HOW TO TURN FARMERS INTO TEACHERS? HOW TO TURN VILLAGES INTO CLASSROOMS?
A fantastic project in eastern Nepal is shaping up. It plans to create an 8000m vertical university from the Terai plains to the tip of Kanchenjunga. Begun in 2013, TKT-BELT is a live project, which evolves through the combined creativity and ingenuity of more than 150,000 people living directly on the corridor.
KTK-BELT Project is a platform for farmers, teachers, designers and environmentalists working together to build community-based biodiversity conservation strategies for the eastern region of Nepal. Local farmers possess deeply embedded place-based knowledge of their environments and, therefore, have the capacity to steward them. Working directly with a local farmers cooperative, Yangshila Permaculture Learning Grounds (YPLG), we’re building a 100-acre community land trust, encompassing 20 different critical ecological habitats spanning the range of 180 to 1950 masl, containing more than 500 native plant species, as a strategy for restoring forests in the eastern region of Nepal and building ‘living classrooms’ to sustain indigenous knowledge. With a focus on habitat conservation, place-based education and sustainable livelihoods diversification, we are developing Yangshila into the eastern region’s first ‘vertical university.’
Dr Allison F Wren
Hardie Wren Development Initiatives Founder