1. The bamboo we use to produce Boo is a different species to thh bamboo pandas eat. Although pandas do eat a wide variety of bamboo, eating the leaves, roots and shoots, the bamboo used in cultivation of commercial bamboo including toilet paper is woodier and harder. Hence, we are not taking to pandas food!
2. Bamboo can sequester as much as 10 times the amount of carbon to wood trees due in part to the fact they grow at an incredible rate
3. Some species of bamboo can shoot up by as much as 2.91ft per day or 1.5inches per hour according to One Tree Planted.
4. You might be forgiven for thinking bamboo is a tree, but in actual fact bamboo is a species of grass hence why...
5. Bamboo has regenerative powers. In gardens, such is the regrowth capabilities of bamboo, some gardeners refer to bamboo as a weed- (I know, sacrilege right!) but because of bamboo's determination to regenerate, deforestation is highly improbable. Unlike wood trees, bamboo responds positively to being partly chopped down!
6. And because bamboo is a grass, its root structure is shallow, meaning it can hold soil together and prevent top soil erosion!
7. Bamboo is super strong. In many countries across Asian, scaffolding is made from bamboo roots rather than steel. It's also a very flexible material that can be made into wood-like products, as well as clothing and paper!
8. The bamboo industry employs over 10-million people in China, and many of whom are women, according to the WWF. Many plantations are actually owned by small cooperatives, and therefore provide a level of autonomy to the coop members.
Sources:
United Nations - International Network for bamboo and rattan