Environmental research

The project site has been shifted from Khunkhani to Lekhani VDC of Baglung district due to increased insurgent activites. From the Baglung district headquarter, it takes 3-4 hrs walk to reach the project site. Lekhani VDC offers a magnificent views of snow capped Himalayas. The Dhaulagiri and the Annapurna range in the north extend from east to west. Mt Dhaulagiri and Mt Annapurna are among the highest Himalayan peaks in the world. Lekhani VDC covers an area of about 11 Sq Km with 536 household of which majorities are Magars, Brahmins, Kami, Damai and Sarki. All households use fuelwood for cooking and kerosene for lighting purpose. About 400 ha of the land is covered by the forest and managed by 2 community forest users group. The vision of the Paper and Power project is to provide community households (SHS)to encourage communities for carrying out productive activities by producing handmade traditional papers from Lokta (Daphne sps) with value addition and marketing the products nationally and interanationally via e-commerce. Upto now 92 households have installed solar home system and people are trained to build their capacity to establish village level lokta factory.

Nepal