The rapid growth of cities like Kathmandu has led to profound ecological Green spaces are disappearing from the city due to increasing soil sealing, and with them their ecological functions. At the same time, Kathmandu is now one of the cities with the highest levels of air pollution in the world. Dense development, traffic emissions and the drastic decline in vegetation areas have contributed to the fact that pollutants in the air can hardly be filtered out anymore. The consequences are health problems for city dwellers, rising temperatures in urban areas and an overall decline in the quality of life in public spaces.

The city‘s river areas, including the banks of the Bagmati and Bishnumati rivers, are particularly affected. These zones originally served as natural floodplains, habitats for numerous animal and plant species, and cooling, balancing elements in the urban fabric. However, with advancing urbanisation, the riverbanks have become increasingly occupied, degraded and used as informal rubbish dumps over a long period of time. The lack of protection for these sensitive areas and a lack of greenery led to severe environmental pollution, loss of biodiversity and further alienation of the population from the rivers.

The social enterprise Lily‘s Leaves addresses these challenges by pursuing three strategies: First, they have set themselves the goal of empowering women to create an economic foundation. Second, Lily‘s Leaves is dedicated to supporting the education of girls from impoverished backgrounds. 

As a third pillar, Lily‘s Leaves has made environmental protection its mission, responding to the ecological and spatial deficits mentioned above. With this in mind, the initiative started planting urban forests in 2023 using the Miyawaki method. This method, developed by Japanese plant scientist Akira Miyawaki, is based on planting exclusively native tree and shrub species, which are arranged in high density and in several vegetation layers. Intensive soil preparation and a short period of initial care result in small-scale, self-sustaining forest structures that develop much faster than conventional reforestation. The method is therefore ideally suited to establishing dense, biodiversity-rich mini-forests within a few years in heavily degraded or sealed urban areas. They improve the microclimate, filter air pollutants and create new habitats for insects, birds and small animals. Due to its low space requirements and high resilience, the Miyawaki method is particularly suitable for urban residual areas, such as underused or misused riverbank areas, and thus represents a locally applicable, scalable solution to the ecological challenges Kathmandu is facing. Lily‘s Leaves has already created three such Miyawaki forests along the city‘s riverbanks.

The Miyawaki forests created by Lily‘s Leaves, such as the approximately 2,000 square metre forest on Tankeshor Road on the banks of the Bishnumati, consist of around 52 planted species. These small forests not only help to improve air quality, they are also potentially an effective remedy for urban heat islands. In addition to increasing biodiversity, they can also help replenish groundwater reserves and improve soil quality. The forests also help to improve the well-being of the local population. Residents in the areas surrounding Lily‘s Leaves forests report that the air feels cleaner, that many different species of birds can be observed in the forests, and that these spaces feel more serene in general. 

The initiative also reports that the riverbanks are no longer being misused as rubbish dumps, as the population no longer has direct access to the river to leave rubbish there. While this is positive from an ecological point of view, there is also a risk that the population will be denied access to the river and will therefore be unable to experience it.

It should be kept in mind that, despite their short growth period compared to regular forests, Miyawaki forests are still growing, and the full effects can only be assessed in the future. Nevertheless, the forests appear to be a promising method for the relatively simple improvement of underused or misused urban areas on riverbanks, although the aspect of river accessibility must not be overlooked.