The subtropical humid atmosphere clouding the banks of the Minjiang River in the southeastern Sichuan Basin makes bamboo one of the most abundant green resources in the region. As a gift from Mother Nature, bamboo (bamboo shoots) is not only a traditional recipe on the dining table, a delicacy for pandas, but also an important raw material for papermaking industry.

Papermaking is one of the four great inventions in ancient China, and the bamboo-pulp papermaking enjoys a long history. However, the use of bamboo pulp for machine-made paper only began in the 1940s. Since 1958, a papermaking company located over the bank of the Minjiang River has been committed to using bamboo fiber as raw material and making paper with 100% pure bamboo pulp.

Green mountains and flourishing bamboos are where wild giant pandas inhabit and closely associated with humans. After sixty years’ persistence, Fengsheng Paper has become an expert in papermaking with bamboo fiber. The company enjoys symbiotic prosperity with tens of thousands of bamboo farmers, acquires bamboo from them before pulping, papermaking, cutting, processing, packaging and selling. Hence, Fengsheng can be fairly regarded as a processing station for agricultural products.

So far, the annual production capacity of bamboo pulp by Fengsheng has reached 160,000 tons, an equivalent to the protection of 2.72 million mu of forests. Fengsheng Paper has promoted informal employment of rural people and directly increased the income of tens of thousands of farmer households. In the China Social Enterprise and Investment Forum 2018 Conference, Fengsheng Paper won the Rural Revitalization Award for its excellent supply chain management and outstanding contribution to the development of ecology in rural communities.

Green Bank for Tens of Thousands of Bamboo Farmers

Fengsheng Paper is located in Qianwei County, Leshan City, Sichuan Province. Thanks to the warm and humid climate, adequate rainfalls and suitable soil conditions, bamboos grow lavishly. Bamboo is easy to grow and can grow quickly and continuously. After 3 years of plantation, bamboo enters into maturity and can then be cut every year. Bamboo is commended as Ecological Green Bank for its features of low-carbon emission and soil erosion prevention.

According to the data from Qianwei County, bamboo forests in the county covers as much as 470,000 mu. By adapting to local conditions, Fengsheng Paper uses bamboo fiber as raw material for papermaking, and signs contracts with local farmers on plantation and acquisition. The company drives informal employment for rural people, directly increasing the income of tens of thousands of farmer households. The bamboo has becomes a Green Bank for farmers.

Jade-green bamboos grows on mountains and around houses. Farmers who signed contracts with Fengsheng Paper refer themselves as bamboo farmers or bamboo households, as the income from planting bamboos is even higher than traditional cultivation.

Unlike wood-pulp papermaking, the cutting of bamboo is not conducted by machines but by bamboo farmers. Most of the local farmers are between the age of 55 and 60, and some even reach 74. It is very difficult for people in such high age to find other ways to increase income. After connecting with bamboo-fiber papermaking, they can earn 120 RMB per day by simply cutting a few bamboos at their doorsteps.

Some of the bamboo-made paper sold on the market is produced by a mixture of bamboo and wood pulp. However, Fengsheng Paper has always insisted on using 100% pure bamboo pulp in papermaking. If wood materials are added, it means that the purchase of bamboo is reduced, and correspondingly the income of bamboo farmers will be also cut. This is not a path toward win-win outcome. Therefore, even in the most difficult hours witnessed by the industry, Fengsheng Paper, in the spirit of shouldering responsibility for farmers and environmental wellbeing, still uses pure bamboo pulp to make paper and promises never to use wood materials.

As time goes by, more and more farmers have gradually improved living standard through planting bamboos. Here are a few insightful statistics: 400,000 tons of fresh bamboos were consumed by Fengsheng Paper throughout the year 2016. According to estimation, the fresh bamboos to be consumed in 2018 will hit 600,000 tons.

Fengsheng Paper has always been advocating a symbiotic association between the company and the local farmers, as opposed to a pure trading relationship. Due to the company’s unremitting efforts, market principle has been adopted in the acquisition of local bamboo raw materials, and a bottom-price system has been formulated for the acquisition. By doing so, a sustainable operation of bamboo forests and a stable income of farmers can be assured.

At present, Fengsheng Paper has passed the FSC CoC Certification, and the FSC Forest Management Certification jointly operated with small farmers is also underway. Thanks to the company’s endeavor, 150,000-200,000 mu of bamboo forests in Qianwei County have obtained FSC certification, thus realizing a sustainable operation of bamboo forests, a move that plays an important role in the rural revitalization of the county.

Behind-Scene Story of Panda-dropping Paper

How to make the philosophy of environmental protection in 100% pure bamboo-pulp paper popular and recognized by the public? Relying on geological advantage, Fengsheng Paper developed Panda-dropping Paper, a product applying “green dropping” as the raw material and endorsed by none other than panda itself.

It is well known that the food of panda is bamboo. An adult panda eats 12-15 kilograms of bamboo every day, then absorbs the nutrients such as polysaccharides, and excretes bamboo fibers in the form of feces after 4 hours of digestion. Since the bamboo consumed is not completely digested, bamboo bits can be seen in panda’s dropping, hence the name “green dropping”.

One step in the bamboo-pulp papermaking process is to accumulate materials, degrade fructose, and obtain bamboo fiber, which has been accomplished when panda finishes digestion. As a result, Fengsheng Paper signed a cooperation agreement with Dujiangyan Panda Park of China Giant Panda Protection Research Center, in which it is agreed that the food residue and feces of pandas living in three bases, namely Dujiangyan, Wolong and Bifengxia, will be recycled and utilized. After washing, steaming, boiling and high-temperature disinfection, plant fibers will be extracted for the production of Panda Paper.

From crowd funding to IPO, Panda-waste Paper has always been receiving constant attention from the public. After the huge popularity of Panda-waste paper, Fengsheng Paper tries to build a new business model that integrates enterprise, panda protection and research center and NGO as one, and has designed environmental-friendly products with “panda gene”, which also delivers benefits to public welfare, thus meeting the needs of environmental protection and public welfare from target groups.

Fengsheng Paper is responsible for the market-oriented operation including production, design, promotion and sales of Panda-waste Paper, and donates part of the sales revenue to environmental public welfare causes and species protection. Protecting panda is also an integral part of rural revitalization. The Shan Shui Nature Conservation Center, an NGO organization funded by Fengsheng Paper, establishes a natural protection quarter at the dam basin in the local rural areas to protect panda habitats in the non-conservation zone and explore innovative ways to manage the forest land collectively.

More importantly, due to the endorsement by giant panda, the 100% bamboo-pulp paper is becoming increasingly acknowledged and recognized. According to the data in 2017, China's household-paper industry creates a demand of 9.234 million tons per year, with an output value exceeding 100 billion RMB, which enjoys an annual growth rate of around 7%.

Due to a slightly higher price than wood-pulp paper, among others, bamboo-pulp paper is still not widely used by the general public. Along with the strengthened awareness of environmental protection, eco-friendly products such as bamboo-pulp paper will win growing recognition. According to Fengsheng, it is estimated that their sales will reach 2 billion RMB in 2021, and in 2022 the supply of fresh bamboo will achieve 2 million tons. In the next 5 years, the total production capacity of bamboo pulp will hit 500,000 tons.

Following the philosophy of treating resources well, being committed to the original aspiration, focusing on bamboo products and developing harmoniously with ecology and society, Fengsheng Paper will deliver direct benefits to 60,000 farmer households in the upstream of the industrial chain, and measurably improve the wellbeing of at least 180,000 people. Living peacefully with local villagers and bamboo households, the company is dedicated to utilizing bamboo resource, one of the most sustainable natural supplies, and turning panda’s waste into a treasure, so that the precious offerings from the beautiful countryside and Mother Nature will not be wasted.