This Valentine's Day you can surprise and delight your Valentine by sending them a personalised digital Valentine Card notifying them that you've contributed towards an exciting rewilding project in Nepal in their name. You'll be reducing your carbon footprint by not sending a conventional card while investing instead in planting trees to help save the planet.

Background

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Since December 2021 we have been pioneering in Nepal the rapid-growth "Miyawaki Method" of reforestation. This has involved several wonderful projects, including creating a Gurkha Memorial Forest and The Dhanusha Bird Park. For the latter, we are rewilding over-grazed, barren, community land beside a little river at Dhanushadham, with a view to creating a haven for endangered birds. This can be managed sustainably by the local community who are involved in planting the saplings in the first place. We have made the Bird Park doubly eye-catching by juxtaposing glass mosaics of local birds with nature as a way of enticing human visitors who can provide a source of income to local people and the project. The project is funded by grants from Foundations and by public donations, with saplings being planted in phases as funds become available. We've also offered supporters the possibility of commissioning mosaics, lovingly handmade at Philip's studio in Devon, for a gift of £500 (or more) towards the project.

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We have now reached Phase 4 of the Bird Park project, with the land all fenced off and ready for saplings to be planted. You can view a satellite image of the site through this link as presented by our colleagues at Restor (a free service!).

The planting can't begin until the end of April because of operational and seasonal reasons, but we need to raise the funds now to make a huge success of this. This will allow us to purchase saplings from nut and fruit producing species to supplement those donated by Nepal's Department of Forestry. These species are very important for both the wildlife and the local people. Beyond planting the saplings, we need to pay for their upkeep - weeding and irrigation - until they reach a suitable degree of maturity. With the Miyawaki Method, that won't take long!

A £10 donation is enough to cover the cost of a square metre of new forest - that means nine saplings planted close to one another in line with the Miyawaki Method. Through our Valentine's Day appeal we are aiming to raise £5,500 that will plant out 550 square metres of the 2,300 square metres of the site. If we raise more than that, all the better.

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How you can send your Valentine card

All you have to do is to make a £10 donation (or any multiple thereof!) through the button below:

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Then drop Cupid a simple line telling him the name of your Valentine. He'll then get to work creating a personalised digital card (or cards) that you can pass on to your loved one. The card will depict the distinctive Pipal Tree leaf (in red) and explain a little about the project.

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As gifts come in, we will list them on this page so that we can set up a QR Code that can be mounted on a plinth at the plantation site itself. In this way, the Valentine's name can be directly associated to the work on the ground. We will let you know when we have updated this page with images at the time of planting in late-April so that you can share this with your Valentine.

If you are feeling really generous - or you can get together with a group of friends - for £500 I'd be very happy to make a mosaic that can be mounted at the site during my next visit to Nepal.

And a gift towards the project is always welcome, with or without a Valentine. A love for Nepal is enough in its own right.

Many thanks and happy Valentine's Day!

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