The World Bamboo Organization's mission is to promote and support the use of bamboo as a sustainable and alternative natural resource through the development of partnerships and alliances, and the creation of mechanisms for global communication, information exchange, and technology transfer.
Originally founded as the International Bamboo Association (IBA), the idea for an international coordinating body for bamboo practitioners was born out of discussions at the 1991 International Bamboo Workshop in Chiangmai, Thailand.
The IBA was consequently established at the 1992 International Bamboo Congress in Japan. Through 1998, the IBA had been the coordinating platform for bamboo people around the world, with its primary responsibility being the International Bamboo Congress & International Bamboo Workshop. A union of these two distinct gatherings is today called the World Bamboo Congress, and is led by the re-birth of the IBA into the World Bamboo Organization.