Dumaguete MISSION Initiatives

Dumaguete Initiatives

Buglas Bamboo Institute

The reason for the establishment of Buglas Bamboo Institute was to provide additional income to the subsistent farmers in the southern part of Negros Oriental and at the same time to contribute to help diminish global warming. After 4 years of study about bamboo and discussing with small farmers in the country side about its feasibility, it became clear that setting up such organization was not an easy task. And indeed, after 10 years of hard work and deep reflections the reality is still that the processing of bamboo takes a long commitment of farmers and community workers, but also clarified that the task is not impossible. There is income and money in bamboo if certain conditions are fulfilled. A great contribution to minimize global warming can be made at the same time.

Buglas Bamboo Institute (BBI) in Dauin, Negros Oriental was recognized by the Philippine Government on August 7, 1999. Since then it has worked hard to use bamboo for the production of construction materials, accessories, panels and even paper. In more than 10 years BBI has evolved into a social development organization, providing the local population with additional income of more than 2 million pesos a year. The slogan of a social organization is People, Planet, Profit. BBI has been successful in the People and the Planet aspects. In the Profit aspect BBI has suffered serious setbacks to the extent that it has great difficulty to make the program self-supporting.