Illegal trade & sustainable use of medicinal orchids in Nepal
Key Facts
FUNDING SCHEME Main
VALUE £134,840
WHERE Nepal
Summary
Nepal hosts >100 orchids species traded for Ayurvedic and Chinese medicines, with widespread reports of population declines. Most trade is illegal, alongside a legal quota-based harvest system. This project will produce the first-ever baseline on the illegal trade, to integrate orchids into domestic policy and facilitate appropriate enforcement. Concurrently, the project will support legal, more sustainable harvest by rural communities, implementing the world’s first orchid harvester self-reporting scheme, and exert-informed Population Viability Analysis to develop science-based management.
Over 600 arrests and more than 500 convictions in wildlife crime since 2017, alongside a decline in ivory trafficking cases and an increase in elephant and rhino populations.
