Empowering women in the mountains of Nepal

INTRO

I had the good fortune to participate in the first day of the eco-tourism training in Kaski district, part of the Gandaki province, offered by Empowering Women of Nepal (EWN) and funded by the international agency USAID Nepal.

I travelled by car with Lucky Chhetri, founder of EWN, to Chapakot village on the outskirts of the city of Pokhara for the opening of the programme.

On arrival, I entered a colourful and very hot room full of women of different ages, social classes and ethnic groups.

The atmosphere was electric but in an unusual way. There was not much chatting going on – apart from a couple of isolated exceptions – but I could sense a unique tension in the room. Smiling faces were directed at different angles and curious eyes checked the space around them in search of clues and familiar faces. Their hands were either holding a refreshing glass of water or a fan to help them cool down.

Their trepidation was evident in their eyes and somewhat nervous smiles. Some women were still making their entrance, quickly finding their seats, hoping that their lateness had not been noticed.

Lucky was approaching the small stage to officially welcome the women and kindly put an end to their ‘sweet’ anxiety.

After the morning and the initial sessions, I became more curious about the programme and had a long and revealing chat with Lucky, which helped me to understand the background of that day.

This article is based on a conversation I had with the founder after my return from Nepal.

Workshop participants in Chapakot village, Pokhara, last June. (Photo credits: Elisa Spampinato)

A PROGRAMME TO LEAVE A MARK

The training course – which was completed a few days ago, on the 15 July – was offered to a total of 600 women in seven different local communities in the mountain and trekking areas around Pokhara Valley in central Nepal.

In each location, six days of training was organised covering different subjects and these were distributed as follows: four days on eco-tourism and health-hygiene-sanitation, and two days on homestay and hospitality.

An orientation day was also held at EWN office on the lakeside in Pokhara town, when the women gathered and met representatives of local government, USAID and other local supportive organisations.

The focus of the course was on what is known as GESI (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion) and the selection of the candidates reflected that. The participants have all been women from marginalised communities and segments of society who are traditionally isolated, such as widows or people with disabilities.

The USAID Nepal Biodiversity Programme has once more chosen the EWN (the not-for-profit branch of 3 Sisters, the pioneering female trekking company established in 1993) as their local partner to deliver this eco-tourism training to other rural communities. The choice was easy to make given the organisation’s long-term work in the field and their successes achieved in very remote areas, such as the East Karnali district, dating back as far as 2003.

JOINING THE DOTS AND FINDING NEW ALLIES

Providing education and awareness about the current environmental situation and main issues of the region were integral parts of the programme. This served as a foundation for building the eco-tourism concept for these present and future tourism professionals.

The audience, in fact, was made up of women with a mixture of backgrounds and tourism experiences. There were many current housewives, some of whom were previously involved in the tourism industry in the nearby town. There were also tea house and homestay owners, and local restaurant managers.

The course aims to provide a combination of education and the opportunity for the women to be equipped with the right information and basic skills to improve their businesses in both an efficient and self-sufficient way.

CURRENT CLIMATE

Lucky confirmed what I had already learned during previous conversations in the Pokhara villages. It has been at least 5–10 years since the effects of climate change were felt in the daily lives of the local community members: local fruits slowly disappearing, the traditional six seasons reduced to two.

However, since other factors are at play at the same time, the consequences are negatively boosted as a result.

Looking at waste management, for example, in some places a mixture of little information, a lack of environmental education and the absence of good destination management (including the lack of carrying capacity studies and inclusion of limits for visitors and monitoring systems) has led to an unpleasant situation.

The unhealthy habits of burning waste, or simply a disregard for more careful use of natural resources, might continue until people are invited to follow the thread and see where it goes. More pollution, fewer resources and a decreased quality of life are the clear results found at the end of the line.

Before providing more practical knowledge about the hospitality sector, this programme has played a role in revealing the connections between certain behaviours and the damage to nature. It invites people to adopt a more respectful attitude by consciously minimising the use of resources and finding alternative ones. Planting native trees and applying the 3Rs framework – Reuse, Reduce, Recycle – were some of the solutions presented and discussed during the training programme.

‘They were completely shocked about the impact. For them, it was a kind of awakening moment,’ Lucky informed me.

Although nowadays in the industry the concept of environmental limits is usually included in the equation, for the local communities in relatively new mass destinations this is still a new concept.

The fact is that the long-term perspective is not usually embedded in the planning of tourism activities. However, it is now perceived as necessary considering that overtourism is becoming a real issue even in Nepal. Locations like Gandruck, for example – where the ‘awakening’ Lucky was talking about happened – or Mardi Himal, have recently started suffering from overtourism.

Of course, with overtourism, the problem of limited local resources becomes even more striking. In a destination where waste management is already a problem, the arrival of big uncontrolled masses of environmentally unconscious tourists doesn’t help.

According to Lucky, in the last 10–15 years Nepal has witnessed a new rise in domestic tourism which doesn’t seem to slow down or halt. Many new short-term visitors and school groups arrive constantly in the hills and mountains of Nepal disturbing the quiet surroundings with loud voices and music, and carelessly picking flowers and plants.

The lack of awareness and environmentally friendly behaviours of this growing new trend of visitors adds pressure to an already fragile environment.

Nir Bahadur B. K., Enterprise Development Officer at USAID Biodiversity – Jal Jangal, while interacting with the women during a group activity in Chapakot last June. (Photo credits: Elisa Spampinato)

The villages, whose inhabitants are leaving for the bigger cities, are shrinking in size and the forest is left behind as an unattended precious prey to be looted one tree at a time.

Deforestation and uncontrolled fires have pushed snow leopards into the urban areas where they have attacked people. Monkeys looting the harvest is another problem for Nepalese farmers.

The EWN Founder Lucky Chhetri while giving the opening speech at the training programme (on the left), and chatting with the participants during a break (on the right) in Chapakot last June. (Photo credits: Elisa Spampinato)

MOVING FORWARD IN A NEW LIGHT

The most dangerous of all is probably the lack of awareness of the local people but, once awareness is reached and the connections are seen, new solutions can grow from it.

Although community members are forced to become aware of some of these factors, most of the time they do not have access to the bigger picture, only fragmented and imprecise parts of it. But as soon as it becomes available, everything acquires a new light.

In the same way, women need to ‘be triggered’ – using Lucky’s expression – in order to achieve the impossible. ‘It is the right professional guidance that sometimes makes the whole difference.’

As reported by Lucky, many interesting new initiatives have been presented and discussed during the programme sessions, especially new behavioural changes and new pledges to the local environment.

There are also many existing groups such as conservationist groups, cooperatives, youth clubs, environmental and women’s groups. These active local stakeholders are the key to designing possible new answers. They are the new dots that will be joined as a continuation of the course. New solutions will address the urgent problems of responsible environmental management and the inequality of tourist distribution at the territorial level.

 

Burning waste or noise pollution is now seen by the participants with different eyes and, at this new level of understanding, they are probably also more prepared to communicate with their guests and invite them to follow the new rules.

 

A first step towards transforming them into the guardians of the local biodiversity has been made, through the tool of eco-tourism.

HEALTHIER DESTINATIONS BY A CHANGE IN SELF-PERCEPTION

The programme has impacted the women in several ways which I don’t have time to describe in more depth on this occasion. However, a fair way to summarise the process is to mention that everything started from a shift in the participants’ self-perception, as social and cultural beings.

Lively groups of newly empowered and professionally prepared women are returning to their villages and tourism businesses now, with many new lessons learned and many new opportunities for their future.

The training programme has also been a useful seed for future strategic alliances aiming to solve the most urgent problems at the local level.

The biggest obstacle to balanced sustainable development through tourism is generally the lack of awareness, which I believe has been addressed in a brilliant way by the course.

I’m looking forward to returning to Nepal and perhaps meeting some of the women who participated in the training programme and seeing how they have incorporated the learning in their tourism entrepreneurial journeys and in their own communities.

Warm thanks to Lucky for the time invested in providing me with the detailed information and to EWN and USAID for inviting me to participate in the opening day in the Chapakot hub on the 3 June 2024.

Group picture outside the training venue in Chapakot, last June, standing with Lucky Chhetri, Nir Bahadur, EWN staff members and a local tour guide who trained the women on the day.

Photo credits: all the images have been provided by EWN, unless otherwise stated.

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