, a total of 861 species and infraspecific taxa in 43 genera have been reported, including 707 species, 52 varieties, 98 forma, and 4 hybrids. Bamboo is naturally distributed in 21 provinces (municipalities or Autonomous Regions) [9]. These taxa include 10 genera and 48 species of endemic bamboo [10]. According to the Eighth National Forest Inventory from 2009 to 2013, statistics shows that the national bamboo forest area covers 6.01 million ha, including 4.43 million ha of Moso bamboo and 1.58 million ha of other bamboo species.

The bamboo forests in China are mainly distributed in 18 provinces. The major provinces with more than 300,000 ha of bamboo forest are Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Anhui, and the eight provinces (autonomous regions), accounting for 89.10% of the total bamboo forest area. From 1980 to 2013, the bamboo forest area in each province increased annually (Table 1).

It is worth noting that the area of bamboo forest resource distribution in Yunnan is not large in China, but Yunnan is considered as one of the original bamboo centers not only in Asia but also worldwide. In Yunnan, 28 genera and at least 250 bamboo species have been found, half of which are of ancient origin [11]. Yunnan has 26 minority nationalities, and people of all nationalities widely use bamboo in clothing, food, shelter, transportation, and in all its aspects in the long-term practice. Bamboo has a profound and unique influence on life and China has a unique special ethnic bamboo culture.


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