Excellent and durable furniture can be made with bamboo as is evident from furniture made in China. This manual is a step by step documentation of a workshop on bamboo furniture making held in Hainan, China, in October 2003. It is a part of continuing efforts of the contributing organizations – CIBT and UBFDB – to produce user – oriented training materials that would lead to a wider and vale added use of the worlds bamboo resources while generating and enhancing livelihood

The Manual with its self explanatory photographs follows a 'do-it-yourself' practical approach and provides information right from bamboo selection and storage to preservation and actual furniture making.

The book is available both in Hindi and English.

Breaking Barriers and Creating Capital: Sustainable Development with Bamboo in the Konkan Region, Maharashtra, India.

In 2003, INBAR and CIBART set up an Action Research-based Development program for using local bamboos to benefit the rural poor communities in the Konkan Division in Maharashtra state, India. The Konkan Bamboo and Cane Development Centre (KONBAC) was established to implement the program, which aimed to enhance rural livelihoods, while addressing local, cross cutting social and economic challenges, such as dependence on rain-fed agriculture, male urban migration, caste prejudices, and local market demand.
The Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts of Konkan Division posed a development challenge, as the majority of rural residents depend on a single , rain-fed, short agriculture season. Lack of year-round employment opportunities is a major cause of poverty, leading to seasonal migration of males. The Action Research Program has incrementally changed social perceptions of bamboo as a cheap and low class material. To promote such changes, the action research program relied on training and capacity building of local communities, particularly empowering local women as income earners( Women comprise two-thirds of the rural workforce)
The program also intervened to develop bamboo resources in the area, working to improve bamboo stocks and its diversity, as well as bamboo supply chains and remunerative returns for farmers. It set up furniture, packaging, craft, construction and sanitary enterprise units. These units provide community members with access to training and equipment. With the exception of the sanitary napkin unit, which is a pilot demonstration, all of these are commercial enterprises that help promote uptake of bamboo based livelihood among the local communities
At present, the Konkan action research program has made considerable progress in developing into a self sustaining institutional echo system. Although certain issues relating to working capital and capacity expansion still exist, Konkan is well on the way to solving this, and has already emerged as a model that is being simulated elsewhere in India and abroad.

Making Bamboo last – Bridging the Knowledge gap.

Bamboo is an excellent material for countless applications ranging from handicrafts to industrial products and construction.
One of the major obstacles to wider utilization is the biological degradation of raw bamboo and bamboo products that shortens the life span of its products. Bamboo is susceptible to various microbe and pest attack.
Like wood, which is similarly susceptible, it is likewise possible to prevent bamboo deterioration by use of appropriate and safe treatments. However, information on various preservation procedures in use is hard to come by. A knowledge gap exists in-spite of the knowledge being available.
This Bamboo preservation compendium brings together information on various technologies and procedures used for bamboo protection and preservation around the world, weaving in the knowledge of experience.
It outlines safety procedures, environmental issues and economics of preservations concisely yet comprehensively, in a manner that is field applicable.