"YES" to the Environment

Samrat Katwal is the president of YES Nepal, which stands for Youth Engagement in Sustainability, a youth-led organization working for the environment and creating meaningful jobs, especially in the field of sustainability. Founded in 2005, the organization has bloomed from its heydays to playing a significant role in educating and bringing awareness to the public about environmental issues. Katwal has a bachelor’s degree in Development Studies and has been working on the environment since 2002. He is the founding secretary of the Rotaract Club of Kathmandu Metro which he believes helped him supplement his passion for development. He is also a part-time consultant for youth and environmental issues. V.E.N.T! Magazine talked to Katwal about YES Nepal and its initiatives.

Tell us about YES Nepal.

YES Nepal is a youth-led organization established in 2005 where everything from governance to volunteering is handled by people under 29. We work in areas related to the environment and employment, especially in creating green jobs with meaningful engagement for the youth. We work for youth empowerment.

What kinds of programs do YES Nepal carry out?

Currently, we are doing 'Change the Bulb' campaign and there are 'EnviroCorps' and 'I-Commit'.

The Change the Bulb campaign has two purposes: one is to combat load shedding and the other to prevent load shedding’s environmental consequences. Load shedding has a lot of negative impact: from unemployment to pollution caused by generators. From our office building, we can see carpenters lying idle during load shedding hours. On one such day, we saw around 60 people surrounding two carom boards. It was a waste of time and energy. We are asking people to switch to CFL bulbs because they are environment friendly. Most don’t really pay attention but when we mention that instead of a 100 watt ordinary bulb, you can use a 20 watt CFL bulb and have the same luminescence power and save Rs. 840 a year, then it catches more attention. It may not seem like much money to us but for many people who live on less than a dollar a day, this amount means a lot.  We create model houses, CFL friendly houses, through which other people can get the message of energy conservation. Just giving out messages is not enough so we set examples for people to follow. Under this program, we had an event at Basantapur called ‘energy friendly Kasthamandap’. Here we changed the bulbs in Kasthamandap to CFL bulbs.

Our other program, EnviroCorps, is a 3-month long intensive youth development and environmental service learning program for young people. Here we select six people for environmental social leadership. They do their own research and field visits. They conduct outdoor camps, fund raising and at the end, design a social entrepreneurship program. We help them only with research and outreach mentorship. We don’t feed them ideas; the participants come up with those on their own.  For the

I-Commit campaign, we ask participants to sign a pledge to make small efforts to help the environment. We follow up on their progress so that they keep their word. We help them with their commitments. 

We see that a lack of information about the environmental crisis often results in a lack of initiative. Why is there such a problem?

There are many governmental and non-governmental organizations working on environmental issues. These organizations specialize in specific fields, so we are supposed to have a lot of information but we don’t. This is because of coordination problems.  If we can create synergy between these organizations, we won’t have the problem of a information gap. What the NGOs have to do is support the government organizations in their initiatives . It will be great if the ministry keeps tabs on who is doing what. This way we will know what is going on where and who is doing it. And thus, the information problem will go away.

What are some of the pressing environmental issues?

Rural and urban areas have their own problems. Our focus is on the problems of urban areas. Our main problem is our inability to use environment resources effectively. It has been said that conservation without compensation is just conversation. We have to relate environment issues to the economy and only then can we hope to bring about environment change.

How can we convince people that it is our responsibility to take action?

There was pollution 100 years ago as well, but it was of a different form. There were floods and landslides but the people tackled it by tree plantation and other such efforts. The problems we have today are the problems of plastic management, the pollution of the Bagmati and the increasing number of vehicles. These problems weren’t there a hundred years ago. These are problems that we invented, so it is the responsibility of our generation to solve it. We have seen innovation just for comfort. Now, we need innovation for a solution.

What are the current Nepali environmental laws? Do they support the environment?

We do have laws for environmental conservation but the problem is its implementation. In remote areas where the media and government have little access, it is very difficult to implement laws. Here, the communities operate under their own rule. There were no NGOs working for the environment 20 years ago. The ministry itself isn’t that old. Before the ministry was established and before the NGOs started work, it was the community itself that carried out conservation work. Unless we involve the community, our laws won’t function effectively.

What can we do to make people pay attention to the issue of the environment?

What you know and what you believe are two different things. We are taught in school what global warming is, what pollution is. We don’t apply this knowledge in our day-to-day lives. We say we shouldn’t keep the engines of motorbikes running because they continue to produce smoke. No one will shut down their bikes if we put it that way. They will do it only when we tell them that this will save fuel and thus save them money. So we have to relate environment issues to the economy. Yoga has always been there and we knew of its health benefits. People never seemed to pay attention until Baba Ramdev tied it to religion and presented it to the people of South Asia. We can follow this example and tie environmental issues with religion to get people’s attention.

There is a growing trend of burning tires for protest and it has a huge impact on the environment. What is your say on this practice?

People who burn tires are politically very sensitive and very active people. They have so much energy. Instead of using this energy in burning tires, they can instead lay the same tires on the banks of the Bagmati river to prevent soil erosion. It is just a matter of where their energy is directed.

What are your future plans?

We plan to establish a carbon fund where people will pay for their carbon footprints. With this fund, we plan to help youth with innovative ideas on helping the environment. We also plan to associate environmental problems with religion and health to make our campaigns more effective.

How can our readers help?

If you are willing to help, we are always open to suggestions and volunteers. We don’t feed ideas, rather we help create an atmosphere where ideas can bloom. If anyone is interested, you can contact us at info@yes.org.np.

For more information on YES Nepal, go to yes.org.np or join their Facebook group.

Interview by Elipha Pradhananga and photography by Sangam Silpakar , V.E.N.T! Magazine, with some photographs provided by YES Nepal.