Forestry in Himalayan Bhutan: An Interview with Dasho Chenkhap Dorji, Former Director of Forests, Royal Government of Bhutan

Abstract

"This interview was conducted for Unasylva in Bhutan by Jenny Devitt, a British freelance journalist who works regularly for the BBC's award-winning Farming World radio series. She also conducted the two shorter interviews included here and wrote the introductory and transitional material. The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan pursues an unusual and forward-looking forestry policy, particularly so perhaps for a country rich in forest resources which could be utilized commercially to provide a substantial source of foreign exchange. The Bhutanese place the highest priority on the conservation of their forests and natural resources. Nearly 70 percent of this mountainous kingdom is covered in natural vegetation and forest, ranging from tropical in the south, where a small portion of the country touches on the northern Gangetic plains, to subalpine in the true Himalayas to the north, with the variations of deciduous subtropical, mixed coniferous and deciduous temperate and alpine in between."