Lokta, Argeli & Allo: Nepal's Fibre and Handmade-Paper Plants

Lokta paper is made from the fibrous inner bark (the bast or phloem) of lokta, an evergreen Himalayan shrub of the family Thymelaeaceae. Two closely related species are used: Daphne bholua, which grows at higher, cooler elevations, and Daphne papyracea, which is more common at slightly lower altitudes. Papermakers strip the tough, long-fibred inner bark, cook it, beat it into a pulp and lift it onto frames to dry in the sun, producing a sheet with a distinctive matte texture and remarkable strength.

The long cellulose fibres and natural chemistry of the bark give lokta paper its signature qualities: it resists tearing, humidity, mildew and insect attack, and it can survive for centuries. For this reason it was historically the medium of choice for Nepal's official decrees, land and tax records, and Buddhist and Hindu manuscripts. Ancient lokta-based texts, including manuscripts preserved in Nepal's National Archives in Kathmandu, are estimated to be well over a thousand years old, illustrating the paper's exceptional archival durability.

Lokta grows wild across roughly one million hectares of forest in about 55 districts of Nepal, with abundant stocks in around 25 of them, typically on cool, humid southern slopes between about 1,600 and 4,000 metres. Because the raw material is gathered from natural forest rather than farmed plantations, lokta paper is classed as a non-timber forest product (NTFP) and its harvest is regulated through Nepal's community-forestry system.

Lokta (Daphne spp.) is a mid- to high-elevation understorey shrub of the mid-hills and high Himalaya. It favours moist, shaded forest between roughly 1,600 and 4,000 metres and is found from far-western to eastern Nepal. Argeli (Edgeworthia gardneri), a related shrub in the same Thymelaeaceae family known in Nepali as argeli and in Japanese as mitsumata, thrives a little lower on the hill slopes and, crucially, is easily cultivated on farmland and terrace edges rather than only gathered from the wild.

This distinction matters economically. Lokta is chiefly a foraged forest resource, so its supply depends on sustainable wild harvesting inside community forests and conservation areas. Argeli, by contrast, has become a genuine cash crop: farmers raise seedlings, plant them out in early summer, and harvest the branches of three-year-old bushes in autumn and winter. Argeli is now cultivated in dozens of districts, with well-known production clusters in Sindhupalchok, Dolakha, Ramechhap, Ilam, Panchthar, Taplejung, Baglung and Myagdi.

Both plants yield strong, long bast fibres, but they head to different markets. Lokta bark is processed within Nepal into finished handmade paper and craft goods for domestic use and export. Argeli bark is largely exported in a semi-processed form to Japan, where it is turned into the specialist paper used for Japanese currency and official documents.

Because lokta is gathered from natural forest, sustainable harvesting rules are central to the industry. The accepted practice is to cut the stems roughly 30 centimetres above the ground, much as sugarcane is cut, leaving the rootstock and stool undamaged so the plant can coppice and regrow. When harvested this way, lokta bushes regenerate over about five to seven years, after which mature stems can be cut again, allowing a rotational harvest that does not exhaust the stand.

In practice, harvesting is organised through Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) and, in protected landscapes such as the Annapurna Conservation Area, through local management committees. These bodies set quotas, harvesting seasons and rotation cycles, and channel a share of revenue back into forest management. Sustainable-harvesting training and, in some supply chains, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification have been used to reassure export buyers that the paper is responsibly sourced.

The main threats to the resource are over-harvesting driven by high demand, cutting stems too low or pulling out roots, over-grazing, forest fires and slash-and-burn cultivation. Resource assessments by Nepal's forest research bodies have mapped standing stocks so that annual offtake can be kept within regenerative limits; national estimates have put the total lokta bark stock in the low hundreds of thousands of tonnes, enough to sustain roughly a thousand tonnes of paper a year if harvested carefully.

Handmade paper is one of Nepal's signature cottage industries and a textbook example of turning an NTFP into rural income. The livelihoods of tens of thousands of hill and mountain families are linked to lokta collection and papermaking, and several hundred registered small and medium enterprises produce handmade paper and paper products, from remote mountain workshops to finishing houses in the Kathmandu Valley. A defining feature of the sector is the very high participation of women, who make up a large majority of both the workforce and the entrepreneurs.

The value chain runs from forest collectors, who strip and often part-cook the bark, to village papermakers who produce raw sheets, to urban enterprises that dye, print, emboss and convert the paper into notebooks, gift wrap, greeting cards, envelopes, lampshades, prayer flags, calendars and packaging. This layered structure spreads income across remote collection areas and lower-elevation processing centres, and it is why community-forestry NTFP programmes have long promoted lokta as a pro-poor enterprise.

To build a recognised brand and defend quality abroad, Nepal's Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC), together with the Handmade Paper Association of Nepal (HANDPASS) and industry partners, developed a collective trademark for authentic Nepali handmade paper. Nepali handmade paper and paper products are exported to dozens of countries and rank among the country's notable handicraft exports alongside carpets, pashmina and garments.

Argeli's most striking claim is that Nepali-grown fibre helps make Japanese money. Japan's traditional banknote paper relies on mitsumata, but domestic Japanese supply has fallen as farmers age and cultivation shrinks. To secure raw material, Japanese buyers turned to the Himalaya, where argeli (Edgeworthia gardneri) is the same paperbush genus and grows readily. Foreign-grown mitsumata, including Nepali argeli, has been used as a raw material for yen paper since around 2010.

The best-known link is Kanpou Incorporated, an Osaka-based company that supplies paper for official Japanese government use and has worked with Nepali farmers for years, pairing the bark trade with charitable projects such as well-digging in the hills. Harvested in autumn and winter from roughly three-year-old bushes, the bark is steamed, peeled, washed and sun-dried in Nepal, then trucked from the hills to Kathmandu and on to the Indian port of Kolkata, from where it is shipped to Yokohama in Japan. After inspection it is processed into banknote paper and printed and cut into cash by Japan's National Printing Bureau.

The story gained fresh attention in July 2024, when Japan rolled out its first redesigned banknotes in two decades, complete with 3D hologram portraits, using paper partly sourced from Himalayan argeli. For Nepal, the trade has grown into a meaningful rural export earner: reported argeli-bark shipments rose from tens of thousands of kilograms in the mid-2010s to roughly ninety-five thousand kilograms in a recent year, with earnings running into the tens of millions of rupees. Because argeli is farmed rather than foraged, it offers a scalable, replantable income source for hill households.

Allo is the Nepali name for Girardinia diversifolia, the Himalayan giant nettle, a tall stinging nettle whose stem bark yields one of the strongest natural plant fibres in the region. Because the plant can grow to around three metres, it is also called hattichap sisnu or elephant nettle. It grows on cool, moist slopes in the mid-hills and high country, roughly between 1,200 and 3,000 metres, from western to eastern Nepal, and is gathered as a wild NTFP.

Extracting and spinning allo is skilled, labour-intensive work traditionally practised by communities such as the Rai, Gurung, Magar and Tamang, especially in eastern and central Nepal. The stems are harvested, the bark stripped and boiled with wood ash to soften it, then the fibre is washed, beaten, dried, and hand-spun into yarn before being woven on backstrap or frame looms. The result is a fabric prized for its strength, breathability and a silk-like sheen when finely processed.

Historically allo was made into ropes, sacks, fishing nets, mats and rugged everyday clothing. Today, supported by non-timber-forest-product enterprise programmes run by organisations such as ANSAB and by fair-trade and eco-textile buyers, allo has moved upmarket into shawls, scarves, jackets, bags and home furnishings. Marketed internationally as a sustainable, plant-based Himalayan nettle textile, allo provides valuable off-farm income to remote communities, particularly women weavers.

Lokta, argeli and allo show how non-timber forest products can convert Himalayan biodiversity into durable rural livelihoods without felling trees. All three are harvested from the bark of shrubs or nettles that regrow, so with good management the resource renews itself while supporting collectors, spinners, papermakers and weavers across the hills and mountains. They are a rare category of high-value products that reward remote, hard-to-farm districts.

Each plant also carries a distinct economic role. Lokta anchors a domestic and export handmade-paper industry with a strong female workforce; argeli has become a cultivated cash crop tied to a specialised Japanese export niche; and allo sustains an artisan textile tradition now finding new eco-conscious markets. For the Nepali diaspora and craft and export businesses alike, these fibres are a recognisable part of the country's brand.

The central challenge is sustainability at scale. As global demand rises, keeping wild lokta and allo harvests within regenerative limits, expanding responsible argeli cultivation, adding value inside Nepal rather than exporting raw bark, and protecting quality through trademarks and certification will determine whether these plants remain a lasting asset rather than a depleted one.