It’s official, we bought a farm and it’s called Hacienda Guadua Bamboo!
It has been long journey to find the perfect property, but today it’s official, we bought a farm in Colombia and it’s called Hacienda Guadua Bamboo! For those who have been following us, personally or through our website or social media, it wasn’t a secret that we were looking for a new headquarters for quite a while. After visiting and researching countless plots of land we have finally found the one that had the most potential and ticked all boxes. Now it’s time to get to work!
Hacienda Guadua Bamboo in Colombia
Photo by: Stéphane Schröder © www.guaduabamboo.com
Before we do so, I believe it is also the appropriate moment to share our vision for the future, because apart from establishing our business activities on the farm, we are also going to launch a unique reforestation program that has never been done before. The fact is, many people and organizations are talking about the importance of growing trees, but very few are actually doing something about it. Today, due to the pressure of public opinion, big polluters such as the petroleum and aviation industry are claiming to compensate their CO2 footprint by planting trees. But have you ever seen any real proof of that? It got me thinking, isn’t there a better way, a reforestation program where people can feel engaged and connected to what we do? Yes, there is!
Current Situation and Vision for the Future
This photo shows the current situation at Hacienda Guadua Bamboo and the impact of deforestation and cattle grazing. Most trees have disappeared and soils have been eroded. To some it may seem as poor neglected land, but to us, it is a great opportunity for a bamboo reforestation intervention.
In our vision for the future, we also have to think about our customers and partners that have been with us for so many years. Up until now we have worked with exclusive partnerships and local producers at several different locations. Many have come to a point where their current facilities are not suited anymore to produce the large volumes of bamboo that our customers require. With Hacienda Guadua Bamboo we now have enough room to expand production and build new facilities that can cope with the demand, and as always, in close alliance with our loyal partners.
The third goal is to build a nursery with a monthly production capacity of 20,000 bamboo plants, mainly Guadua angustifolia, but also a wide variety of interesting tropical bamboo species from around the world. We have noticed an increasing awareness about the benefits of planting bamboo in Colombia (and Latin America in general), so we want to make sure that everybody interested in planting bamboo can have access to high quality planting material as well.
Finally, and that brings everything together, we will also start with the development of a tropical bamboo park at Hacienda Guadua Bamboo. In all honesty, we ended up buying a much larger farm than we initially had in mind (32 ha instead of 10 ha). But when we first visited the property, we saw the potential and fell in love right away. Since it has been a personal dream of mine to grow a tropical bamboo park and to build a variety of bamboo structures, we decided to go for it. In 5-10 years we aspire to have a spectacular bamboo forest for national and international quests to discover and enjoy. A place where we can show what can be done with bamboo.
All of our activities at the farm will be documented in this blog with frequent updates, photos and videos. We hope you will enjoy and support our work, and that one day we may meet at Hacienda Guadua Bamboo!
