Extreme Environmentalism
A Himalayan Kingdom Wary of Tourism
January 3, 2001
THIMPHU, Bhutan -- Bhutan has only to
look to Nepal -- another
Himalayan country wedged between India and China -- to know what it
doesn't want: endless streams of tourists trampling into its towns
and forests and leaving trails of garbage on the mountains.
Instead of worshipping the tourist dollar or even the investor's
dollar, Bhutan is taking what it calls the "middle path" towards
development, winning a reputation with environmentalists and
international donors as an ecological paradise. The conservation
policies of this tiny Buddhist kingdom are among the toughest in
the world.
Tourism is strictly limited, mountain-climbing is prohibited,
export of raw timber has been banned and not a single tree can be
felled without approval. All infrastructure and industry projects
are subject to rigorous controls. The forest cover has actually
increased since the late 1960s, from less than 60 percent of the
country to 72 percent now.
Yet for all the praise it has garnered and pristine beauty it
has preserved, some are beginning to ask if Bhutan's
environmentalism is extracting too high a cost from the country's
rural residents, many of whom are illiterate, live without
electricity and operate on a subsistence level.
"Perhaps we're being too overzealous in our conservation
efforts that we're not balancing it with the needs of our people,
who are paying for the conservation," said Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, head
of policy and planning for the Ministry of Agriculture.
The unintended result may be having "healthy forests on one
side and starving farmers on the other side," he said.
An article last April in Kuensel, Bhutan's only newspaper, was
the first to raise the question publicly.
"In Bhutan itself there are many, mostly from officialdom, who
are beginning to wonder if environmental conservation in the
country has been too much of a success," the paper said. "They
have found reason to believe that, in the tussle between
environmental and economic goals, Bhutan may have leaned
unreasonably often towards the former."
The Kuensel article noted that, unlike many other Asian
countries, where rural migrants go to the cities because their
farmland has been swallowed up by development, in Bhutan, it's the
forest that is taking over the fields.
The rolling expanse of green hills surrounding Thimphu, the
capital, was actually cattle-grazing land just 30 years ago, said
Gyamtsho.
Along with the forests have come the wildlife. Wild boars,
barking deer and other animals are getting closer to human
settlements and destroying more crops than ever before. But because
of legal and cultural barriers to killing animals, farmers are
forced to expend valuable manpower guarding the fields day and
night, leaving fewer adults to care for babies and less time for
children to attend school.
"Sometimes we have farmers saying, 'You care more for the
forests and wild boars than the people,"' Gyamtsho said.
Environmental work is becoming more of a challenge as Bhutan
makes the leap from feudalism to modern times. For centuries,
ecological conservation and sharing of resources was a way of life.
"Now, with all the development, the community is breaking
down," said Kunzang Dorji of the National Environment Commission.
"People are more individualistic."
In the cities, people buy noxiously-polluting diesel cars
because diesel fuel is cheaper. Many are reluctant to spend the
money on an electric heater and continue to use traditional
wood-burning stoves for cooking and heating -- thanks to an annual
quota of firewood from the government. As a result, Bhutan has the
highest per capita consumption of wood in the world.
In the last few years, urban air pollution has become noticeable
for the first time in this pristine Himalayan outpost.
When Bhutan first embarked on its environmentalism, it was
"pure protection; there was no room for discussion," said Kinzang
Namgay, the country representative for the local office of the
World Wildlife Fund.
WWF, one of the donors to the $22 million trust fund that
finances much of Bhutan's conservation activities, now emphasizes
integrated conservation and development.
"Sometimes it's been criticized, that we're overprotecting the
environment," said Ugyen Tsering, Bhutan's foreign secretary,
sounding not at all displeased. "It's given us a personality."
Tsering believes that it's possible to have both development and
conservation. In fact, forest protection is vital to what Bhutan
hopes will be its ticket to economic self-sufficiency: hydropower,
already its main source of revenue.
It sells the electricity, generated by river power, to India.
Foreign aid still accounts for half of its budget, however.
Although tourism is also a major source of revenue and has the
potential to be much bigger, Bhutan refuses to build up the
industry.
While Nepal is a backpackers' haven, receiving half a million
visitors last year, just 7,200 came here. The number is kept down
by the limited number of airplane seats into the country and a
US$200 per day fee, which includes lodging and most other expenses.
The restrictions bring a whole different type of tourist to
Bhutan.
"The average tourist is either a senior academic or a
well-to-do businessperson in their late 50s, intellectually curious
about culture, generally concerned about the world as a whole,"
said Tsering. "Once they come, they go with a little appreciation
of the challenges we face. Many turn out to be long-term friends."
Amateurs in Nepal fork out tens of thousands of dollars so they
can boast they scaled Mount Everest, but Bhutan's peaks are closed
to all but the deities that are believed to live there.
Tsering's distaste for mountain-climbing is more philosophical
than religious: "There's the attitude that everything has to be
conquered. But there's no need to dominate the four mountains.
They'll be there."
TOURISM TO BHUTAN: Tiny but Growing Fast
Year...............Number of tourists
1989......................1480
1990......................1538
1991......................2160
1992......................2748
1993......................2984
1994......................3971
1995......................4765
1996......................5150
1997......................5361
1998......................6207
1999......................7158
Source: Tourism Authority of Bhutan; and published reports.
copyright 2001 Cox Newspapers. Articles may not be reproduced without permission.