Bamboo (Arundinaria alpina), restricted in the wild to the high altitude south-east of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, is a very important resource for home and granary construction in the Katojo, Mushanje and Nyamabale parishes. Young bamboo culms also provide a valuable material for basketry, for commercial sale and home use. Bamboo for this purpose is obtained from Echuya Forest Reserve, and probably also from Bwindi. In contrast to Mount Elgon, bamboo shoots are not eaten by people in this area. 

Although theoretically not permitted when this study was carried out, harvesting of bamboo still took place within Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Quantitative resource surveys indicate a low level of cutting in the past. Work with resource users also showed that a high proportion of bamboo culms (stems) were unacceptable for building purposes due to the high incidence of borer attack (moth larvae). Although it is a key resource for people and wildlife, few data are available for Uganda on the biology and biomass production of A. alpina, and research work is recommended. It is also suggested that an adaptive management approach is taken to bamboo harvesting in multiple-use zones covering the bamboo thicket. This could be undertaken seasonally by licensed bamboo harvesters from the Katojo, Mushanje and possibly Nyamabale parishes, and permitted on a trial basis. Development of edible bamboo shoot harvesting for local or external markets is not recommended.

Bamboo is a widely used forest product of great importance to rural communities in many tropical forest areas, particularly in Asia, but also in East and Central Africa. Arundinaria alpina thickets are found in Afromontane forest in East Africa from 2400-3000 m, occurring to 3200 m on Mount Kenya and as low as 1630 m in the Uluguru mountains (White, 1983). 

In Uganda, bamboo is cut in the Rwenzori, Mount Elgon, Mgahinga, Echuya and Bwindi Impenetrable forests (Howard, 1991). It is also cultivated on a small scale in the DTC area. Bamboo thicket occurs in a limited 0.4 km² high altitude area in the south-east of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Butynski, 1984). Forty-one percent (48) of respondents surveyed in the DTC area used bamboo, probably from cultivated sources (Arundinaria alpina and the exotic bamboo Bambusa sp.) (Table 7) as well as from the wild (Kanongo, 1990). 

From field observation in the parishes adjacent to the south-eastern corner of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest it is clear that home construction (cross-pieces) is a major use of bamboo, followed by use for granaries and baskets (Table 7).
 

Bamboo was one of the most important "minor forest products" sold by the Forest Department, with almost 500,000 bamboos sold annually from former Central and Local Forest Reserves between 1961 and 1962 and between 1963 and 1964 (1961-62: 515,000 bamboos; 1962-63: 450,000 bamboos; 1963-64: 459,882 bamboos) (Forest Department, 1964). 

Figure 3. Data from four plots in the bamboo zone, assessing shoot density and damage, and the value of bamboo stems within 10 x 10 m plots for building purposes. Note the high proportion of stems that are unsuitable for building purposes (due to borer damage, crooked shape, small size or other factors), the proportion of young shoots eaten by primates and the low level of bamboo cutting.

Although not mentioned in the former forestry working plan for Bwindi Forest (Leggatt and Osmaston, 1961), plans were drawn up for regulated cutting in Mgahinga Forest, where an average of 77,400 bamboos were cut annually from 1955 until 1966-67 from within four coupes, one harvested per year (Kingston, 1967). The previous extent of use in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is unknown, although a survey by Kanongo (1990) indicates that out of 54 respondents, 92% (50) obtained bamboo from Bwindi Forest, with or without licensing (Table 7).
 

Management of bamboo thickets for sustainable use is relatively simple compared with Afromontane forest, as bamboo thickets have a lower diversity and complexity in terms of age/size classes and uses. Bamboo is an important resource which is fast-growing and relatively resilient to harvesting, with new culms produced from underground rhizomes. Current levels of harvesting are relatively low, even in favoured sites (Figure 3, page 30). 

It is suggested that harvesting be considered within multiple-use zones, with potential harvesters and DTC/national parks staff involved in resource surveys and setting quotas as an "action research" project. The following factors need to be taken into account, however, in considering this proposal.

1. Harvesting within the bamboo thicket in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is not uniformly spread, but is largely restricted to three parts of the bamboo zone (Mpuro, Omushenje and Kasule). This is a result of the difficult access from surrounding parishes, the problems of transporting long (often >5 m) bundles of cut bamboo through forest in steep terrain, and possibly also due to fear of elephants. Setting of quotas and a rotational management system should therefore not be based on the entire area of bamboo, or even that within multiple-use zones, but on a far smaller area with a consequently smaller carrying capacity.
2. Although above-ground biomass of Arundinaria alpina is high (100 tons per ha (Wimbush, 1945) and growth rates are fast compared to forest trees, with culms reaching full height in 2-4 months with stems senescing after 7-14 years (Were, 1988), this study indicates that a much lower proportion of stems (or biomass) are suitable for harvesting for the following reasons, lowering the carrying capacity of bamboo stands:* although mature culms dominate bamboo thicket, the majority of these would be rejected by harvesters due to a high incidence of moth larval borer attack (Figure 3);* a percentage of culms are crooked, broken or too young.
3. Young shoots, which are produced annually during the rainy season (Were, 1988), break off easily, and would be affected by harvesting activity. Young shoots are also eaten by animals (mainly primates), with an average of 15.5% of shoots eaten out of four sample plots.
4. Cutting intensities reportedly affect regrowth rates. With clear-cutting, it took 8-9 years to obtain full-sized culms; if 10% of old culms were left standing and evenly distributed, full-sized new culms could be produced after 7-8 years, and if 50% of culms are left standing, the recovery period may be reduced to 3-4 years (Wimbush, 1945). Although these plots were placed near to the road, the level of harvesting was low. This could be attributed to "closure of the national park to bamboo cutting", but a similarly low level of bamboo cutting was also observed along the main path to the densely populated parish adjacent to the bamboo zone.
5. The previous system of selling licenses as a means of controlling and monitoring the harvesting of forest produce (including bamboo) failed for the reasons given by Howard (1991), where declining purchasing power of forestry salaries led to lack of commitment of staff to their work and unofficial sale of bamboo or cutting licenses to earn supplementary income. It would be important to avoid this problem in the future if sustained harvesting of bamboo is to be implemented in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. In Mghahinga forest, it was noted that although bamboo harvesting was prohibited within the SNR (strict nature reserve) section of Mgahinga, there were extensive signs of illegal bamboo cutting, and recommended that harvesting pressure be shifted to more abundant and better quality stands of bamboo in Echuya Forest Reserve. The extent of managed use of bamboo through licensed harvesting in Echuya Forest is uncertain, however (K. Sucker, pers. comm., 1992).