Vol. 16 No. 6
Spring 2004

Harvesting Herbs in Nepal

Photo by Asia Network for Sustainable
Agriculture and Bioresources (ANSAB)

Every year in Nepal's Himalaya highlands, villagers gather some 15,000 tons of medicinal plants from the wild, pack and dry them and sell them to traders for export. The sale of these plants, oils and resins, or non-timber forest products (NTFPs) as they are called, provides the overwhelming source of income to local communities in Nepal, who also rely on the plants for food, medicines and fuel.

From a conservationist's point of view, NTFPs hold the promise of a potentially sustainable source of income for local villagers, creating an incentive for them to conserve their forests. However most of the time, the villagers sell their goods to medicinal herb traders, who greedily encourage them to harvest as much as they can, while paying them poorly for their products. Once a plant supply runs out, the medicinal traders move on, leaving the villagers, who have destroyed their only source of livelihood, without recourse.

Nepal's Forest User Groups

After years of deforestation, the Nepali government made forest conservation a priority in the late 1980s and early 90s, turning over the management of nearly one-third of government owned forestlands to Forest User Groups (FUGs). About one-third of Nepal's population of about 21 million belong to FUGs.

While this arrangement has improved forest conditions as well as bolstered community livelihoods, it does not ensure responsible forest management or provide Western markets with quality control or the assurance that the products they are buying were obtained legally and sustainably. Recognizing this need for credibility and sustainable sourcing, the nonprofit group Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Bioresources (ANSAB) contacted SmartWood. By the end of 2004, the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program hopes to certify two community forests in Nepal. The group certificate will be held by the Federation of Community Forest Users, which has a total membership of over 8,000 FUGs throughout Nepal.

Wild-Crafted Essential Oils

Photo by Asia Network for Sustainable
Agriculture and Bioresources (ANSAB)

The potential certification has attracted the attention of natural products company Aveda. If all goes according to plan, Aveda will begin to source the first ever wild-crafted essential oils from the two certified forests, as well as a handmade paper from the bark of a bush locally called Lokta (Dafecabana spp.), which has been made virtually the same way for a thousand years and is still used for all official Nepali documents.

"SmartWood certification would ensure that the herbs come from FUGs that meet high standards of management and have been traced from forest to a Nepali manufacturer," explains SmartWood senior technical specialist Walter Smith. Other partners in the project include the ANSAB, United States Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation, the Swiss Government, the Dutch Government, Himalaya BioTrade, Gorkha Ayurvedic, the Federation of Community Forest Users of Nepal, Nepali NTFP Network and the Nepali Forest Ministry.

As David Hircock, an Aveda project consultant explains, "We're looking to set a business model that's responsible and sustainable -- to get a quality product at a reasonable price, to ensure that the farmers get a fair price and to eliminate the unnecessary middlemen. While the project has good potential, it has to be a slow-growth effort. If we can get this right as a business model, it can be adapted in other places."

To kick off the initiative, Hircock, a pharmacognocist (scholar of medicinal herbs) and medical herbalist, has chosen two essential oils, anthopogin and xanthoxylum, both for their pleasing smells as well as their medicinal properties, and is in the process of investigating various additional options.

"Aveda's willingess to provide industry expertise, guidance in product development and linkages with the herbal products industry is a contribution that goes beyond a traditional seller/buyer relationship," says Rebecca Butterfield, TREES program director for the Rainforest Alliance. The TREES program, established in 2001, is essentially the research and development art of the sustainable forestry program and works to ensure that small, community and indigenous forestry operations have access to certification serves and markets. "This model of partnership for Nepal and community suppliers of NTFPs holds great promise for improving product quality, sustainable resource management and generating increased incomes for rural communities," explains Butterfield.

Lokta Paper
Lokta paper is made from the bark of the Daphne (Dafecabana) plant, which typically grows at the 6,000-9500 ft level in eastern Nepal. Local villagers gather 8" strips of bark, which they pack by mule-train down the steep slopes to the valleys below. There they strip the bark of its fibers by hand. They then build fires using the outer bark and boil the inner fibers. Once softened, these fibers are then pounded on flat rocks, cooked some more, and finally, when it looks like "goop", the kettles are carried to the moulding ponds. The good news, environmentally speaking, is that the Daphne plant re-grows its bark, which is what makes the process of Lokta paper-making sustainable.

The mission of the Rainforest Alliance is to protect ecosystems and the people and wildlife that depend on them by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. Companies, cooperatives and landowners that participate in our programs meet rigorous standards that conserve biodiversity and provide sustainable livelihoods.