Bilar's bamboo park keeps a Bohol craft in daily use

Bohol is treating bamboo as part of its nature-based tourism, and a park in Bilar is the place visitors walk through it. Kyodo News reported on October 30, 2026, that Kinaiyahan Forest Park, which opened in October 2023, holds about 45,000 bamboo plants of 40 varieties. Guests use a bamboo walkway, eat in an open-air restaurant built and furnished with bamboo, and can watch furniture being made in a House of Art. Manager Jocelyn Suarez said people notice the food, the structure, and that the grove feels cooler.

Co-owner Arnold Labunog, 65, told Kyodo that he and his family bought the 17-hectare property in 2018, when bamboo was already thick, and shaped it into a park during the pandemic. He grew up in a house with bamboo floors and walls. His brothers' visits to the Arashiyama grove in Kyoto helped spark the design. A centre to develop bamboo as a building material is still a plan, not a finished workshop.

Bohol became the Philippines' first UNESCO Global Geopark in 2023. Tourism officer Joanne Pinat said the island's visitors come for nature, not theme parks, and that the province trains people and distributes seedlings. United Bohol Bamboo Advocates puts the island's bamboo at about 50 species. The park is one grove people can walk. It is not a count of bamboo across the province.