Bhutan has declared 51 percent of the country as the protected area. However, no comprehensive assessment of the protected areas has been carried out.
According to the Specialist with the Wildlife Conservation Division, Dr. Sangay Wangchuk, the protected areas, which consist of national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and biological corridors, need to be assessed on how effective these protected areas are. Also emerging issues need to be addressed carefully.
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“Issues like Human-wildlife conflict has been there and it will continue to be there, followed by crop depredation by wildlife, cattle depredation by tigers or leopards, and also the expansion of urban infrastructure, not just urban but also roads, hydropower, electric high tension lines. These are all putting pressures to the parks,” he says.
The Chief of the Wildlife Conservation Division, Sonam Wangchuk, says monitoring and evaluation of the protected areas is important.
“And given that the country, Bhutan has 51 percent as protected area, is also a big challenge for us. Also what is more important for us to realize is that at the moment there is very scarce resources, so the resources we have in hand, have to be used efficiently,” says Sonam Wangchuk.
Meanwhile, a website of “Green Bhutan Project” and the preliminary report of the National tiger Survey of Bhutan 2014 has been launched.
