When Samrakchan Ghimire, an IT graduate from Jhapa first came to Kathmandu, he was immediately turned off by the concrete capital. “Everywhere I looked, I saw ugly buildings,” says Ghimire. Determined to give Nepal’s dwindling forests a chance to grow back, the 24-year-old got together five friends and came up with Birthday Forest.
The idea was simple: encourage people to plant trees on their birthdays (and special occasions) in one of the 17,000 community forests across Nepal and, for a small fee, the organisation would look after the plants till they’ve grown up. “It’s easy to plant trees, but making sure they are taken care of in the long term is hard and that is where we help out,” explains Ghimire.
However, like most start-ups, Birthday Forest didn’t have enough funding. The IT professionals turned businessmen, then put their degrees to use and developed a mobile app to let customers make payments for the trees electronically. In April, the application won a $1,000 award at Pivot Nepal’s annual competition for mobile app businesses in Nepal, which provided Ghimire and friends the financial impetus they needed.
After paying Rs 980 fee through their phones, clients can choose to travel to the site to plant the saplings or let the company do it for them. They can also have the tree named after themselves. Once planting is done, Birthday Forest takes charge of the tree for three years during which time customers are given regular photo updates about their plant. Says founder Roshan Karki, “We want owners to feel proud of their tree and treat it as part of their family.”
A month into operations, Birthday Forest has helped plant more than 30 saplings and is now looking to get more businesses involved. “Banks and companies are already planting trees on their own as part of their social responsibility, but sustainability is always a concern. We make sure no tree goes to waste,” says Karki.
(01)4282268
birthdayforest@gmail.com
www.birthdayforest.org