Nepal’s Reshu Bashyal Wins 2025 Whitley Award for Addressing Poaching of Orchids, Yews

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UK charity, the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), has recognised Nepal’s Reshu Bashyal with a 2025 Whitley Award for addressing the illegal trade in orchids and yews in the country, which has been driven by soaring international demand for their medicinal and ornamental properties.

Charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, presented the £50,000 Whitley Award on 30 April at the Royal Geographical Society. The event was livestreamed to YouTube.

Portrait of Reshu Bashyal amongst forest in Nepal.

“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.”

China and India are the key drivers in a market for the biomedically important yews and orchids in Nepal, where more than 90 percent of all medicinal plants harvested are sourced in the wild, leaving some species facing extinction threats. Orchids and yews are used in both western and eastern medicine. Yew leaves are used in taxol, also known as paclitaxel, a compound pivotal in cancer treatment. Orchids are used in Ayurveda, Traditional Tibetan Medicines,Traditional Chinese Medicines, and as ornamental plants.

Reshu, the Research and Program Lead at Kathmandu-based NGO, Greenhood Nepal, aims to shape a policy around plant conservation and sustainability, including the “tigers of the plant world,” orchids and yews. This will include planting thousands of trees to promote long-term sustainable harvest. Plants have traditionally been gathered by local communities for medicine and for their beauty but the extensive poaching has left Nepal with as few as 500 mature Maire’s Yews in the wild, according to government estimates.

Reshu was one of the first to demonstrate the scale of the commercial harvesting – leading the country’s baseline research on medicinal orchids, in which she persuaded harvesters to self-report on their collection of several thousand orchids. She also interviewed and interacted with hundreds of yew harvesters to understand their motivations and harvest techniques.

All species of orchids and yews in Nepal are protected by national legislation and, with the exception of two orchid species, are listed under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, (CITES Appendix II).

“The biggest threat to these species is habitat destruction linked to illegal trade, unsustainable harvest, and lack of conservation importance. Plants are found everywhere so it is easy for people to overlook them.”

With her Whitley Award funding, Reshu will focus on five community forests in Makwanpur district, a key habitat for Maire’s Yew (T. mairei). Located in the mid hills of Central Nepal and 75 km from Kathmandu and partially within Chitwan National Park, Makwanpur is a hotspot for yews and orchids. About 250 individual wild mature Maire’s Yew trees are found there. Around one hundred species of medicinal orchids grow in the area – about one-fifth of the country’s total.

Reshu’s team at Greenhood Nepal will restore at least 1,000 hectares of core wild and medicinal orchid habitat and plant 5,000 Maire’s Yew at the project site for cultivation. They will also create a 100 hectare community forest to promote as a model to demonstrate best practices and for long term monitoring. Nepal has a successful track record of community forest management: communities manage 40 percent of Nepal’s forests and play a crucial role in in the country’s reforestation programme.

Yews and orchids are culturally significant to traditional communities in Makwanpur. Yews are named after a God Machchendranath and offered to the Indrayani Goddess. Reshu says that local people, who rely on subsistence agriculture, have not benefited from their trade. Yews have been used locally to treat wounds and orchids are used for stomach aches, headaches and fevers.

There is a legal export market in Nepal for the leaves of yew trees which are cultivated in their thousands, specifically for trade. More than one hundred mature yews would be needed to produce the 10,000 kg of yew leaves to extract 1.5 kg to 2 kg of DAB-10, a white powder form that is exported legally from Nepal and used to prepare taxol. The compound is used globally to treat early stage and advanced cancers such as breast, skin and ovarian cancers. While all species of yews can be used to produce the end product, Maire’s Yew is considered to produce the best quality.

Reshu’s plan to develop local community leadership will be key to reduce poaching, restore habitat and raise awareness of the value of medicinal plants.

Longer term, Reshu and the team has plans to work with the Division Forest Offices to formalize the “community taskforces” into Community Based Anti-poaching Units which have been instrumental in protecting Nepal’s famous charismatic species, which include rhinos and tigers.

Globally, 38 percent of the world’s trees are at risk of extinction, according to the IUCN’s first global tree assessment last year. The loss of trees is a major threat to thousands of other plants, fungi and animals. One yew, for example, can support hundreds of orchids. Yews can live more than 1,000 years and orchids can live for 20 years.

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NOTES TO EDITORS – WHITLEY FUND FOR NATURE

The Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is a UK charity supporting grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South. Since its creation in 1993, it has channelled £24 million to 220 conservationists across 80 countries.

An early pioneer in the sector WFN was one of the first charities to channel funding directly to projects led by in-country nationals. Its rigorous application process identifies inspiring individuals who combine the latest science with community-based action.

WFN’s flagship prizes – Whitley Awards – are presented by charity Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, at a prestigious annual ceremony in London at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS). Winners receive funding, training, and profile boost, including short films.

The 2025 Whitley Awards Ceremony took place on Wednesday 30th April at the RGS and streamed live on YouTube from 7:30pm BST. The 2025 Whitley Award winners are:

Dr Yara Barros from Brazil who is protecting jaguars by teaching communities to co-exist with the apex predator in Iguaçu National Park in the Atlantic Forest.
Dr Federico Kacoliris from Argentina who is expanding protection for the country’s most threatened amphibian, the El Rincón stream frog, and its river habitat in the volcanic Somuncura Plateau.
Dr Andrés Link from Colombia who is protecting brown spider monkeys in the lowland rainforests of central Colombia and reconnecting the species’ fragmented habitat through a network of private protected areas.
Rahayu Oktaviani from Indonesia who is ensuring continuous canopy for the Endangered Javan gibbon on Java, one of the most densely populated islands on earth.
Dr Farina Othman from Malaysia who is saving the last 300 Bornean elephants in the east coast of Sabah State in Malaysia’s Borneo by working with large and small palm oil stakeholders.
Every year, a past Whitley Award winner is chosen to receive the Whitley Gold Award, worth £100,000, in recognition of their outstanding contribution to conservation. Joining the Judging Panel, the Whitley Gold Award recipient also acts as a mentor to Whitley Award winners and an international ambassador for conservation success. The 2025 Whitley Gold Award winner is Rwanda’s Dr Olivier Nsengimana, recognised for his leadership in rebuilding the Grey Crowned Crane in Rwanda and for an ambitious plan to secure protection across East Africa for the iconic bird and its wetland habitat.
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