Interventions in rural supply chains and sectors have the potential to alleviate poverty and achieve economic development if they are able to achieve sustained growth over the medium to longer term horizon. But how might we identify which sectors offer the best potential for poverty impacts? How might we achieve the goal of scaled impacts across multiple supply chains? This article suggests that sector development opportunities in a liberalized market depend upon three critical factors: 1) outlook, segmentation and scale of demand, 2) local production-side competitiveness to gain and sustain market share, and 3) the nature and distribution of resulting impacts for the poor primarily through demand created for farm products and labour. The paper presents a worked example of the bamboo sector potential in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Opportunities and challenges across the three sub-sectors of industrial bamboo, handicrafts, and bamboos shoots are clarified, and the importance of benchmarking is borne out. The article concludes that on a strategic horizon, these countries can develop bamboo supply chains to compete and gain market share in a growing regional and global market currently dominated by China. This growth, if supported by appropriate policy and intervention, has the potential for scaled benefits to the poor and therefore high returns for donors, development actors and governments investing in poverty reduction.

ITTO (2004) Annual Review and Assessment of the World Timber Situation, International Tropical Timber Organization.

ITTO (2006) Tropical Timber Market Report 11 (23), International Tropical Timber Organization.

JICA-MARD (2004) The Study on Artisan Craft Development Plans for Rural Industrialization in Vietnam, JICA-MARD.

Ruiz Pérez, M., Belcher, B., Maoyi, F. and Xiaosheng, Y. (2004) ‘Looking through the bamboo curtain: An analysis of the changing role of forest and farm income in rural livelihoods in China’, International Forestry Review 6 (3-4): pp 306-316.

ITTO (2004) Annual Review and Assessment of the World Timber Situation, International Tropical Timber Organization.

ITTO (2006) Tropical Timber Market Report 11 (23), International Tropical Timber Organization.

JICA-MARD (2004) The Study on Artisan Craft Development Plans for Rural Industrialization in Vietnam, JICA-MARD.

Ruiz Pérez, M., Belcher, B., Maoyi, F. and Xiaosheng, Y. (2004) ‘Looking through the bamboo curtain: An analysis of the changing role of forest and farm income in rural livelihoods in China’, International Forestry Review 6 (3-4): pp 306-316.

ITTO (2004) Annual Review and Assessment of the World Timber Situation, International Tropical Timber Organization.

ITTO (2006) Tropical Timber Market Report 11 (23), International Tropical Timber Organization.

JICA-MARD (2004) The Study on Artisan Craft Development Plans for Rural Industrialization in Vietnam, JICA-MARD.

Ruiz Pérez, M., Belcher, B., Maoyi, F. and Xiaosheng, Y. (2004) ‘Looking through the bamboo curtain: An analysis of the changing role of forest and farm income in rural livelihoods in China’, International Forestry Review 6 (3-4): pp 306-316.

ITTO (2004) Annual Review and Assessment of the World Timber Situation, International Tropical Timber Organization.

ITTO (2006) Tropical Timber Market Report 11 (23), International Tropical Timber Organization.

JICA-MARD (2004) The Study on Artisan Craft Development Plans for Rural Industrialization in Vietnam, JICA-MARD.

Ruiz Pérez, M., Belcher, B., Maoyi, F. and Xiaosheng, Y. (2004) ‘Looking through the bamboo curtain: An analysis of the changing role of forest and farm income in rural livelihoods in China’, International Forestry Review 6 (3-4): pp 306-316.

Managing woody bamboos for carbon farming and carbon trading

Nath, Arun Jyoti

Lal, Rattan

Das, Ashesh Kumar

Global Ecology and Conservation, Vol. 3 (2015), Iss. P.654

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2015.03.002 [Citations: 74]

Practices and roles of bamboo industry development for alleviating poverty in China

Wang, Rongjia

Guo, Ziwu

Cai, Chunju

Zhang, Jianfeng

Bian, Fangyuan

Sun, Shiyong

Wang, Qingbing

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, Vol. 23 (2021), Iss. 6 P.1687

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-021-02074-3 [Citations: 4]

Managing Bamboo for Carbon Sequestration, Bamboo Stem and Bamboo Shoots

Wu, Weiguang

Liu, Qiang

Zhu, Zhen

Shen, Yueqin

Small-scale Forestry, Vol. 14 (2015), Iss. 2 P.233

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-014-9284-4 [Citations: 18]

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Hogarth, N.J.

Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, Vol. 22 (2013), Iss. 2 P.70

https://doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2013.779078 [Citations: 2]

Bamboos for weaving and relevant traditional knowledge in Sansui, Southwest China

Luo, Binsheng

Ahmed, Selena

Long, Chunlin

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, Vol. 16 (2020), Iss. 1

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-020-00418-9 [Citations: 1]

Research Trends: Evidence-based policy for bamboo development in India: From “supply push” to “demand pull”

Tambe, Sandeep

Patnaik, Suprava

Upadhyay, Anup P.

Edgaonkar, Advait

Singhal, Rekha

Bisaria, Jigyasa

Srivastava, Pankaj

Hiralal, Mohan H.

Dahake, Kailash

Gawande, Abhishek

Surkar, Pratik Prabhakar

Forest Policy and Economics, Vol. 116 (2020), Iss. P.102187

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102187 [Citations: 2]

The Legitimacy of Bamboo Certification: Unpacking the Controversy and the Implications for a “Treelike” Grass

Buckingham, Kathleen

Jepson, Paul

Society & Natural Resources, Vol. 28 (2015), Iss. 6 P.575

https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2014.945057 [Citations: 2]

The Bamboo Resource Using Status in Kagoshima Prefecture:

Sun, Pengcheng

Shibata, Shozo

Nukina, Ryo

Journal of the Japanese Forest Society, Vol. 101 (2019), Iss. 6 P.257

https://doi.org/10.4005/jjfs.101.257 [Citations: 0]

Sustainability, space and supply chains: The role of bamboo in Anji County, China

Flynn, Andrew

Chan, Kin Wing

Zhu, Zhao Hua

Yu, Li

Journal of Rural Studies, Vol. 49 (2017), Iss. P.128

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.11.012 [Citations: 23]

Indicators and Determinants of Small-Scale Bamboo Commercialization in Ethiopia

Endalamaw, Tefera

Lindner, André

Pretzsch, Jürgen

Forests, Vol. 4 (2013), Iss. 3 P.710

https://doi.org/10.3390/f4030710 [Citations: 16]