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Bhutan Forestry
One of Bhutan's significant natural resources in the
late
twentieth century was its rich forests and natural
vegetation.
Bhutan's location in the eastern Himalayas, with its
subtropical
plains and alpine terrain, gives it more rainfall than its
neighbors to the west, a factor greatly facilitating
forest growth.
The forests contain numerous deciduous and evergreen
species,
ranging from tropical hardwoods to predominantly oak and
pine
forests.
The small population and the general absence of
overdevelopment
in Bhutan contributed to forest preservation. Because of
the
terrain, the more accessible forests had been overcut
whereas
remote forests remained largely in their natural state. A
progressive government-sponsored forestry conservation
policy
strove to balance revenue needs with ecological
considerations,
water management, and soil preservation. Success in
managing its
forest resources had long been critical to the local
environment
and economy and also affected downstream floodplains in
India and
Bangladesh.
The Department of Forestry was established in 1952 to
oversee
conservation and exploitation of the country's significant
forestry
resources. After an initial decade of development,
forestryresource exploitation increased with the start of the
First
Development Plan in 1961. Uncontrolled felling of trees in
the
1970s by private companies in logging areas and by rural
populations along roads and in main valleys stripped
hillsides and
caused serious erosion. Tsheri cultivation, forest
fires,
and overgrazing also contributed to the degradation of the
forestry
resource.
In 1971 the Forestry School was established at
Kalikhola in
southern Bhutan. It was moved to Taba in the northern
Thimphu
Valley in 1977. The school provided basic instruction in
forestry
and forest management and trained foresters and Forest
Guards
(see Paramilitary
, this ch.).
In 1981 some 3.3 million hectares, or between 70 and 74
percent
of the land, were forested, but in 1991 foreign estimates
indicated
a shrinking forest of only 60 to 64 percent of the land.
Even more
conservative estimates indicated that closer to 50 percent
of
Bhutan's territory still was forested in the late 1980s,
and about
15 percent of GDP was produced through the nation's
important
forest industry.
According to UN statistics, in the decade between 1978
and 1987
Bhutan harvested an average of nearly 3.2 million cubic
meters of
roundwood and produced 5,000 cubic meters of sawn wood per
year. Of
this total, nearly 80 percent was for commercial use
(paper pulp,
veneers, plywood, particle board, and firewood), and the
remainder
was for housing construction and public works.
Before hydroelectric power and other modern energy
sources were
available, wood was the almost exclusive source of fuel
for
heating, cooking, and lighting. The provision of
electricity, as
well as better regulation of fuelwood collectors and more
aggressive reforestation projects, was seen in the 1980s
as a key
factor in forest conservation. Because affordable
electricity was
not available throughout the country, the government
established
fuelwood plantations near villages to accommodate daily
needs and
to promote forest conservation.
Recognizing the potential value of its forestry
resource,
Bhutan became increasingly conscientious about forestry
management
in the 1970s. Starting in 1977, the World Wildlife Fund
began
supporting Bhutan's forest management through organizing
forest
ranger training programs, supplying funds for forest
boundary
demarcation, building guard posts, and constructing a
patrol road
for what was later to be designated the Royal Manas
National Park.
Bhutan rejected World Bank aid to build a major dam on the
Manas
Chhu in 1986 that would have flooded this major
conservation area
on the southern Bhutan-India border. By 1989 Bhutan had
developed
nine other forest and wildlife preserves, also mostly
along the
southern border with India.
In the face of increasing denuded hillsides, private
logging
was banned, and strict standards for public-sector logging
operations were established in 1979. Farmers were warned
against
burning off forests to clear land for tsheri
cultivation,
and Forest Guards were trained in increasing numbers to
help
preserve the valuable resources. Surveying, demarcation,
conservation, and management plans for harvesting forest
products
were part of the Fifth Development Plan's focus on
forestry
preservation. Wildlife sanctuaries also were developed.
One of the
immediate results of forestry sector regulation, however,
was a
sharp decrease in revenues since the late 1970s. In 1991
the
government, with assistance from UNDP and the World
Wildlife Fund,
established a trust fund for environmental conservation.
Initially
in the amount of US$20 million, the UNDP-administered fund
was
aimed at producing up to US$1 million per year for
training in
forestry and ecology, surveying forests, reviewing and
implementing
management plans for protected areas, and supporting
government
environmental offices, public awareness programs, and
integrated
conservation and development programs.
Data as of September 1991
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