Eleanor Bett Sophia Gruner-Hegge Ted Clarke

Basics to know Bhutan  Official name: Kingdom of Bhutan  Geographical location: landlocked between Republic of India and the People’s Republic of China.  Climate: varies with altitude, from subtropical to polar temperatures (high altitude)  Population: 691,141 (2009)  Official language: Dzongkha  Religion: Vajrayana Buddhism and Hinduism.  Capital: Thimpu

Government and Economy  Type: Constitutional democratic monarchy  King: Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck  Prime Minister: Jigme Y. Thinley  Currency: Ngultrum

History  Inhabitants since 2000 B.C.E.  Political history was heavily influenced by religious history.  Many civil wars  1910 British guided Bhutan's in foreign affairs  2003 Bhutanese army flushed out anti-India insurgents.

HDI  Bhutan was excluded from the U.N.’s HDI (Human Development Index) ratings due to its unreliable and inconsistent information in 2010  Bhutan was ranked 132 nd within 182 countries in  133 rd =2006  134 th =2005  136 th =2004

Proposition #1: Transportation

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Strategy and Program ( )  Aim: To improve roads and public transportation.  Money needed: 150,000 USD  Time: Highways finished by 2040  Basics:  No railways, inland waterways, seaports, or domestic air transport  Dependant on road travel  Travelling 500km west to east takes 3 days by car.  Lack of transportation slows the process of agricultural production.  Transportation is very expensive.

 Strategy:  Building more roads  Enhancing existing road networks  Environmental-friendly road construction techniques.  Reconstruction of highways, and smaller roads.  Improve maintenance.  Replacement and reconstruction of bridges.  Focus:  Safety  Affordable passenger and freight transport services  Expansion of services throughout the country.

Road Map of Bhutan.

Proposition #2: Sustainable Energy

 Aim: to explore new ways to fix Bhutan’s energy problems using renewable and alternate energy sources  Sources:  Wind energy  (wind turbines and wind mills, could be installed to pump water and sewage)  Very renewable,  Produces no green house gasses. (allows Bhutan to stay an unpolluted country)  Due to monsoons, wind energy is a prime way of getting energy. Developing 2010 Rural electrification V project and 2010 Pilot Wind Power Generation Project

 Money: million US dollars  to promote and spread the use of renewable and wind energy.  By creating more wind turbines Bhutan will be able to get more energy at a cheaper cost and without being harmful to the environment and climate.  If this project can succeed then the increasing demand for cheap and renewable energy will be stopped.

 Bhutan consists of lots of flatlands and hills = finding a space for the turbines, mills, and pumps is not a problem.  Hydro energy is another good choice for sustainable and renewable energy, but the creation of hyrdo plants is a lot more expensive then wind turbines, so I believe, for a third world country like Bhutan, wind energy is the best choice.

Proposition #3: Integrated Livestock and Crop Conservation Project

What is it?  Will help with food security and processing.  Self sufficiency, by maintaining a sufficient amount of local agro biodiversity.  Main produce is rice for example if rice fields become diseased, other food sources are also available.  Publicizing agro-biodiversity conservation into livestock and crop development will enhance the income of local farmers.  Area working in: “Four Target Areas” (unknown specifics)

What is Agro-Biodiversity?  Biodiversity: having diverse bio life. Wide variety of species of plants and animals.  Agro: short for agriculture  Agro-Biodiversity: cultivating many different types of crops and live stock to increase produce and income.

A speech made by UNDP DRR ( United Nations Development Program)  “In the past in Bhutan and elsewhere farmers grew a variety of crops and reared a number of animals as a strategy to survive and diversify risks and in doing so preserved a range of genetic materials. However, now with growing populations calling for increased production, more and more, higher yielding varieties are being developed and used. When farmers adopt these new varieties, traditional types are often abandoned, reducing the pool of agro-biodiversity.  A change in people’s food habits and preference is also slowly narrowing the genetic base of agriculture. There is a sustained move towards cultivation of fewer kind of crops, rearing fewer kind of animals as farms specialize to cater to these changes, which may reduce the genetic diversity.  It is within such a context this project was developed by the Ministry of Agriculture to “contribute to the attainment of the food security and SELF- SUFFICIENCY in Bhutan through the maintenance of adequate levels of indigenous agro-biodiversity”

How this will be achieved  Agro biodiversity will be achieved by working in four separate areas, and have the project work at the institutional/policy level to get over the barriers that are right now keeping the effective publicizing of conservation of agriculture and livestock development.

Integrated Livestock and Crop Conservation Project Details

Citations  Asian Development bank. Country Strategy and Program. N.p., Sept Web. 18 Jan  “Bhutan Country Profile.” BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  “Bhutan gets no rank in HDI.” Bhutan News Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  “Bhutan Weather and Climate.” World Travel Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  Emerging Energy. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  MAP. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  Migrant Workers Undertake Manual Labor Jobs In Bhutan. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  Phuentsholing to Paro road, Bhutan. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  “2010 Human Development Report.” UNDP. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  UNDP. “Integrated Livestock and Crop Conservation Project.” UNDP. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan  “UNDP DRR Speech.” UNDP. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  “Wind Power.” Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  Birds. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  Paddy Field. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan  Paro-Bhutan. N.d. ‌ wp-content/ ‌ uploads/ ‌ 2009/ ‌ 12/ ‌ Paro-Bhutan.jpg. Web. 18 Jan