Starting with Desa Ban, the joint mission is to implement a community development project focused on restoring Mount Agung’s arid slopes, which have been destroyed from massive clear-cutting and a 1963 volcanic eruption that covered the area in volcanic ash and left everything dead.

The eruption had a devastating effect on the environment and on local residents, for they lost their entire environmental infrastructure — the ecosystems that provided them food and life.

“The EBPP and EBF will hopefully establish a world model that provides a sustainable environmental economic development solution for impoverished mountain communities who subsist on steep and arid slopes with no rivers, government water supply or other essential infrastructure,” EBPP founder David Booth explained.

Their strategy is to plant a 25-meter-wide shelter belt on the dry hills with bamboo trees that block out the sun, slow down the wind and encourage more precipitation.

“We’re creating a microclimate so the sun track and frequent winds in the area don’t dehydrate the landscape and plants start growing again.”

According to Rabik, the height of the canopy, depending on the gradient of the land, can protect 10-20 times the height of the canopy in distance, which means that if a bamboo tree is 15 meters tall, it can protect 150 meters in distance. Eventually, with enough trees, they will cause a “rain suck” from the evaporating leaves, Rabik explained, and this will help return more moisture to the now dry, dusty slopes.

“Five years after all the seedlings are planted, their ecosystems are going to be rehabilitated,” Rabik said. “With the right kind of pioneering species, we can get life going again.”

Each bamboo seedling is planted inside a 30/30 centimeter hole then covered with mulch that is piled
another 30 centimeters above ground. It is topped with a plastic bottle containing a seaweed-based water thickener and two pin-sized holes allowing the water to drip slowly into the plant and keep it from evaporating.

The latter is particularly important, as Rabik said that up to 80 percent of irrigated water is lost
from evaporation and infiltration past the root zone, especially in dry-land areas.

“If you don’t plant correctly and get a good soil mix, the plant is going to take a long time to find the right access to food and water. If you do it right and plant the right species at the right time, in the right place, then you can quickly get a new ecosystem,” said Rabik.

It took only three hours for the volunteers to plant 45 bamboo seedlings.

“It is so hands-on — we don’t use a lot of tools,” said Jordan Lerum a volunteer from Santa Barbara who is working with her husband to make a documentary about bamboo. “It really is a community effort. It really does take a whole village.”

They will plant two varieties of bamboo in the first phase of planting: bamboo tutul (Bambusa maculata) and bamboo duri (Bambusa blumeana), which, according to Rabik, are among the strongest and most drought tolerant bamboo varieties. Rabik said that shelter belts should be planted in phases, the first containing the strongest varieties, which act as “pioneers”.

Once more favorable growing conditions are created (i.e. more shade), other tree varieties are planted, like legumenous trees that provide nitrogen.

Once the young bamboo trees are planted, they will need three years of maintenance as they grow to maturity. The Desa Ban community, who own the land, will manage maintenance of the juvenile bamboo trees, with assistance from EBPP and EBF, who have established the Sekolah Lapangan Bamboo (Bamboo Field School) to educate the community how to plant, manage and harvest the new forest.

They hope that with training from the school, the community will use this new bamboo forest for cash crops to help reinvigorate the Desa Ban economy as well as cultivate medicinal plants and vegetables that can grow under the protection of bamboo trees.

“We’re trying to set the trend in the furniture industry away from classic hardwoods and involve
bamboo in design. Especially now with the science and application towards bamboo, it’s allowing designers to push the boundaries a bit more,” he said.

According to Rabik, it costs Rp 50,000 (US$5.80) for each bamboo tree they plant. To help raise the money needed, EBF and EBPP have partnered with the Bali Spirit Festival, which has committed to planting one tree for every VIP or Full Festival Pass purchased during the 2012 festival (held in March).

In the meantime, they plan to lead regular volunteer expeditions to plant more bamboo seedlings
in the Desa Ban area, asking each participant to make an individual Rp 50,000 donation to plant a bamboo tree.

“Many people talk about things but most are too busy and not really doing anything,” said participant Charlie Kushner, an expat from Hawaii who works with NGOs rebuilding infrastructure after tsunamis and earthquakes.

“This is a tangible way to carry out a community-based intervention to do some good, positive action.”

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