How Nepali Women Turn Forest Fire Risk Into Fertilizer and Income

Meena Poudel crouches beneath the Sal and Beech trees in Nawalpur District's forests as dawn breaks, her hands moving through the forest floor's thick carpet of dry, bronze-coloured leaves. The edges are brittle and curled inward like sleeping insects. Around her, other women work with quiet efficiency, cutting through tangled branches and dead wood with blades worn smooth from daily use. With each sweep, the forest becomes safer—the dense undergrowth that once fuelled wildfires is now being collected for a different purpose: transforming into organic fertiliser.

At 41, Meena serves as Secretary of the Binayi Community Forest User Group, a local organisation focused on protecting and managing the forest responsibly. What she and her colleagues are doing represents a significant change in how communities address environmental challenges. The biofertiliser business has transformed Meena's life and that of many others in the Binayi Triveni community. She now pays for her son's university degree in Kathmandu while managing her household independently—a major shift from the financial dependence she once experienced. "We women have developed the capacity to manage our households, cover family expenses, and educate our children," she explained.

Twenty women from Binayi Triveni Municipality gather forest litter and convert it into organic fertiliser, which local farmers and government plant nurseries buy. Their work produces more than 60,000 kilograms of organic fertiliser each year, with plans to increase this amount. The enterprise now creates income for 400 people in an area where jobs, especially for women, have been difficult to find. Most importantly, Meena's work has helped reduce forest fires by 70 percent over the past year.

The Binayi Community Forest User Group operates within Nepal's system of community forestry, which began with the Forest Act of 1993. Community forests are national forests given to local groups to protect, manage, and use, and they have been crucial for forest conservation and sustainable resource management. According to Nepal's Ministry of Forests and Environment, nearly 2.58 million hectares of forest have been handed over as community forests. By 2020, there were 22,266 community forest user groups across the country, managing 41 percent of national forests and involving 2.9 million households. What Meena and her colleagues have created is part of a system of remarkable scale—one that reaches millions of rural Nepalis and influences the management of nearly half the country's forests.

The forest litter that Meena and her colleagues collect—bark, leaves, and sticks from the forest floor—is exactly the material that feeds Nepal's growing wildfires. Nepal faces increasing climate challenges, including melting glaciers, unpredictable rainfall, floods, landslides, forest fires, and droughts, which affect more than 10 million people. Forest fires in the Himalayan region are becoming more frequent due to climate change, with rising temperatures being the main climatic factor driving larger burned areas. By removing this unnecessary material from the forest floor, the women have greatly reduced fire risk while protecting the environment.

The organic fertiliser they produce helps local farmers move away from chemical fertilisers, improving soil quality and crop yields across the region. One farmer tested three different fertilisers on the same plot; only Binayi's compost produced steady, strong growth throughout the season. Another farmer, Anant Prakash Shrestha, saw the results firsthand: "After applying it, we observed fewer diseases affecting our food crops. Additionally, we experienced an increase in production capacity, with better growth and development of our crops."

The shift from forest fire risk to business began with local effort but grew through organised support. The local municipality provided matching funds for the group's initial investment. In 2023, the Forest and Farm Facility of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations gave USD 25,000 to help launch the enterprise. The FFF first assessed the group's potential, then provided training in forest management, composting methods, and ways to add value to products. These steps ensured the enterprise was both environmentally responsible and financially sustainable. The women received help developing a business plan, analysing the market, and meeting quality standards. Attending cross-sector meetings helped them work through local regulations and build partnerships with nearby communities, turning the group from informal volunteers into recognised business owners.

Research on Nepal's community forestry system shows that when women participate in forest management, conservation improves measurably. Groups with many women in leadership positions show significantly better forest conditions. Groups led entirely by women have better forest regeneration and canopy growth than other groups, even though they often manage smaller, more damaged forests. This success comes largely from women's stronger commitment to forest protection and rule enforcement.

The Binayi enterprise is part of a wider movement of women-led forest businesses in Nepal. Shanta Neupane, from Panauti Municipality in central Nepal, noticed how hard women in rural forest and farming communities worked on their small farms, providing food for their families. Although they were members of community forest user groups, these women had little say in their communities, owned no property, and earned no personal income from their work. Shanta believed that if these women formed a cooperative, they could combine their skills and knowledge to produce and sell goods, taking steps toward financial independence and improving their standing in the community. With help from the Forest and Farm Facility, Shanta expanded her vision through visits to Vietnam, Thailand, and India, where she met with women's groups and learned about business planning, finance, adding value to products, and creating multiple income sources to keep a cooperative strong.

Getting the women of Panauti Municipality to believe in her idea took more than persuasion. When they were hesitant, Shanta decided to show them how the model worked by starting one herself. In 2015, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations through the Forest and Farm Facility, she established a women-led forest and farm producer group called Adhar Ekata Mahila Samuha.

While the Binayi group transforms forest litter into fertiliser, other women-led businesses in Nepal create value from different forest products. A bio-bowl and plate enterprise supported by the non-profit People, Energy and Environment Development Association collects sal leaves to make biodegradable bowls and plates from the Dhulekhar Community Forest in Pyuthan District in western Nepal. This enterprise, run by 22 women—more than half of whom are Indigenous—combines traditional knowledge with modern technology and market-focused production, turning ancestral skills into a sustainable green business. The community forest covering the Dhulekhar area spans 488.68 hectares and is managed by 339 households. It could supply more than 250 quintals of sal leaves annually, enough to produce approximately 5.2 million bio-bowls and 1.5 million bio-plates each year.

In Dangisharan Rural Municipality in western Nepal, 21 women of the Milijuli Tilakanya Dunatapri Udhyami Firm make leaf plates and bowls by stitching sal leaves together with bamboo fibres. The group belongs to Our Rajakot Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, which provides technical and financial support. In December 2023, the women received a new electric machine made by the National Innovation Center, developed through partnerships with universities. The machine uses pressure and heat to shape the leaves into bowls or plates. First, the women harvest the leaves, clean, wash, and dry them. Then, they hand-sew them together using bamboo fibres before feeding them into the machine for shaping.

The new technology enabled the women to produce more than 108,000 leaf plates of different sizes in the past year—three times more than before. As a result, their income has increased significantly, with each woman earning NPR 155,640 (approximately USD 1,150) per year. Ms. Sita Dangi, Coordinator of Milijuli Tilakanya Dunatapri Udhyami Firm, described the problems before the new machine: "Previously, we had one basic machine which could produce one size of leaf plate, but this frequently malfunctioned and required maintenance." With the new machine, she explained, "we can produce different plate sizes and so appeal to a wider range customers – from hotels to family celebrations."

Ms. Tila Pun, shareholder of Our Rajakot Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited, described the market growth: "Our dunatapari are popular during the Teej celebrations, and they are now being used in local eateries, local government offices, weddings, pujas, schools, fairs, hotels, and events organised by various institutions."

The cooperative has been running awareness campaigns to encourage local businesses and organisations to use these strong, natural products instead of single-use plastic. As a result, single-use plastic utensils have been banned in restaurants and eateries in Dangisaran and the neighbouring municipality of Tulsipur, and the cooperative continues to promote and monitor this policy. The local government also actively encourages the use of sal leaf plates at meetings and events.

Making sal leaf plates requires minimal processing or energy, resulting in a low carbon footprint. The plates are made only from leaves and bamboo fibres, making them completely biodegradable. Sal leaves naturally fall from the trees—each sal tree normally sheds eight to nine fronds annually, and the leaves used for plates are collected from naturally fallen material without cutting the tree itself. Gathering leaves from community forests creates economic value from material that would otherwise decompose or be burned.

About 80 percent of Nepal's rural population depends on non-timber forest products for their living. These products provide rural people with food, medicine, building materials, and income, and have commercial, social, and environmental importance in rural communities. More than 700 plant species produce non-timber forest products, and about 150 of these are commonly traded internationally.

Research on Nepal's Community Forestry programme shows benefits that go beyond simply creating income. A study examining eight health outcomes from 2006 to 2022, linking health data from 24,586 households with 18,184 Community Forests, found the clearest effects on child nutrition. Community Forestry reduced socioeconomic deprivation, particularly in poorer areas, which led to fewer cases of stunting and underweight in children. When scaled nationally, Community Forestry coverage was linked to reductions of 11.3 cases of stunting and 8.5 cases of underweight per 1,000 children under five each year, equivalent to 33,965 and 25,490 fewer cases nationally annually.

In Dangisharan and Tulsipur, the plastic bans have taken effect. The local government actively promotes sal leaf plates at meetings and events. The women of Milijuli Tilakanya Dunatapri Udhyami Firm now earn NPR 155,640 per woman per year—income that goes directly into households where it was absent before. And in Nawalpur District, as dawn breaks, Meena Poudel continues to move through the forest floor, her hands gathering the material that once threatened to burn the forest down, transforming it into something that nourishes both soil and family.