Funded through the IKI Living Landscapes

Amid rows of colourful stalls displaying handicrafts and home-grown produce, one modest stall stood out, stacked neatly with bamboo containers and gift baskets. Behind it stood a group of young people, hopeful and slightly nervous, showcasing skills they had learned barely a month earlier. With only a handful of bamboo products to sell, they were taking their first tentative steps into earning a living from their own hands.

By the end of the festival, Kumari and her friends had earned about Nu 4,000. For them, it was more than just money. It was their first income, and proof that newly acquired skills could translate into opportunity. Kumari, who grew up surrounded by cane and bamboo, never imagined these resources could become a source of income.

The timing of the training that led them there could not have been better. Years earlier, Kumari had visited a fair organised by the Tarayana Foundation in Thimphu. It was there, for the first time, that she encountered an array of finely crafted bamboo products. Watching the display, a thought lingered with her.

“I wish we could also make something similar,” she remembers thinking, reflecting on the abundance of cane and bamboo she had grown up seeing in her village, Sertena. What began as a passing wish eventually found form when an opportunity of 14 days of intensive hands-on training on the diversification of cane and bamboo products was announced.

She knew she had to take this opportunity. “I always saw our elders make the same kind of basket from the bamboo for centuries, or just used as a fence to guide the field. I always thought bamboo was meant for this purpose only, that is, until this training came up and I remembered the products I saw at the fair,” Kumari said through a telephonic interview.

Along with Kumari, the training brought together 25 participants from Sertena, Bebji, and Mochu villages in Gakiling and Sangbaykha gewogs. The training helped shift this mindset, and almost immediately afterwards, the Haa Spring Festival provided an opportunity to showcase their products. This also raised awareness about the cultural and economic value of bamboo products crafted by communities in lower Haa.

According to a senior forest ranger with Jigme Khesar Strict Nature Reserve (JKSNR), Ugyen Takchu, there is a growing recognition of bamboo and cane as sustainable, eco‑friendly resources with strong potential for livelihood generation, particularly in this area. These materials have long been woven into everyday life and cultural practices, traditionally used for household items, storage containers, fencing, and agricultural tools in the lower parts of Haa.

However, their economic potential had remained largely untapped despite their abundance.

“To address this, a 14‑day intensive hands‑on training was organised to strengthen technical skills and promote the development of value‑added products,” Ugyen said, adding it was also designed to foster enterprise through technical skills and innovation.

The training focused on enhancing craftsmanship, diversifying traditional bamboo products through improved designs and techniques, and promoting the sustainable use of locally available cane and bamboo. Given the human-wildlife coexistence, Ugyen Takchu explained that this training was also aimed at strengthening alternative livelihoods and enabling participants to produce market‑ready products. The JKSNR also helped sell all the products they made during the intensive training, earning Nu 20,000, which will be handed over to this group.

In collaboration with JKSNR, a resource person from the Bhutan TSHAR Institute under Tarayana Foundation facilitated the training. The initiative was supported through funding from IKI Living Landscapes, WWF-Bhutan, which aims to promote sustainable landscape management while enhancing livelihoods within conservation landscapes.

During the interview, Kumari shared that she was at home to attend a puja and was busy crafting containers and gift baskets. When asked whether she planned to sell the items, she explained, “This is part of an internal agreement with JKSNR, where we committed to producing at least two products every month. The idea was to ensure that we remain connected to what we learned during the training and, if possible, earn income again.”

While Kumari and her friends are grateful for this opportunity, they remain hopeful for another round of training to further strengthen their skills. Some challenges persist, particularly the lack of access to machines needed to produce certain items and to achieve proper finishing. To which, Ugyen Takchu assured that up-skilling training is already being planned.

“Still, we’re happy that we’ve been able to put our learning into practice,” Kumari added. “The festival came at the right time. It gave us the perfect platform to apply what we’ve learned and showcase our work.”

Contributed by Yangchen C Rinzin

Comms, WWF-Bhutan