World Bamboo Day has been celebrated for many years every 18^th of September each year. This celebration is to increase the awareness of Bamboo on a global scale. Bamboo is a type of grass which grows naturally almost everywhere, it has been a daily element but its utilization has not always been sustainable due to exploitation. This day was spearheaded by the World Bamboo Organization which aims to bring the potential of bamboo to a more elevated exposure – to protect natural resources and the environment, to ensure sustainable utilization, to promote new cultivation of bamboo for new industries in regions around the world, as well as promote traditional uses locally for community economic development.

ECCP CDO/NM’s Business Council Chairman and Managing Director of SLERS Ms. Mercedes P. Mejia, has been an advocate of Bamboo for quite some time. Upon leading the Business Council of ECCP here in the city and region, Bamboo was and will never be out of the picture in her agenda. She has been attending summits and congresses in the country and even internationally concerning Bamboo and its huge potential not just to the market but coming from the Value Chain itself and the livelihood it can impact to the marginalized and the society as a whole.

This year’s celebration of World Bamboo Day has been co-celebrated by ECCP, Slers, and the LGU of Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon by planting Bamboo trees in the 10-hectare property of the municipality in Mangima Spring Resort and Bike Trail.

Ms. Mejia also donated five (5) different ornamental species of Bamboo to Mangima to start the approved proposal of Mrs. Mejia to set-up a Bambosetum – a potential tourist destination where people will see the different species of Bamboo which reaches up to a hundred, seventy (70) being present in the Philippines.