FSC Certification Achieved for Kowie Bamboo Farm

EcoPlanet Bamboo’s South African Plantation, the Kowie Bamboo Farm, has successfully achieved Forest Stewardship Council Forest Management Certification.

Just three years into operations and with only a single minor non conformity, this significant achievement continues EcoPlanet Bamboo Group’s successful trend of adhering to the strictest social and environmental frameworks. “Certification is not an add on or an after thought”, says CEO Troy Wiseman, “it is part of EcoPlanet Bamboo’s company culture and is integrated into our operations from Day One”.

Bamboo is not inherently green, nor is it a miracle crop. Like any other plant or tree, it can be grown and managed sustainably, or not. The simple fact remains that relatively little has been known or widely understood on what sustainability truly means for the 1,200 or so species that make up “bamboo”. Over the past five years EcoPlanet Bamboo has developed a unique Integrated Management System which is applied to all plantation operations including a detailed Environmental Health and Safety System. This system has not only led the company to be a global leader in the commercialization of bamboo as a alternative fiber, but it has set the global benchmark for the plant’s industrialization in a sustainable and positive manner.

“Bamboo should only ever be grown on highly degraded land, as a deforestation free fiber, and managed against internationally accepted certification schemes, such as the FSC” says Troy Wiseman.

EcoPlanet Bamboo currently has more than 10,000 hectares of bamboo plantations in Nicaragua, South Africa and Ghana and is working to supply Fortune 500 timber dependent companies with a certified alternative fiber, restoring degraded land, reducing drivers of deforestation, and bringing hope and development to some of the poorest parts of the planet.