CULEAF

Long description

The city of Puebla is in the centre east of the Mexican territory. It has more than five million inhabitants.

Since 2008 in the tropical region of the Northeastern Sierra, the first bamboo commercial plantations established to promote business alternatives due to their agroecological benefits. Currently, there are 500 hectares of commercial plantations highlighting the species Bambusa oldhamii and Guadua angustifolia. Most of these plantations have been abandoned since the producers cannot assume the cost of maintaining them.

This situation determines that the bamboo ecosystem services decrease because of a less generation of new plants that causes lower levels of CO2 capture. On the other hand, it allows the availability of a large number of culm leaves, residue generated in the bamboo groves, with the potential to be used as an input in the generation of various biodegradable products.

CULEAF is a project that proposes the resignification of the culm leaf that includes the training of communities through workshops that are carried out through the “Learning-by-doing” method, in which small producers will develop capacities and skills for its processing, transformation and commercialization.

The resignification of the culm leaf as valuable raw material promotes the sustainable maintenance of bamboo crops with economic return for producers. It generates sources of employment and contributes to the roots of young people in rural lifestyle within the framework of a circular bamboo bioeconomy.

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