## 3 Results and Discussion
### Carbon Storage in Bamboo Products  
While flowering is a natural phenomenon in bamboo forests, it often leads to the subsequent death of the plant in many bamboo species. In managed bamboo forests, it is ideal to maintain a regular harvesting cycle to not only prevent unpredictable large-scale flowering events but also to keep the bamboo robust and productive [18]. Bamboo needs a short harvesting cycle to keep it healthy, productive, and sustainable. This cycle allows forest managers to log bamboo every one to two years, leading to a significant yield for making products [80]. In this way, bamboo forests can be sustainably managed while constantly yielding bamboo culms for production. The annual yield of representative bamboo species, Moso bamboo and Guadua bamboo, is much higher than representative number species, including European oak, Scots pine, and Chinese fir [81]. Numerous studies in the literature have shown that bamboo woods can also be turned into a wide range of durable products and store a considerable amount of carbon, making them a sustainable substitute for wood and significantly depressurizing other timber resources [39; 53; 82]. In China, annual harvestable bamboo culms are about 1.8 billion, equating to more than 200 thousand m\({}^{3}\) of timber [8]. The avoided cutting of other arbor forests, since timber can be substituted with bamboo, can significantly contribute to forest conservation and biodiversity, water, and soil conservation [83]. Notably, while also storing carbon and leading to a carbon-negative life cycle, harvested bamboo products provide a stable income source for local rural communities, especially in the Global South [30; 84]. For instance, in 2018, with 45 million people directly working in the bamboo industry, China's output value from the bamboo industry reached USD 35.4 billion [8]. Utilizing harvested bamboo in the building construction sector can significantly contribute to climate change mitigation. Bamboo, when used in construction, has the potential for causing the least climate impact and may even result in a net removal of carbon, largely due to its carbon storage capabilities, as highlighted in Table 6. [PERSON] et al. [14] applied life cycle analysis (LCA) to flattened bamboo flooring boards, py bamboo panels, and strand-woven bamboo made from Moso bamboo grown and processed in China and shipped to the European market. They concluded that all products have a negative carbon footprint. This conclusion was underpinned by their finding that credits from bio-energy production at the end of life (EoL) phase and carbon sequestration from land change substantially offset emissions associated with production and domestic transportation. [PERSON] et al. [85] conducted an LCA that showed plybamboo's net negative carbon emission when compared with reinforced steel, concrete, and PVC, using a functional unit size of 2440 mm \(\times\) 1220 mm \(\times\) 20 mm and adjusting Ecoinvent data for Taiwan's conditions. This comprehensive methodology accounted for all life cycle stages, from harvesting to transportation, detailing the environmental impacts in comparison with other materials. [PERSON] et al. [86] found that bamboo-based constructions--including single-story houses, glue-laminated single-story houses, and multi-story glue-laminated houses--offer a carbon-negative advantage over traditional high-emission materials such as brick and concrete. Their assessment was rooted in a thorough LCA, factoring in biogenic carbon, consistent functional units, and system boundaries for a balanced comparison. Similarly, [PERSON] et al. [87], using LCA, including plantation, harvest operation, conditioning, transportation, and use, clearly proved that bamboo scaffolding is far more carbon-negative than steel production, which is highly carbon-positive. It was suggested that producing each bamboo board in Colombia could reduce 117 kg of CO\({}_{2}\) emission per functional unit [88].