PICHARI, Peru — It’s nearly 5 p.m., and the bamboo grove is filled with children. In silence, they’re looking up in awe. The monkeys have arrived. They jump from stalk to bamboo stalk and skitter down trees, not approaching the humans below but sometimes pausing to stare back.
Monkey sightings are rare in Peru’s Valley of the Rivers Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro, also known as VRAEM. Deforestation, much of it to make way for coca crops, has pushed wildlife to the margins of populated areas. But here, in the bamboo forest planted by Yuri Paredes just a few kilometers outside Pichari, VRAEM’s de facto capital, monkeys are coming back.
For decades, illegal coca cultivation has dominated the region, clearing its primary forests and stripping the soil of nutrients. To restore local ecosystems, in the last three years Peruvian authorities have been counting on expanding bamboo plantations, which they say will also bring back wildlife and allow farmers to profit from the crop. Yet some farmers and experts remain critical.
In 2023, PROVRAEM, a Ministry of Agriculture initiative for sustainable rural development in the region, launched the Bamboo Sustainable Development Project to help more than 2,400 local farming families and boost the industry. So far, it has spent approximately 16.7 million soles ($4.9 million) to plant nearly 1,300 hectares (about 3,200 acres) of bamboo. The agency hopes to extend the project for at least another three years.
Paredes’s 6-hectare (15-acre) bamboo forest, the biggest of its kind in the region, has become PROVRAEM’s model of success. The bamboo stalks that reach 15-20 meters (49-66 feet) high have created a microclimate with more shade and higher humidity than its surroundings.
But bamboo is far from a miracle crop. Many farmers might struggle to replicate Paredes’s project due to a lack of resources and time. And scientists warn that while bamboo is far better than a full-sun monoculture or agrochemical-heavy coca, it only increases biodiversity if it’s connected to a network of forest patches. There are also risks, as nonnative bamboo species can become invasive.
Paredes has been growing his bamboo forest since 2009. When asked how he got involved with the crop, he laughs. “They say bamboo is for lazy people. You only work two months a year. The other 10 you sip your whisky, chew your coca leaves, and smoke your cigarettes,” he says.
Bamboo requires just one harvest a year, so Paredes chose it because he didn’t have the time to work his land. Unlike most farmers, he also had a full-time job as a government agronomist, traveling to remote farms to advise smallholders. This meant he couldn’t plant commercial crops like cacao and coffee. Coca, the crop that dominates the VRAEM, was also out of the question — and not just because it’s illegal. “If you plant coca, you worry that someone will steal it or that it won’t sell,” he says. “You’re always scared.”
But most of his neighbors continue to grow coca. Coca has been the main driver of the VRAEM’s economy for four decades. In 2024, DEVIDA, the national agency responsible for monitoring the illegal crop, documented more than 36,000 hectares (about 89,00 acres) of coca in the VRAEM, making the region Peru’s biggest cultivator.
Without regulation, coca farmers use large amounts of pesticides that degrade the soil, contaminate water sources, and harm farmers’ health. “Ninety-nine percent will be used for [cocaine production] … the majority feeds into narcotrafficking,” Marleny Salazar, head of DEVIDA in the VRAEM, tells Mongabay. Traditional, legal uses for tea or chewing, locally known as chaccheo, represent only a minuscule part of the market.
And though authorities tolerate cultivation, coca farmers live in a tense calm, operating in a legally gray market in one of the country’s most heavily militarized zones.
Officials promise farmers peace of mind by switching to alternative crops. Bamboo is one option. An extremely versatile plant, its global market value is projected to almost triple by 2036.
“In China, bamboo has more than 10 million uses. Buttons, watches, pens, everything, ” Arturo Yupanqui Cerrón, a PROVRAEM forestry engineer who oversees the bamboo project, tells Mongabay.
Officials say that, with time, the VRAEM can tap into the demand for bamboo both in Peru and abroad. In 2023, Peru’s top forestry official told national media that the country only produces enough bamboo to meet 25% of its internal needs for the construction sector, importing the rest. He estimated that an extra 10,000 hectares (about 25,000 acres) of bamboo would be needed to plug that domestic gap.
PROVRAEM promotes bamboo planting and teaches farmers to harvest and treat it with an ecofriendly borax solution, vital for increasing its durability and resistance to insects, pests and fungi. “Previously, no one applied the coating. The bamboo would only last three or four years — it was useless,” Yupanqui Cerrón says. “But treated, this bamboo will last for more than 50 years, no problem.”
As his forest began to reach maturity, Paredes says he realized bamboo wasn’t just a crop — it was becoming a sanctuary for the native flora and fauna that had been pushed to the fringes of human settlements in the VRAEM. Today, his plantation supports a diverse, self-sustaining ecosystem of other plants, including orchids, wild coca, pacay trees (Inga feuilleei), medicinal plants such as chuchuhuasi (Maytenus macrocarpa), and various fungi.
“The bamboo has formed a layer of protection, like a blanket,” Paredes says. “It does not repel life; it attracts it. It has created a perfect microclimate.”
This is possible thanks to the passive nature of bamboo cultivation, according to Gilberto Domínguez Torrejón, a professor at the National Agrarian University La Molina who specializes in bamboo research.
After each harvest, bamboo sprouts new shoots from its roots with minimal replanting or chemical inputs. And without the need for constant intervention from farmers, the seed-rich droppings from birds and other animals help create a rich undergrowth that thrives in the bamboo’s shade.
The microclimate has, in turn, created a habitat for more than 50 black-capped squirrel monkeys (Saimiri boliviensis peruviensis) that find safety in the bamboo “forest,” feeding on the insect larvae that thrive in the stalks.
