Tropical bamboo and biochar for climate relief and economic stimulus in the Global South
Fred Hornaday has been promoting bamboo and bamboo products since 2006. In recent years, he began working more closely with bamboo growers and producers from all over the world.
As a consultant and advocate, Fred strives to help farmers to be more successful and effective with their bamboo projects. But despite the increasing awareness and global demand for bamboo, most growers still have a very difficult time bringing their harvest to market.
Last year, Fred started working with Planboo, a Swedish-based company that helps farmers in the tropics turn their biomass into biochar, and earn carbon removal credits in the process. Biochar is a somewhat simple product, which doesn’t require a tremendous investment in machinery. But its benefits are manifold. Biochar is an exceptional tool for carbon removal, drawing CO2 out of the atmosphere and burying it in the ground. As a soil additive, biochar can play an integral part in regenerative agriculture and restoring degraded terrain.
By measuring and verifying the carbon sequestration that occurs with biochar, Fred and his colleagues at Planboo help farmers in the global south to earn high-value carbon credits paid in USD. With the strictest attention to the environmental and social conditions surrounding these projects, Planboo uses the carbon credit system as a means of financing not only carbon removal but a wide array of sustainable development goals.