The Agriculture minister introduced the Bill in the National Council yesterday. Enacted in 1995, the Forest and Nature Conservation Act of Bhutan was not amended for more than two decades. Upon the adoption of the Bill by the National Assembly earlier this year, the bill was forwarded to the National Council for further deliberations.
“Once the Forest and Nature Conservation bill is passed and made into an act, I think it will benefit every one of us. It will not only ensure food safety for every one of us but address the issues of rural-urban migration as well,” said Agriculture Minister, Yeshey Penjor.
Members of the National Council said the Bill should address issues like difficulties faced by the public in acquiring adequate timber and permits on time.
“In the past, to construct a house, people used to receive enough supply of timbers. But nowadays, people get around 4,000 cubic feet (cft) of timber. Today, everyone is facing a shortage of timber for construction,” said Dorji Khandu, MP.
“People of Trashi Yangtse will have to procure timber from Monggar. At times, the district runs out of timber and people have to rely on the Bumthang district for timber. By the time a load of timbers reaches Trashi Yangtse, the price becomes very high. People then resort to illegal supply of timbers,” said Karma Gyeltshen, Trashi Yangtse Gasa MP.
In response, Lyonpo said of the 71 per cent of the forest coverage, the country so far, has not been able to make use of about 70 per cent of broad-leaved forest which is hardwood, due to a lack of proper machines and technology to harvest such trees.
“The current machinery and sawmills that we have in the country are only able to saw logs of conifer trees like pine trees. We do not have the technology and equipment to cut hardwoods. As such, many people have been relying on the limited conifer trees. We have yet to harvest about 70 per cent of the hardwood,” said Yeshey Penjore, Agriculture Minister.
Lyonpo, however, assured that more integrated wood-based industries will be promoted and also improve the NRDCL services by introducing new machines and deploying more experts.
Likewise, the members of the house also suggested having proper rules and procedures for marketing non-wood forest products, and a uniform system of implementation in all districts citing the irregular system in different regions.
Passang Dorji
