local self-reliance, since great quantities can be produced in small areas. It has great compressive and tensile strength, and has shown great resistance to earthquakes. New joining techniques developed recently in Columbia have made bamboo structures both stronger and quicker to build. Always used extensively in Asia, bamboo building materials are spreading worldwidenotably in Columbia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Australia and France. In North America it is currently being used as a wood substitute for flooring in the form of tongue-and-groove laminated flooring boards (e.g. Plyboo) that look just like hardwood flooring. Like all materials, however, bamboo is no panacea, and has its drawbacks. It deteriorates rapidly in contact with moisture and must also be protected from insects. It is also very combustible, and it requires different kinds of joinery skills than dimensional lumber. Certain (running) species of bamboo can also be quite invasive, and growers must be cognizant of the dangers of such fast-growing plants in non-native environments (DeBoer, 2002). That said, bamboo has great potential to expand the palette of natural building materials in most areas of the world.