Reshu Bashyal becomes fourth Nepali in as many years to win Whitley Award

Reshu Bashyal, an orchid and yew conservationist and researcher from Nepal, is among the winners of this year’s Whitley Award, popularly known as the “Green Oscars.”
She was recognized for her work on combating the unsustainable harvesting of these plants, largely for medicinal purposes, becoming the fourth Nepali in as many years to win the award.
Her research highlights how weak law enforcement and lack of community involvement drive ongoing poaching, and she plans to use the 50,000 pound ($67,000) prize to restore 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of orchid and yew habitat in Makwanpur district.
Previous Nepali winners of the Whitley Award winners include conservationists focused on birds, red pandas, and pangolins

KATHMANDU — Nepali conservationist Reshu Bashyal has been named one of the six recipients of this year’s prestigious Whitley Award in recognition of her work to tackle widespread poaching of orchids and yews.

Bashyal is the fourth Nepali in as many years to win the award, dubbed the “Green Oscars,” for which she will receive 50,000 pounds (nearly $67,000) from the U.K.’s Princess Anne, patron of the Whitley Fund for Nature. The award ceremony was held on April 30 in London.

“Orchids and yews are very special because they stand out as evolutionarily distinct plants that have lured people not just because of their beauty but also with their medicinal values,” said Bashyal, research and program lead at the Kathmandu-based NGO Greenhood Nepal.

The Whitley Fund for Nature said the award recognizes Bashyal’s pioneering work in understanding the extent of commercial harvesting of yews and orchids in Nepal by carrying out baseline research on harvesters’ motivation and techniques.

Orchids, members of the plant family Orchidaceae, are known for their colorful and fragrant blooms, and Nepal is believed to be home to around 500 of the roughly 30,000 species known to science. Also referred to as the “tigers of the plant world,” orchids have long been subjected to unsustainable harvesting and international trade, both for ornamental purposes and for use in Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine. Another Nepal-native species, Maire’s yew (Taxus mairei), is also sought out for use in medicine; a compound derived from the plant’s shoots is used to produce Taxol, a widely used drug for cancer treatment.

In an interview with Mongabay in April 2024, Bashyal said that in Nepal, implementation of conservation laws is weak as they weren’t formulated with a bottom-up approach. That’s why despite changes in the laws, people continue to practice cultural harvesting of these and other wild plants and animals.

Bashyal said this is why it’s important to develop local community leadership and raise awareness to achieve conservation goals.

With her award money, Bashyal and her colleagues at Greenhood plan to focus on five community forests in Makwanpur district, home to around 250 individual wild mature Maire’s yew trees (T. mairei) and 100 species of medicinal orchids. They plan to work on restoring at least 1,000 hectares (about 2,500 acres) of core wild and medicinal orchid habitat and plant 5,000 Maire’s yews at the project site for cultivation, the Whitley Fund for Nature said.

Bashyal is the fifth Nepali to receive the award, with four of them winning in the last four years. Previous winners include pioneering ornithologist Hem Sagar Baral, red panda conservationist Sonam Tashi Lama, pangolin researcher Tulshi Laxmi Suwal and owl conservationist Raju Acharya.

Banner Image: Reshu Bashyal receives the Whitley Award from Princess Anne, patron of the Whitley Fund for Nature in London. Image courtesy WFN.