We’re going to Vizimumba Ward in Nyimba District, which sits in Zambia’s Eastern Province, to conduct a household survey for a potential bamboo value-web pilot site.

Our mission forms part of the ‘Zambia for Agroforestry, Biodiversity, and Climate (Z4ABC)’ project, which seeks the sustainable, climate-resilient, and productive transformation of agroforestry, forestry, and wildlife-based value-chains in the Lower Zambezi, Luangwa, and Nyika (ZLN) corridor. The project is led by the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) through CIFOR's Zambia office. It is funded by the European Commission’s DeSIRA initiative, with co-funding and implementation support from Finnish partners – namely the Natural Resource Institute Finland (LUKE), Viikki Tropical Resources Institute (VITRI) of the University of Helsinki (UoH), and Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK).

As we draw closer to our vehicle, the joyful sound of animated conversation traverses the airwaves. The voices are deep in tone, and their words are peppered with frequent laughter. Finally, after a few minutes, we see a group of young and older men engaged in a thought-provoking exchange whilst weaving bamboo strips into baskets.

Called ‘sasu’ in the local Nsenga language of Vizimumba Ward, bamboo (Oxytenanthera abyssinica) is an essential raw material locals use to make various products, including baskets, furniture, grain silos, and fences. Most men in Vizimumba devote much of their time to weaving and producing at least 20 baskets per day during the peak season, which runs from March to September.

As we settle down to talk to these men, we learn that weaving can be dangerous and tedious, as the men often suffer injuries from knife cuts. “Weaving bamboo is helpful because it gives me an extra income to feed my family and send my children to school,” said 41-year-old weaver Winston Phiri. “The risks are huge, but poverty compels me to continue doing it.”

Once completed, producers sell the bamboo products to buyers within the community, external customers in neighboring districts, and occasionally in the capital, Lusaka. Sometimes, locals trade baskets and other bamboo products via swap in exchange for crops such as maize and groundnut.

However, increasing challenges in accessing raw materials are becoming a significant concern for bamboo producers. “We now have to travel longer distances to find bamboo, compared to when it was easily found in nearby fields and forests,” said Phiri.

“The bamboo population has significantly reduced due to more people joining the trade over the years,” said Dickson Phiri, a third-generation bamboo weaver. “Additionally, nowadays farmers using land for agricultural activities regard bamboo seedlings as weeds and thereby extract them, contributing to reducing populations.”

In this context, Z4ABC Landscape Coordinator Chilala Ndeke said that the project aims to work with communities involved in the trade to support sustainable management and harvesting of the wild bamboo resource, to prevent further deterioration and conserve the natural ecosystem for long-term benefit. Plans to establish bamboo nurseries are also underway to supply propagation material for restoration to replenish the depleted bamboo resources that formerly flourished in the Vizimumba Ward. At the national level, these activities will support the development of strategies for meeting Zambia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to emissions reduction under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

About Z4ABC

Z4ABC is a four-year project funded by the European Union's DeSIRA initiative. The EUR 4.15 million project is led by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) and implemented in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Zambia and three Finnish research institutions: the Natural Resource Institute Finland (Luke), the Viikki Tropical Resources Institute (VITRI) at the University of Helsinki, and Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK). The project has also partnered with two local universities: the University of Zambia (UNZA) and Mulungushi University (MU). It collaborates closely with different governmental, non-governmental and private sector actors at national, landscape, and local levels, as well as with different actors involved in the selected nature-based value chains. The target beneficiaries are the local communities.