Community engagement in reforestation activities is one of our key goals both in Kathmandu valley and in rural south Nepal. And this past week we have enjoyed just that in the form of 60 grade 8 students from Rato Bangala School in Kathmandu.

The students joined the young women from Lily’s Leaves and British volunteer Sarah Fennell in the extensive clean-up of litter that is required at the Bagmati Corridor site. This is the sixth urban forest project that we have undertaken since the programme began in July 2023. And everyone is working hard to try and get the saplings planted before the March 5th deadline.

You can see from the picture below the extensive metal fencing support that has already been put in place in advance of rolling out the meshing that will ensure the saplings will not be disturbed by grazers and stray pedestrians.

It will take just three years for the new forest to reach some degree of maturity, attracting birds, insects and various creepie crawlies aka ‘biodiversity’ back into central Kathmandu. But the workers were encouraged to note a White Wagtail already foraging in the soil that they have enriched with compost.

The funds for this project have been secured through gifts in Wills and in memoriam (most recently for my sister-in-law Beth Holmes who passed away in January) and from donations received through The Big Give. A section of the forest will be planted in honour of Sir Alec Reed, Founder of The Reed Foundation and The Big Give, who passed away in December last year.

Pipal Tree will be taking part in the next matched-donations Big Give campaign – ‘Earth Raise’ – that will run from 22nd – 29th April. We’re over the moon to have secured our £50,000 matching pledges target that will hopefully be the first step in raising a grand total of £200,000 towards our community reforestation projects in Nepal for the remainder of the year.