The 3rd European Bamboo Expo took place last Friday and Saturday 23 and 24 May 2025.  I participated in the event through a short presentation, a discussion about a potential European bamboo industry platform and the facilitation of a panel discussion about planting and growing bamboo.

I met several old friends and contacts, including Orin Hardy from Bambuu in Bali and Jan Oprins from Vista Verde in Belgium.

With Orin Hardy and Jan Oprins

The event took again place in Dortmund, northern Germany, in the same venue as the last two years.  It is a medium-size community hall, with all the necessary facilities.  The programme was packed (maybe too full?) and there were a good number of booths displaying their bamboo activities or products.  One of the most innovative was the display from Bio Bambu Italia, who were selling bamboo liqueur and bamboo pesto.

A lot of the discussion was focused on construction, and an interesting panel talked about the opportunities and challenges of building with round pole bamboo.  The key debate revolved around the comparison of round pole bamboo and engineered bamboo.  Orin Hardy presented the experiences from Bali, and illustrated his talk with amazing photos of beautiful buildings from the island constructed with Dendrocalamus poles.  German architects and engineers seemed more comfortable with engineered bamboo in a local context, but there was also a call for experimentation with round pole construction in Europe.

Panel discussion about construction

Most participants were well versed with bamboo, but one of the speakers who stressed that he was not a bamboo expert was Carlos Ruiz-Garvia from the UN Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn.  Carlos hails from Bolivia and has a background in forestry, but his main area of expertise lies in international climate policy, particularly on the role of country-driven instruments such as National Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans in driving mitigation, adaptation, and means of implementation.  He provided a global perspective on how bamboo-related solutions could align with national reporting frameworks and contribute to addressing challenges such as land degradation, biodiversity loss, and even plastic substitution.

Carlos speaking about climate change

Carlos was one of the participants in the panel discussion that I facilitated about bamboo plantations.  The other panelists were Harriet Rudd from Ecoplanet Bamboo and Kjell Tahon from Bamboologic.  We talked about propagating and planting and the need for upscaling if we want to make a difference in global development.  EcoPlanet Bamboo is already managing more than 45,000 acres of bamboo in several countries, but they are not operating in Europe.  Bamboologic only has a few hundred hectares under development, but there is high interest from local farmers through Europe to expand this.

How a network of disperse bamboo fields can be linked to a processing and manufacturing plant was one of the questions, and Harriet stressed that they are thinking about building processing facilities next to the plantations.  We talked about certification, carbon credits and the importance of bamboo for land restoration and other means of adapting to climate change, and we could have discussed more issues, if there had been more time.

Panel discussion about plantations

One of the main questions after this 3rd EXPO is how we can more effectively involve the manufacturing industry in future discussions.  A criticism of this event was that it comprised mainly bamboo experts of some description, but it lacked involvement of manufacturers, industrial players, financiers or insurance companies.

This was also a discussion point, and I asked the views of the audience about this.  The observations varied, but the general view was:

  • There is a need to engage the industrial partners in Europe more directly;
  • The current bamboo societies and associations in Europe are not prepared for this, and there is room for a new bamboo industry platform;
  • Attempts should be made to influence national policy where bamboo could play a role – agriculture, forestry, climate change;
  • While the focus should be on Europe, involvement from other continents is helpful, as the bamboo industry in Europe is still very nascent;
  • Lobbying at the EU in Brussels may be helpful to help change relevant legislation and regulations. The opportunity to provide input into the review of the Common Agricultural Policy during this year was mentioned as a case in point;
  • Construction is an obvious development trajectory, but there are other exciting opportunities, and we need to bring all key players to the table;
  • Research is critical, and we need to make better links between research and development;
  • Maybe the future EXPO should be linked with other events, so as to share speakers and costs.

All-in-all, this was another interesting meeting, with some good outcomes for bamboo developments in Europe.  There will be another EXPO next year, and we hope to be more industry-oriented then.