<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08959c7e80680e0a6026jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>The highly protected Pachale orchid bulbs in Gorkha. Photo: RESHU BASHYAL/GREENHOOD NEPAL</figcaption></figure>World Nature Conservation Day on 28 July is a reminder to us to conserve nature and nurture it. Too often, however, our visions of nature exclude plants and our rich relationship with them.Plants are everywhere, which makes them vital but also easy to overlook. They are often left in the background, both during public discourse and by government officials allocating conservation budgets. Conservation campaigns and projects tend to focus on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepals-tiger-conservation-too-successful/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">charismatic animals like rhinos and tigers</a>, and on protecting Nepal’s spectacular landscapes.However, all of these animals and places rely on the plant life that surrounds us. This includes many rare, threatened, and unique plant species. Nowhere is this more urgent than with orchids – the most diverse groups of flowering plants on the planet with over 30,000 species globally.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-the-treasure-trove-of-nepals-orchids/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal hosts over 500 species of orchids</a>, from the unusually shaped foxtail (Rhynchostylis) that grows on trees in the mountains, highly-protected pachaule (Dactylorhiza hatagirea) orchid known for its medicinal properties to the endangered lady slipper (Cypripedium himalaicum) collected for its shoe-shaped flowers.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08989c7e80680e0a6027jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption>Orchid growing on a tree in Panchase. Photo: KUMAR PAUDEL/GREENHOOD NEPAL</figcaption></figure>More than 100 of them have purported medicinal properties in Chinese, Ayurvedic, and Amchi traditional medicine cultures, ranging from pain relief to aphrodisiacs, and hence highly sought after. Many are also harvested as ornamental plants and as fodder for livestock. Orchids form a vital part of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s rich biodiversity</a>, but many communities also depend on them for livelihood.Nepal has a long history of harvesting and trading wild orchids -- supplying a significant amount of raw material to meet local and international demand both through legal and illegal means. Commercial trade is likely to increase as demand in China and India grows, especially as demand for medicinal plants increases in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.Now there is serious concern about the sustainability and legality of commercial harvesting. Reports suggest that intense collecting has led to the collapse of some populations, resulting in a national ban on the harvest of pachaule orchids in 1993.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d089c9c7e80680e0a6028jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption>Nepal is home to over 500 different species of orchids. Photo: KUMAR PAUDEL/GREENHOOD NEPAL</figcaption></figure>A further ban on the wild harvest of many Nepali plant species - including all orchids - was introduced in 2017, although this is being relaxed in hopes of re-establishing a more sustainable legal harvest in future.Despite these efforts on paper to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5648#.YP6YQS2B2CQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">protect orchids from illegal trade</a>, in practice plant conservation is still often neglected. Orchids have made it into legislation, but often only on paper.Most poaching of wild orchids goes unreported. In Pokhara’s Panchase, harvesters from outside the community have even been using monkeys to gather valuable orchids from local forests.Of late, there have been seizures, including a 2017 case where more than 74kg of Nepal’s most highly protected orchid species were apprehended. There have been over 25 seizures of wild orchids since 2010, nearly half of them bound for China.Yet, seizures of protected plants are very rare and incidental. More often than not it is a case of the police spot-checking a truck or a bus and finding wild plants without permits. These seizures are only the tip of the iceberg, and are in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=14348#.YP6Zty2B2CQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stark contrast to huge investments and efforts deployed to protect threatened animal species</a>.Admittedly, however, our relationship with plants is often different from that we have with animals. Nepal has a long history of legal, regulated trade of many plants, especially medicinal species that are central to its culture, rural livelihoods, and exports. For example, wild spikenard roots are harvested under a strict quota system, and there are efforts to make this regulated trade more sustainable.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d089f9c7e80680e0a6029jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption>A tree overgrown with orchids on the way to Panchase, Pokhara. Photo: KUMAR PAUDEL/GREENHOOD NEPAL</figcaption></figure>Over the years, the government has issued many regulations, committing to both protecting orchids and also promoting sustainable harvests to enhance income generation of rural communities. This includes the 2013 ‘Orchid Harvest and Commercial Cultivation Directive’ which is being revisited with current amendments to the CITES Act 2017 that may soon allow for more sustainable, legal trade in the future.However, ensuring that the legal trade of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/rare-anti-cancer-tree-on-verge-of-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wild plants</a> is sustainable requires more than careful management and oversight. Baseline research and regular monitoring are a must. As it is, even for the most sought after 10-15 orchid species, we have surprisingly little information on them, about their trade and distribution, and their numbers in the wild.There are still questions about making orchid trade more sustainable and profitable for local communities while stopping smuggling. Nepal has an opportunity to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/economic-benefits-of-saving-the-ecology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">protect biodiversity</a> and enhance rural livelihood with benefits fairy distributed along value chains, but only through well-managed, legal sourcing.This is possible only if plant research and conservation are given their due priority. Orchids are found in our laws, in our forests, in our gardens, and in our medicines. This Nature Conservation Day let us commit to protecting them into the future and in the wild.Reshu Bashyal is Research Fellow at Greenhood Nepal.Jacob Phelps, PhD is co-Chair of the IUCN SSC Orchid Specialist Group, Global Trade Programme.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08a29c7e80680e0a602ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="89" height="103"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151120/636d08a39c7e80680e0a602bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="89" height="103">

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Saving nature by protecting orchids

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181148/636a96ff9c7e80680e05dc9bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>Leading wildlife, environment and development agencies are teaming up for an international film showcase to highlight conservation to reduce risk of unprecedented extinction from human overexploitation.The Film Showcase will be among global events that will anchor next year’s UN World Wildlife Day (3 March) on the theme Sustaining All Life on Earth. Winners and finalist films in the competition will be shown throughout 2020, which has been dubbed the Biodiversity Super Year around the world."This gives us a unique opportunity to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits of wildlife to people, the threats they are facing and the conservation success stories through motion pictures and story-telling," said <a href="https://www.cites.org/">CITES</a> (Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Wildlife, Flora and Fauna) Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero. "We urgently need to bend the curve of species and biodiversity loss before we reach the tipping points from which we may not recover, with dramatic consequences for all life on the planet."Added Susan Gardner of United Nations Environment Program (UNDP): “The science tells us that a million species could go extinct if we don’t change the way we live on the planet. Storytelling reconnects people and nature. We hope this event will build the groundswell of support needed to drive the transformation and courage that our leaders need to demonstrate in 2020 to secure a prosperous future for people and nature,” said.The Film Showcase will be organised jointly by CITES and the <a href="https://www.cbd.int/">Convention on Biological Diversity</a>, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (<a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/">UNEP</a>) and Jackson Wild. The call for entry will close on 4 January 2020 and finalists will be announced in early February 2020.Winners will be presented at a high-level event to coincide with the global celebration of UN World Wildlife Day at UN Headquarters in New York on 3 March 2020. During the event, best films will be awarded in categories Science, Innovation and Exploration, Issues and Solutions, People and the Wild, Stories of Hope, Global Voices, Short and Micro.“Wildlife and biodiversity underpin the well-being, safety, and resilience of all societies. The World Wildlife Day 2020 film showcase will raise awareness of the importance of investing in nature in ways that help accelerate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals,” noted Midori Paxton of UNDP.Said Lisa Samford, Executive Director of Jackson Wild: " As growing numbers of species edge toward extinction we must act quickly and decisively. We believe in the power of story to inspire awe at the wonders of our natural world and ignite the critical changes that will be required to restore and protect it.”

Wildlife film showcase in 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd1KeYcDjcg&amp;feature=youtu.beKathmandu was described by early expats as an ‘emerald valley’. During the monsoon, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/not-so-soon-monsoon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">terrace paddy fields</a> and forested hills carpeted the basin in verdant shades of green.Today, there is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-vanishing-land/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">barely any green spaces left</a>. But in a small way, Spanish artist Iñigo Iriarte is out to change that. ‘Indi’, as the Pamplona native likes to be called (in photo below), paints walls with a palette of living plants.His geotextile canvas is a moist fabric wall alive with leaves and roots, flowers and fruits, water, air and colonies of tiny living creatures. The vertical gardens are living art with broad strokes of a variety of green and tufts of vivid moss, daubs of purple, orange or white where flowers have bloomed.Read also:<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/rooftop-gardens-kathmandu,1415" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hanging gardens of Kathmandu</a>, Santa Gaha Magar<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-vanishing-land/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vanishing land</a>, Taylor MasonIriarte borrows heavily from expressionist tendencies when he paints on stretched canvas. Similarly, these living compositions speak of the artist's dual love for the city and nature, but also of how they struggle to coexist.Iriarte moved to Kathmandu two years ago with his wife and found reasons and an opportunity here to venture beyond his indoor paint-and-canvas studio into open space. It all started after he was invited to not just paint the inside wall of a spa at Shaligram Hotel, but also cover a blank white wall in the courtyard with a vertical garden.The result was a stunning green wall stretching across a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/water-of-the-ages/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dhara spout</a> and basin like an oasis. A sudden calming presence, perfect preparation for a spa client to experience a restful treatment to come.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a54729c7e80680e0523adjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="836" height="1400"/>Kathmandu’s latitude is subtropical, but its altitude lends a distinctive climate, rich with summer rain and cooled with dry winters. There is enough moisture and warmth for plants to thrive, so a cityscape of blank walls and hard surfaces could easily be regreened by vertical gardens.Iñigo Iriarte is inspired by French botanist Patrick Blanc, a pioneer of vertical gardens, but takes an ecosystem approach to his selection of plants. Many vertical gardens fail because they are ornamental and used for a wow effect, with little regard for how individual plants like to grow.Iriarte optimises nature’s own tendencies to create resilient ecosystems and microclimates that regulate themselves. He selects plants and places them according to natural growth patterns: those that prefer drier root biomes are higher, where there may be less water. Plants that thrive in wetter conditions are placed lower on the wall.He does not pander to those who just want a green wall — he will leave space free for moss and other unidentified free loaders to take residence on nutrient-rich walls. Sometimes, parasitic plants hitch a ride on their nursery hosts and take root alongside them, becoming part of the family. Occasionally, plants fail and need to be replaced.One of Iriarte’s sites, at the rooftop Rain Restaurant in Jawalakhel, is alive with over 25 varieties, from orchids to monstera, ferns to succulents, bromeliads to bamboo and surprisingly — on a wall of matted fibre and root substrates of crumpled fabric — fruiting citrus plants. There is also rosemary, happily sticking to its sunny spot on the south facing wall. “Plant health and happiness, and their ensuing resilience, is key,” explains Iriarte.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/something-fishy-in-new-nepal-farm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Something fishy in new Nepal farm</a>, Hrijata Dahal<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a54759c7e80680e0523aejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The wall at Rain is based on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/something-fishy-in-new-nepal-farm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aquaponics</a> and recycles water from a fish tank below the plants to the microbially dense geotextile wall. The wall acts as a biofilter to convert water rich in ammonia from fish waste into water rich with nitrates and other nutrients that the plants can absorb, thus making it clean and safe enough to be returned to the fish tank in a water cycle.Rain’s managing partner Tara Adhikari plucks sprigs of rosemary or fruits from the tiny lime tree for some of his classy cocktails, saying: “We make good cocktails because of the freshness of the ingredients we use, some of which come from Indi’s wall. A vertical garden is a new concept in Nepal, and we took a risk, but the guests like it.”Every installation is different, tailored to its context, taking into account aspect, exposure to the elements and purpose. For the three walls Iriarte has installed in Kathmandu, including a testing bed at home, all the hardware and plants are locally sourced.“It would be great to see plants of the surrounding mountains here to green the city using the least space possible and with maximum effect in cleaning the air and creating calm living environments for people and other living creatures,” says Iriarte.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Between existence and extinction in Nepal</a>, Sonia AwaleNot many other countries can boast a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/between-existence-and-extinction-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">landscape as three-dimensional and vertical</a> as Nepal, and it is fitting that even as Kathmandu is built up, vertical walls can help it reclaim some greenery and bring back plants, birds, insects and microbes to coexist with humans.Instagram: the_vertical_ garden_architect

Garden walls

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