An Italy–Nepal project links Himalayan hemp craft with fair-trade textiles

An account in Bernardo Parrella’s 2014 book describes an Italy–Nepal project intended to connect Himalayan hemp-working communities with alternative textile trading channels. He dates its operational start to 2011, following several years of preparation.

The project, called Italia-Nepal canapa solidale, sought to help communities preserve their knowledge of growing and working hemp while participating in a supply chain directed towards Italy. Parrella presents textiles as the central product and seed or oil exports as possibilities. Those possibilities should not be recorded as completed shipments.

The account places the project within a broader discussion of Himalayan household and craft uses of cannabis. Its description of a community tradition is not evidence that every community used the same methods, or that particular practices had continued unchanged for millennia.

This entry records a reported trade and cultural-preservation initiative. No independent audit of participants, export volumes, earnings or later outcomes was obtained. The project did not, on the evidence reviewed, establish a change in Nepal’s cannabis law. Its history entry therefore moves no freedom score.^[1]