September 29, 2025
From Australia to Taiwan, across India, to Ghana, across to Colombia and beyond, thousands of people around the world embraced bamboo in celebration of World Bamboo Day during the week of September 18th. From its humble beginnings at the 8th World Bamboo Congress held in Thailand, this occasion has evolved into a global event with great enthusiasm. World Bamboo Day's purpose is to highlight bamboo's environmental significance as a fast-growing plant, its versatility in various industries, and its role in supporting livelihoods and economic development.
Surprising to some people, the country of Iran has been celebrating the day for several years, with this year's event held in Lahijan, known as the Bamboo Capital of Iran.
It is rewarding to learn that over the past years, Aria Exir Faravar Salamat Company has made significant efforts to advance applied research, design, production, and promotion of bamboo-based products, drawing attention to the importance of developing bamboo cultivation and its scientific, cultural, economic, and social potential in Iran. Alongside Sabzandishan Shomal, both organizations have been actively engaged in fostering awareness, innovation, and appreciation for this invaluable plant.
Our thanks go to Mr. Hamidreza Bozorgi of Iran who has been a constant supporter of WBO. He has done extensive research into bamboo in his country and traces the origins of the first bamboo being brought to Iran in 1929. This led to a "cottage industry" of handicrafts and utilization that continues today. See pics below from this year's event. (Photo credit: Kourosh)
Bamboo knows no political borders. A plant that grows in vast climate zones, across many continents from sea level to high mountain elevations, bamboo is resilient and regenerative. One of the aims of World Bamboo Day is to share the realities and the potentials of what bamboo does and what it can do, given the opportunity!
Thank you to all of you who took part in celebrating World Bamboo Day! Each year it grows, and we look forward to an even more remarkable celebration in 2026!
~ Susanne Lucas, WBO Executive Director, from Boston.
FLABBERGASTED, a message from WBO President, Michel Abadie
The recent World Bamboo Day was an extraordinary one in terms of quality and the quantities of participations....a kind of bamboo phenomena with thousands of followers in many hundreds of events all over the world. We have been totally « flabbergasted », an expression frequently used by my dear brother in bamboo, Charley Young (RIP), the founder of the Dutch Bamboo Society and a pioneer in the bamboo flooring market with his company Plyboo, sold through the Bamboe Informatie Centrum.
To reach such a level of engagement, it took 16 years since the creation in 2009 during the eighth WBC in Bangkok (Thailand). There's no need to say that it was a very important meeting with the impressive presence of the former ASEAN president Dr Surin Pitsuwan (1949-2017). I still remember the words of his opening talk : « For millions of Asian people, bamboo is symbol of life. You have to remember that in our culture we traditionally use a bamboo knife to cut the umbilical cord. So bamboo is in the center of Creation ».
For me it was also the first time that after my presentation on « the use of bamboo by aviation pioneers », I invited all the participants to raise their arms to the sky and to shout « bamboo! » in memory of the ones who lost their lives to experiment for the future with bamboo.
It was also there that with the support of the Ministry of Forest and Agriculture that we planted together a new bamboo park. And today, I remember that these three symbols are inside the corpus of the celebration of World Bamboo Day each September 18th.
Today, the World Bamboo Organization is based on 33 years of cultivating a better future through global collaboration and innovation.
Today, there is a deep concern of the younger generation who are confronted with the climate challenge, as they discover in bamboo a very adaptable and renewable resource to advance unequivocally within a world changing rapidly; a material for a better future.
That’s one reason why World Bamboo Day is growing… as bamboo does.
~ Michel Abadie, WBO President, from Paris.
WBO President Michel Abadie.
Check out our Facebook page to see World Bamboo Day events listing.
For other EVENTS and workshops around the world, please visit Bamboo Agenda on LinkedIn, or Facebook, or Instagram .
NOTICE: The proposed World Bamboo Congress to be held in Brazil in 2026 is unfortunately cancelled. Insufficient cohesion of a bamboo industry, lack of reliable partners, and no government support led us to the difficult decision to not move forward. Both sides of the proposal are disappointed. A new venue search is underway. Stay tuned!
BAMBOOK - do you know about this helpful resource?
The Global Bamboo Resources Directory called BamBook is a comprehensive directory connecting you to leading experts, businesses, and organizations in the bamboo industries. Our mission is to showcase the many advantages of these remarkable plants and foster knowledge-sharing across sectors. BamBook includes profiles of individual specialists and major industry players, making it easy to find partners or collaborators in fields like construction, conservation, crafts, and sustainable product development. If you would like to be listed in this Resource, and have the qualifications, please go HERE. Browse the BamBook anytime, click here.
~ Guillermo Mortera, WBO Communications Director, from Puebla.
NEWS: WBO & CGBMT JOIN FORCES FOR THE BAMBOO CITY PROJECT.
Bangalore, India. 12 September, 2025. The purpose of this MoU solidifies good faith negotiations towards advocating support to the Centre for Green Building Materials and Technology and actively collaborate on THE BAMBOO CITY project. This MOU outlines our solidarity in the belief that bamboo is a sustainable, regenerative plant that, as a nature-based solution can be utilized as a natural material with significant benefits to the environment and economy of both urban and rural areas. The aim of The Bamboo City project to make Bengaluru a carbon neutral city by 2030 and regenerative thereafter! A goal every city should share! Many thanks to WBO Ambassador Neelam Manjunath for this major initiative!
NEWS: WBO SUPPORTS AGROFORESTY PROJECT IN BRAZIL.
Bahia, Brazil. 24 September, 2025. Title: Sustainable Agroforestry Project with Association of Residents and Farmers of Serra do Conduru, Serra Grande. Initiated by WBO Ambassador Guilherme Korte, this social project will support a small rural community by investing in soil amendments, tropical fruit tree seedlings and young bamboo plants for an initial 8 hectare plot. The aim is to develop profitable cultivation and local utilization to keep the community intact; many young people are leaving farming to find work in larger cities. This region is in great need of restoration due to overgrazing of cattle, and sits among the vital Atlantic Rainforest belt (Mata Atlantica) - a global biodiversity hotspot of highly threatened tropical forests stretching along Brazil's coast and into parts of Paraguay and Argentina.
NEWS: Bamboo Carbon Credits at NYC Climate Week
New York, New York. 25 Sept, 2025. InfraBlocks Technologies announced at NYC Climate Week the launch of a digital platform to monitor carbon credits from engineered bamboo projects, developed in partnership with the Asian Development Bank, Kumi Analytics, BanQu, and Rizome. The initiative combines satellite imagery, blockchain, and digital MRV to enhance transparency, reduce costs, and unlock financing for high-integrity nature-based solutions. Rizome's bamboo plantations in the Philippines will serve as the first pilot, making it the first bamboo project in Asia to issue digital carbon credits and paving the way for scalable, technology-enabled climate finance across the region.
NEWS: WBO WORKING GROUPS ESTABLISHED
Virtual, 24 October, 2024. Led by WBO Executive Director Susanne Lucas and WBO Communications Director Guillermo Mortera, with collaboration from several WBO Ambassadors and external advisors, the WBO has set up working groups based on key industries to address the needs and demands of end-users around the world to have easier access to reliable, validated science and resources. The first three groups are focused by subject: 1) Food&Nutrition, 2) Construction/Building, and, 3) Nursery/ Plantations. WBO Ambassador Johan Gielis is the Lead in this initiative. Stay tuned for more details.
MEMORIES.... remembering the people and the places that have brought us all together in the name of bamboo! Here, a pic from 2019, the final day of a community bamboo workshop in the Amazonian jungle, Tambopata, Peru, led by WBO Ambassador Martin Mortera of Mexico. #keepbamboostrong
