6 benefits of using bamboo for restoring ecosystems

Photo by Eleonora Albasi from Unsplash.

by Jerome Sagcal, Manila Bulletin

More countries have been recognizing the potential of bamboo in restoring damaged ecosystems. Among these countries is the Philippines which as part of the country’s enhanced National Greening Program, included bamboo planting as a tool to rehabilitate degraded watersheds. 

Bamboos have a lot to offer for their environment, so here are six benefits of using them for ecological restoration.

Fast-growing

Bamboos are considered the “Ferraris” of all woody plants. This is because of the speed at which they grow, as developing bamboos can add up to 1.2 meters to their height each day. Because of this, cutting down bamboo is not that damaging to the environment as they are easily replaceable. They can even complete their growth cycle in just three to four years and can even be harvested in a way that if only a third or sixth of the bamboo culms — the woody stem of the bamboo — are harvested per year, then more culms will actually grow in the following years.

Resilience

Bamboos forests have an underground network of fibrous roots called rhizomes which can extend up to 100km per hectare of bamboo. This biomass allows bamboo to survive and regenerate in locations that would otherwise be impossible to survive on. This makes bamboo resistant to the damaging effects of fire, flood, and drought on the environment. 

Improves soil quality

This underground root system also allows bamboo to grow in loose soil and steep slopes, which is often incompatible for other plants. It does this while counteracting soil erosion and improving soil quality. This is why bamboos are considered pioneer species as they can be introduced to an environment with poor soil quality and help improve it. 

A study in India showed how soil damaged by the local brickmaking industry successfully recovered after bamboos were planted in the area. Bamboos also raised the groundwater table level of the area.

Improves water regulation

In Colombia, planting of guadua bamboo (Guadua angustifolia) improved degraded soil by decreasing soil compaction. This enabled the return of ecological functions like water regulation and nutrient recycling. This was proven again in China, where a study comparing bamboo and sweetpotato plantations revealed that bamboo plantations exhibited 25% less water runoff compared to the sweetpotato plantations. 

Reduce coastal erosion

Bamboos are also used to reduce coastal erosion such as in the case in Thailand where bamboo poles were used as a fence to protect coastal mangroves. The bamboo fence received the full force of waves, reducing the strength of the waves by 70% and their height by 87%. After three years of using the bamboo fence alongside the mangrove trees, coastal erosion was averted with coastal sediments even increasing by 56cm.

Economic boon

Part of making people see how bamboos help restore ecosystems is to make them realize how the plant could directly help their lives. The bamboo industry is worth around US $60 billion and benefits over a third of the human population. Because of how fast they grow, people have been using bamboo to create a wide range of products. There are around 10,000 documented uses of bamboo. Among these include modern applications of bamboo in the field of construction and bioenergy.

‘Bubble Gang’ gets revamp with new faces, segments

by Manila Bulletin Entertainment

Bubble Gang, the longest-running gag show on Philippine television, is out to make the program more relevant by introducing new members, new segments, and new flavors.

During a Zoom conference last Friday, May 13, director Frasco Mortiz said the program will continue to evolve by keeping up with the trends. ”May efforts na talaga kami to do something new. How does Bubble Gang stay relevant? Nag-iisip sila ng ways kung paano sumabay sa current trends.” 

Bang Arespacochaga, consultant for the show, explained the new changes in the program. “We wanted a small group, para maka-focus sa sketches, and the characters. Kung sino yung sikat diyan sa online, ‘Bubble Gang’ is very much open.”

As Bubble Gang makes its relaunch, expect new faces like Dasuri Choi, Tuesday Vargas, and Kim De Leon on the show. Those who bid goodbye to the program were Lovely Abella, Arra San Agustin, Antonio Aquitania, Denise Barbacena, Myka Flores, Liezel Lopez, Diego Llorico, Mikoy Morales, and Ashley Rivera.

Despite the changes, friendship never ends among cast members. “The friendship does not end there. We still talk with one another,” said mainstay Paolo Contis.

Michael V shared that he felt the need to explain the changes to the outgoing cast. “Give them an insight, kung bakit siguro nagkaroon ng ganoong mga dahilan, para hindi sumama ang loob nila, and at the same time para ma-inspire sila.”

The production will not only focus on television, but it will also reach a wider audience through social media platforms. Some new segments for “Bubble Gang” include “Bes Friends”,  and “Marites United”, (Mare, ano ang latest?) 

Asked about his working relationship with Direk Frasco, Michael V said: “Hindi pa kami nagkaka-trabaho ni Direk Frasco sa studio, most probably in the coming days.”

“It’s a group effort. It’s really the whole team, the collaboration of everyone,” said Bang on the cast effort to make the gag show alive and funny. “Hindi kami p’wede maging stagnant kung ano kami 10 years or 15 years ago, kasi maluluma kami.” 

“I think yung secret dun sa longevity nung show is the ability of the show to change with the times. Kumbaga, nage-evolve siya along with you,” said Director Frasco. 

Michael V added: “To sum it up, the objective of the show is to be funny, to be relevant, to be revolutionary, and evolutionary. As long as nami-meet ng show ‘yung mga requirements na ‘to. I believe the show will be here for a long time.” (Jazzle Anne Calanao and Diannevie Feliciano/practicum)

OUR FAITH

 

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20-21.

Yes, our faith can move mountains. What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Faith will move mountains’? From the Bible. It is recorded in the 1582 Rheims Bible, in Matthew XXI 21, as: “If you shal haue faith, and stagger not, … and if you shal say to this mountaine, Take vp and throw thy self into the sea, it shal be done.

To be or not to be. Sein oder nicht sein. Shakespeare. To say it clearly: without faith, we’re really nothing.

Faith is belief; believe in us, in our works, talents and our personalities. We should also believe in our parents – or much better, in our whole family including the black sheep, which can be found everywhere.

We should believe in our friends, even though it seems to become very difficult many times.

Please remember, my dear readers: without faith will we reach the rock bottom. Don’t say, it’s a likely story.

The German poet Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1815) has mentioned in his drama “Maria Stuart”: “Even the word might be dead, but faith keeps it alive!” Chapter I of Second Thessalonians gives encouragement to all Christians, who were undergoing persecution for or because of their faith. Yes, faith is really not everybody’s thing, or “not everyone has faith”.

“If I have faith, that can move mountains” (First Corinthians 13,2).

Faith is a tantamount to convincing and conviction. Richard Wagner (German classical composer and poet, 1813-1883) found the following lyric: “Blessed are those people, who know how to live their life in humility and faith.”

So, let’s even continue believing in our government or the institution church. Faith means also a belief specially in a revealed religion. Faith is trust or reliance. Faith is really a pledged word.

Faithful love is loyal, reliable, exact and honorable love. Faithful love means even to love your enemy.
We attract good things because we believe and expect good things to come. Similarly, when we believe and expect bad things to come, we also attract that into our lives. Faith is the pathway for abundance, so be sure to hold it at the forefront of your mind. Don’t be afraid to expect the very best for yourself.

Allow me to close this column with a Chinese proverb: “People without faith in themselves cannot or will never survive!” – Worth to think about it!

True love described

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

CHRIST said it very clearly. He who is not only the fullness of the revelation of God but is also the embodiment of what true love is said: “Love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15,12-13)

Somehow those words tell us that true love can only have a universal scope. We can note that he simply said to “love one another as I love you” without further qualification.

And immediately after those words, he described what it is to be his friend that gives us an idea about what the essence of friendship is. “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” (Jn 15,14) Thus, friendship is all about doing Christ’s commands. It’s not so much about having common likes and dislikes with others, or some other criteria or standards.

If our love is true, that is, it is a love that is a vital part of Christ’s love for all of us, then it is open to anything. That love would remain steadfast and would continue to grow and to be creative irrespective of how it is received by the object of such love.

It can be received well or not, it can be reciprocated generously or be betrayed. Regardless of the fate it falls into, that love will remain faithful. Thus, St. Paul once said: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2 Tim 2,13)

This basic truth about true love should be known and appreciated by everyone of us, and especially those who are into some commitments, like married people and those with special vocations. They have to pattern their love and sense of commitment after Christ’s love that has as its objects the Father and all of us.

Christ was and is open to anything because of pure love. This is the kind of love that we should try our best to cultivate in ourselves too. It’s purely gratuitous, and even more, it will do everything to recover the beloved even if the latter not only does not correspond to that love but also betrays and goes against that love. It’s a love that is willing to bear the sins, mistakes and offenses of the others, and even willing to offer one’s life for them.

We can only do this if we are true friends of Christ, that is, persons who obey Christ’s commands. It’s this friendship with Christ that would enable us to be friendly with everybody else regardless of how the others are.

As one saint said, we should be willing to go to the very gates of hell, without entering it, of course, if only to save a soul. This obviously would require us to be tough and clear about the real goal to reach, and yet flexible and adaptable to any person and to any condition.

In this regard, we have to learn how to fraternize with sinners. We have to replicate Christ’s attitude towards sinners, who actually are all of us—of course, in varying degrees. We have to give special attention to the lost sheep and to the lost coin. We have to open all possible avenues to be in touch with all sinners.

This is what true love is all about. It may not be all sweet according to our human standards. But it is what is truly proper to us!

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com