A step toward realizing the potential of bamboo resources: The Bamboo Uganda Limited
Thomas Quirynen is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Bamboo Wamu Uganda Limited, a social business and membership organization that is developing a bamboo value chain with a maximal social, environmental, and economic impact. In the last two years, Bamboo Uganda and its partners have developed plantation and propagation services, a processing facility, and a bamboo construction company. Bamboo Uganda tries to be at the forefront of bamboo innovations: by investing in research on green glues and heat treatment for structural bamboo beams, transforming its waste into, biochar, a long-term carbon sink, and developing bamboo agroforestry models. Before starting Bamboo Uganda, Thomas was focused on generating impact through non-governmental and international organizations mostly in underdeveloped regions. Some of his experiences were the startup of a newspaper in South Sudan, Policy and Advocacy work with Oxfam, and the management of a program for the United Nations in D.R. Congo