Almost all of the 388 orchid species in Nepal are threatened. Conservation activities are severely hampered by lack of reliable information on their taxonomy, ecology and distribution: both within protected areas and outside. Much of these data can be discovered in herbaria in the UK and Nepal which hold the collections of past botanical expeditions. Dr Lokesh Shakya, expert on Nepalese orchids, will augment his study of specimens in Nepal by working on those housed in Britain. He will study alongside UK orchid experts, and finalise the much needed account of orchid for the Flora of Nepal: filling a critical gap in the knowledge of the Indo-Burmese Global Biodiversity Hotspot.
