Community Forestry in the Land of Buddha

An Examination of community forest management in Bhutan

Introduction:

The global market system can be examined through the structural powers of an economy, controlled by the hegemony of paper dollars. At the same time groups with knowledge and technique of traditional socially embedded markets have combined progressive scientific literacy and superior ecological literacy to establish development plans, which define wealth beyond the accumulation of traditional capital measured against the dollar. Countless times the world has seen the disappearance and transformation of such societies as these socially embedded markets are no longer part of local social fabrics. Bhutan’s young relationship with the global market has so far facilitated economic growth without much influence on culture, specifically the socially embedded market of community forestry. However, their development plans are very unique, and the surplus extracted comes down extraneous avenues not often grasped in conventional models. Some ecological economists might call it a sustainable development plan. A country such as Bhutan, over flowing with cultural wealth and biodiversity may now stand as a utopian society, but to what extent have they compromised their culture since the beginning of their interaction with the global market? Furthermore, why has the community forestry system survived amongst a market of private and nationally owned lands whose borders are open to commercial logging firms.

Traditionally common resources, such as forestlands, have been subjected to exploitation by large-scale industrial technique because it allows for efficient surplus extraction. In 1959 after hundreds of years of community forest management policy power was centralized in Thimpu. The southern border was opened to commercial logging in hopes of generating revenue from the export of hardwoods. Forestlands in the south of Bhutan were heavily logged for the valuable hardwoods.[footnoteRef:1] However, in 1969 the Royal Government of Bhutan became weary of the forest exploitation and feared results such as those in Indonesia[footnoteRef:2]. The RGB passed the Bhutan Forestry Act shutting down commercial logging operations. The measure of Gross National Happiness was established in 1970 along with the Bhutan’s development plan. Later in 1974 legislation from the RGB was passed to ensure at least 60% forest cover throughout the country. The interaction with the international timber market was short lived by, 1979 the Royal Decree on Social Forestry decentralized forestry policy back in the hands of communities.[footnoteRef:3] The centralization and decentralization of the forestry management has come each time from the Royal Government of Bhutan.[footnoteRef:4] [1: Worden, L. Robert Forestry a Country Study: Bhutan] [2: Ruzika. Forest Exploitation in Indonesia: Past and Present] [3: Worden] [4: It is important to understand that in 1949 Bhutan agreed to have its foreign policy guided by India.]

The development pillars of Gross National Happiness are: equitable and sustainable socio-economic growth, good governance, conservation of the environment and preservation of culture. Included in the development plans are interactions with the global market system. Foreign direct investment in infrastructure and education has come primarily from the Indian government. However the balanced pillars on which Bhutanese development stands have so far guided projects that have facilitated economic development with minimal impact on traditional Bhutanese culture. However the realities of these projects are yet to be seen as Bhutan works to balance development and commitment to the four pillars of GNH.

The success of community forest management is difficult to disentangle. Forestlands in Bhutan provide a socially embedded market as well as traditional international trade of medicinal non-timber forest products.[footnoteRef:5] Community forests are now interacting with the global market as tourism has increased to 70,000 annually; interest in Bhutan’s pristine landscapes has come into the international spotlight.[footnoteRef:6] [5: Cordycepts and mushrooms.] [6: Tourism Council of Bhutan Annual Report]

With increased interaction with the global market how has the community forestry program remained independent and successful? Are the alternative avenues of surplus extraction through which Bhutanese community forestry supports its’ citizens substantial enough to facilitate policy independence while successfully interacting with the market? Further more, will the propagation of the market and its superstructures in Bhutan destroy the final indigenous knowledge structures such as community forestry management?

To understand the situation we must first understand how Bhutan interacts with the market super structure. With these grounds understood we begin to move through the community forestry system of Bhutan and examine the present ability of community forests to provide ecological and social health as well as surplus that can be direct towards economic development.[footnoteRef:7] [7: Economic development in accordance to the pillars of Gross National Happiness.]

Theory:

The original socially embedded market of community forestry was free from government interaction similar to Smith’s hands free organization of the economy. The guiding hand of Smith facilitated a successful market that was able to meet the needs of those within the market. In Bhutan where socially embedded markets of Buddhist ethos, managed forestry in a social and ecological sustainable way Smith’s model may have survived. However, Smith did not foresee the rise of the corporation and profit motives that would be valued greater than the health of the collective. In Bhutan collective health includes environmental health and cultural health. However, the state eventually took control of forest management and exploited forests for their surplus value.

List may have recognized the importance of the state to manage resources for the collective nation, but in Bhutan the state failed to do so in a sustainable manner. After a few decades the state decentralizing their power to the community level in hopes of stopping further forest exploitation.[footnoteRef:8] It is hard to understand exactly why Bhutan changed its forestry policy after such a history of success, but Veblin may suggest that the policy action was driven by a want to develop like its neighbor to the south.[footnoteRef:9] Another interpretation of the situation would examine the role that the Indian state played in developing Bhutan’s foreign policy. In either case it was state action that returned control of the forests to communities. [8: Because we know that India took control of foreign policy and funded development projects it makes sense that once India had control of policy it would open the borders to commercial logging. This would create an avenue of surplus extraction in addition to the foreign direct investment from India for projects such as hydro-power. However, it also seems likely that the firms benefiting from open borders would be the nearby India firms. Thus the policy action could seem to benefit Bhutan while India could extract the surpluses and control the market. ] [9: The West is driven by the created ideals of pecuniary emulation. The market has reached the global scale and language has become money as wealth that can buy power through the electorate whose decisions are controlled by global superstructure. Keynes’ interventions have now been able to, for sometime prop up the system when it has collapsed, but not truly. Policy action, as explained by Schumpeter, is driven by the firm rather than the electorate and moreover realistically driven by profit motives of the superstructure. Keynes value of investment has been used to drive the global economy, but we are seeing the impacts of immoral investment, and degradation of capital stock (natural capital). The once American mythos now seems global as all business is driven to extract surplus from every form of capital. Ideas of value, wealth and status have not changed since the Victorian age. For Schumpeter’s restructuring to manifest the value and trust placed in intellectual engineers, value must be measured in an eco-centric way. Yet, the mythic homocentric value system designed by the super structure (western religion) will not allow forgone profits for any reason including environmental degradation. We are observing our system as it is today with extreme income gaps globally, a potentially crumbling market system, and extreme environmental degradation for an answer to the third tyranny of the firm and its destruction of indigenous value systems as well as biodiversity.]

Polanyi and Strange understand there to be an interaction in the global political economy between home states and firms. With specific institutions: security, finance, production, and knowledge dictating the dialogue between firms and home states. The interaction between Bhutan and India in regards to policy action and foreign direct investment can effectively understood using this frame work for super structure interactions.

Polanyi’s anthropological approach to understanding the interaction between the socially embedded market and the global market explicates the interactions between man, nature and market and how the dislocation of man and nature from their natural state facilitates their transformation into commodities in the global market. This transformation processes describes the progressive degradation of land and traditional socially embedded markets as well as the sustainability of culture.

The capital market and its way of life are very contrary to those of traditional markets. Resistances to the capital market in effect protect the social fabrics, which the capital market attacks.[footnoteRef:10] The production interaction between man and nature occurs in any market system. It is the organization of the capital market that places the fate of nature and people in the deciding hands of fictitious commodity markets where the value of man and nature are decided by their usefulness in the market. If the goal of the market is to accumulate extracted surplus then nature and man will be annihilated.[footnoteRef:11] However, Polanyi points out that only the organization of capitalist production had to be protected from the devastating self-regulating market.[footnoteRef:12] This reasoning takes on a cynical positionality in which the capitalist thinks that man and nature can protect themselves. It is evident that man and nature need protective regulation as well if they are to be continually functioning.[footnoteRef:13] Ignorance of the ill effects of the trading class and capital market are excused by universal beneficence of profits. Polanyi eludes here to both Smith’s understanding of a perfect market as well as Veblin’s perception of the powers of conspicuous consumption. Lastly it is this consumption and accumulation of capital that forces upon man and nature the commercialization, mobilization of revenue, increased surplus production and the extension of such organization to the global market.[footnoteRef:14] In this way man and the cultural system of native life has been shattered time after time, few societies are left resisting the degradation of their social fabric. [10: Polanyi The Great Transformation, 136] [11: Polanyi, 137] [12: Polanyi, 138] [13: We have seen legislation driven by labor union to protect workers rights, and legislation protecting some areas of nature that are valuable for their aesthetic from which surplus can be extracted. It seems there has been less legislation, until recent, to protect biodiversity and ecosystems for their amenity functions. Even fewer cases of protection where nature conservation conserves culture as well. In Bhutan however, community forestry protects traditional culture as well as forestlands. ] [14: Polanyi, 188]

I believe that the indigenous knowledge organization known as community forestry groups has remained a socially embedded market because of its ability to meet the needs of their communities in a sustainable manor while providing surplus value. The community forest provides timber needs, non-timber forest products as well as area for eco-tourism. Because the socially embedded system is able to provide necessities as well as extra income to many communities the program has grown since its introduction and been reincorporated into national development legislation. There maybe some unexplainable force as well that has prevented much of Bhutan’s people from the ill side effects of conspicuous consumption. May we observe Bhutan as a model society whose value system is defined by the four pillars of GNH guides legislation that protects traditional socially embedded markets amidst pressures from the global market economy.

Method:

To examine the organization of Bhutan’s Community Forestry Policy and greater relationship with the market a variety of sources were utilized including a two-month trip to Bhutan where I investigated the sustainability of community forestry practices in the Bumthang Dzonka. The data includes evidence from a number of papers investigating Bhutanese development plans. From these papers background information on Bhutanese development history as well as current projects and their investors can be found. A study by Rapten and Singpen provides interesting analysis of the rare top down democratic transition that occurred in Bhutan. To investigate transitions in traditional culture a paper and one domestic article provide insight on the intersection between monastic and modern education currently underway.

The two-month personal investigation provides understanding of how life is really happening in rural Bhutan. I lived at the Ugyne Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and The Environment working with the School for Field and UWICE on research regarding community forestry policy and practices as well as the implications of further hydropower development. My regeneration study was conducted in three community forests as well as one government forest in Ura Valley Bhumthang district of Bhutan during the last week of July guided by Forest Officer Pema Wangchuk. For the rest of the two months the group of SFS students traveled central Bhutan discussing community forestry, conservation and development plans with numerous community forest officials, village people as well as members of the National assembly, most importantly the ministry of agriculture. From this experience a ground level understanding was gained in hopes of leaving positionality out of my consciousness.[footnoteRef:15] While in Bhutan I did my best to see it as it was, hear only from the Bhutanese and ask questions about what their natural resources meant to them. Of course the answer varied from the community forest grandfather to the ministry of agriculture, but this better informed my perspective of rural peoples and the national government in regards to the success of community forestry policy. [15: While this maybe an impossible task my up bringing by an ecologist and a fire fighter have greatly influenced my perspective on the workings of our world, from the ecological significance of nature to the value of an hours work. ]

Body:

The kingdom of Bhutan is the only Buddhist country to never be invaded by a colonial power. Sikkim fell to India, Mustang to Nepal and Tibet to the hands of China.[footnoteRef:16] Bhutan’s long isolation from the contemporary global market is an important point at which to begin the understanding of Bhutan. The markets of trade were socially embedded and primarily means of subsistence.[footnoteRef:17] Medicinal non-timber forest products such as cordycepts and mushrooms have been traded with traditional healers in neighboring countries.[footnoteRef:18] Not until the foreign direct investment of India and policy changes of Bhutan did forest products of Bhutan come into the international theater of trade. Thus the structural organization and technique of Bhutan remained pure and able to resist challenges from abroad. It is the challenges from abroad specifically the market that will challenge to disentangle man and nature from their pure state and transform them to commodities valued by their usefulness in the market[footnoteRef:19]. It will be an examination of the current state of this traditional organization and technique that will reveal the unique abilities of Bhutanese technique and to what extent community forestry management has been successful at maintaining a strong social fabric. [16: Singpen, Democracy from Above: Regime Transition in the Kingdom of Bhutan] [17: Polanyi’s socially embedded market unchanged by ideologies of west, thus the strong social fabric.] [18: SFS UWICE summer 2011] [19: Polanyi, 138]

Community forest management organizes the relationship between man, nature and the market in the traditional organic fabric found in the Buddhist knowledge structure. Because of the long-standing independence of Bhutan this organization remained unchallenged despite predictions of Polanyi. As Smith envisioned local trade worked to increase the welfare of the people, as the forests were able to meet all the needs of Bhutan from the spiritual to physical capital for house building. Now with the presence of international tourists community forests also offer eco-tourism and spiritual tourism. During my time in Bhutan we investigated these alternative avenues of surplus extraction to find that some communities were beginning to develop these avenues of surplus extraction that do not impede upon their social fabrics.

It has been the protection of the community forest management technique that has also facilitated its success. This protection has come from three different areas: top down decentralization of power, education and the ability of the forest to meet the needs of its people. In this way the production interaction between man and nature is different in Bhutan from that described by Polanyi in which the global market has infiltrated traditional technique. Community forestry has remained an informal market as development plans have yet to subject man and nature as commodities for trade. These are the beginnings of Polanyi’s dislocation of man and nature[footnoteRef:20], however there is an obvious knowledge structure protecting the traditional interaction between man and nature. In reality there are some contradictions to this argument that agree with Polanyi’s transformation process: timber and firewood are traded amongst communities, mushrooms are traded across the national border as medicine and eco-tourism has begun as well. The aesthetic and spiritual values of a forest are difficult to commodify, however it is from these avenues that some communities have gained extra income by charging rent to visitors. Again a contradiction as in this case the community forestry program has deviated from the traditional socially embedded market which is the suggested beginning of ill-fated transformations described by Polanyi to protect the profit structure.[footnoteRef:21] Yet, interactions with people of these villages revealed that they did not seem very much interested in this extra income.[footnoteRef:22] [20: Polanyi, 136] [21: Polanyi, 138] [22: SFS UWICE 2011]

The absence of profit incentive and the enduring presence of traditional values reveal itself in the use of these forest profits. The income from the forest is turned back to assist the community rather than to the hands of individuals.[footnoteRef:23] Individuals in the community in times of need are assisted by this collective fund. Further conservation efforts such as tree planting and education are also facilitated through this fund.[footnoteRef:24] After two months in Bhutan it was very evident that the community organization supported the health of the whole community. In this way the community forest provides commodities for trade, but the exploitation for profit is absent as the extra income benefits the community rather than one individual.[footnoteRef:25] The traditional knowledge structure persist, however modern education is beginning to intersect the traditional knowledge structure as well as the monastery. [23: SFS UWICE 2011, perhaps also a vision Smith understood before profit incentive was added to the equation. ] [24: SFS UWICE 2011] [25: I am not yet versed in theory of collective resources, nor do I have evidence of why this would prevent one community looking to be better than other communities. Here Buddhist ethos becomes the unexplainable catalyst resisting ill-fated forecasts from Veblin. ]

Traditional socially embedded markets of community forestry were the production organization in all of Bhutan until 1959 when development plans opened private logging in the south where profitable hard woods could be extracted.[footnoteRef:26] It was also at this point in time, which Bhutan agreed to be assisted in its foreign policy by India. Bhutan followed India in the early 1960’s to develop a modern education system to meet Millennium Development Goals.[footnoteRef:27] This date should mark the official beginning of the insertion of the knowledge system of the global market and the beginning of interaction with the traditional knowledge structure. [26: Worden] [27: Denman and Namgyel, Convergence of Monastic and Modern Education in Bhutan]

Community forest organization fell to development pressures initially, however after ten years the national government feared the exploitation of its forests.[footnoteRef:28] Action came from Thimpu, the capital city of Bhutan to pass the Bhutan Forestry Act in 1969 shutting down commercial logging in Bhutanese forests.[footnoteRef:29] After a number of top-down policy actions full control was returned to community forestry organizations in 1979.[footnoteRef:30] At this point in time India was over seeing Bhutanese foreign policy as well as providing foreign direct investment in development projects, mainly infrastructure.[footnoteRef:31] Here it can be seen that India began influencing domestic projects in Bhutan such as hydropower, road building and the installation of a modern education system. This inflection point marks noticeable Bhutanese interaction with the super structures of India. Knowledge, Production and Security of Bhutan were now overseen and very much influenced by India. [28: Worden ] [29: Worden, Perhaps income from hydropower was able to replace this income and reduce the need to exploit forests. However hydropower was and is developed by India who’s control over Bhutanese policy is subtle it is hard to see, but I can begin to correlate that FDI from India had to be paid for and thus India suggested forestry and then hydropower if forestry was upsetting Bhutanese people. ] [30: Penjore and Rapten, Trends of Forestry Policy Concerning Local Participation in Bhutan and further notes on forestry policy. ] [31: Foreign Relations]

For some unexplainable reason community forestry management power was returned to communities. Polanyi may see this as a trade of structural power between India and Bhutan with Bhutan gaining community forestry in exchange for Indian influence upon education and the production of hydropower while Bhutan received military protection from India.[footnoteRef:32] While the superstructure interactions are not definitively clear using a structural power framework chart the balanced interaction can be constructed. Furthermore the influence from abroad is also very evident in the knowledge structure. [32: Class Notes Super Structure Triangle and Foreign Relations]

The interactions between the monastic and modern education system now seems to be less balanced as there is concern that too few young men are entering the monastery and more moving to the city for work.[footnoteRef:33] Modern education that has now spread across the country has become a way to potentially support a whole family rather than a single person.[footnoteRef:34] The imbalance may also influence a reduction in the strength of the traditional knowledge grounded in Buddhism. With less participation in the monastery the future persistence of the traditional knowledge structure may be jeopardized. [33: Wangchuck, The scavenger boy of Memelakha and Karchung, Lament From Villages] [34: Karchung ]

While this imbalance falls with new weight on the side of modern education, knowledge of conservation and sustainable resource management are popular tracts of study.[footnoteRef:35] It is the goal of Bhutan’s modern education system to ready students for the work force.[footnoteRef:36] Namgyel and Denman suggest that there may be a convergence of monastic teachings and modern education to facilitate a holistic education that will keep Buddhist ethos strong. Two of my mentors at UWICE were Bhutanese professors that had gone through the modern education system and did indeed have a Buddhist ethos beneath their teachings of forest conservation. This is evidence that while modern education is taking away attendance from the traditional knowledge structure it may in fact be helping a continuation of the socially embedded market of community forestry. [35: SFS UWICE 2011] [36: Denman and Namgyel]

The modern education system is producing students with understanding of the ecological significance of the immense forest ecology in Bhutan. These graduates, my professors, have returned to work for Bhutan on advising such forestry policy. Through these means institutions of the society are no longer subordinate to market. The reemergence of community forestry is proof in the success of its technique. The social and cultural system was never shattered as a result of the reestablishment of community forestry.[footnoteRef:37] The important implications of community forestry are that there are no individualized treatment or enclosures of the land.[footnoteRef:38] It is the responsibility of community to make sure their forestlands are able to sustain their livelihood. Rather than the creation of policy to extract profits, community forestry policy has been created to protect biodiversity and ecosystem service while at the same time protecting traditional organization and technique. A majority of the population is still dependent upon their land for all necessities;[footnoteRef:39] it is evident that urban people are relying on food and goods from rural areas. [37: Polanyi, 188] [38: Polanyi, 188] [39: Polanyi, 193]

Time spent in rural areas provided evidence that almost one hundred percent of the rural population relies on agriculture and the community forest for subsistence. The forest provides timber, firewood, some grazing land for animals, and many resource amenities. In some instances valuable mushrooms were picked for trade to traditional healers in the Asian market.[footnoteRef:40] Community forestry policy is facilitating the sustainability of such livelihoods that benefit man and nature. How Polanyi would describe this regression is unknown, it seems that the modern education system is feeding back to the traditional knowledge structure with the added ability of security through policy action, ensuring the sustainability of the traditional knowledge structure by expanding community forestry legislation. At the same time new forest management ideas are fostering the expanse of non-extractive surplus by way of spiritual and eco-tourism. In the most aesthetic community forest I found that the community was also beginning homestay eco-treks that tied in traditional spiritual practices such as the hot stone bath. In this community there were no plans for building a hotel, but rather training members of the community so that they may host visitors.[footnoteRef:41] Other communities have small markets trading locally produced goods such as traditional Gho and Kira.[footnoteRef:42] The town of Jakar has bustling eateries; handicrafts, a dairy products store and incredible farmers market where village people take part in trade.[footnoteRef:43] Thus the protection of community forests also protects a variety of traditional livelihoods.[footnoteRef:44] [40: SFS UWICE 2011] [41: My experience with this homestay was very amazing as they treated us as if we were a Bhutanese traveler going from village to village. Huge dinner, sharing of folk songs late into the evening. ] [42: SFS UWICE I got to know a business man who owned a weaving facility and sold ghos and kiras to people locally as well as the capital. ] [43: SFS UWICE 2011] [44: Here I would ask Polanyi how the modern knowledge structure wishes to protect the traditional knowledge structure when he describes capital knowledge structure deconstructing social fabrics. Is it the pure unknown benevolence of Buddhism? ]

It is clear that the majority of the noticeable interaction community forestry has with Indian superstructure is through Indian influence on the education system. Interestingly it is a sector of intellectuals produced by the modern education system that have returned to protect the traditional knowledge structure through domestic policy action and grassroots efforts with community forest. The results of this proactivity are promising as local participation in traditional social forestry is once again substantial. It is also evident that official legislation regarding community forestry maybe inhibit the legitimization of the traditional technique.[footnoteRef:45] [45: Penjore and Rapten, In this way Polanyi would perhaps agree that the modern market organization disentangles the socially embedded market through this subtle undermining. ]

Amidst development pressures the community forestry management has survived, as it has been able to meet the needs of its people and sustain their livelihoods. Beyond meeting the needs of the people conservation of forestlands and protection of these lands from commercial exploitation helps meet development goals of GNH as community forests provide sustainable socio-economic development avenues through eco-tourism, protection of culture by facilitating the continuation of rural livelihoods, and finally conservation of the environment. It is the means by which social forestry has resisted the transformation forecasted by Polanyi that provides significant area for future studies in models of sustainable development that protects culture as well as the environment.

Conclusion:

The Bhutanese case is complex to disentangle because the domestic policy protecting social forestry is influenced by India, thus there must be some trade off on the structural power balance. It is in this area that I feel this topic can be better informed, however it was not the central focus. I hoped to explicate the domestic interaction between knowledge structures and the unique way that intellectuals are using their education from the modern system to the ecology of Bhutan which in the case of forests protects traditional knowledge and technique. There are still however many unknowns in regards to questions posed in the introduction. In this investigation it has been explicated as to how community forestry as a socially embedded market has resisted the transformation suggested by Polanyi, community forestry has been protect from the market and has not yet had to interact in a way that subjects man and nature to values of use in the international market place. Why this has not yet happened is not as clear. It can be pointed out that it is a result of the holistic development goals of Gross National Happiness that have guided forest conservation and thus protection of traditional knowledge structures. There are other parts of Bhutan in which I did not observe the protection of traditional knowledge structures such as the flood of tourists to Buddhist festivals. Thus pronounce with confidence that reinstatement of community forestry was to protect the environment or traditional livelihoods specifically. Like the rest of the Bhutanese development plan it is balanced and is working to sacrifice as little as possible while facilitating socio-economic development.

It is this investigation that should prompt further examination of the realities of the socio-economic development in Bhutan and to what extent traditional belief systems have been influenced from increasing interactions with the global market. It is proposed that next year 100,000 visitors with enter Bhutan. Can this revenue go to protecting programs such as community forestry or be used in some other fashion? It is this reality that I fear jeopardizes the traditional knowledge systems, which may only exist so long until a reflection point is reached at which the transformation and dislocation of man and nature occurs.[footnoteRef:46] [46: It is after reading Polanyi and experiencing Bhutan that I understand the accumulating effects of the interactions described by Polanyi. He explains a number of interactions with man nature and the market, which result in the transformation of society. It was very interesting reflecting on my experience in Bhutan with this understanding. You can see in Thimpu the capital that the inflection point could be reached as it is very involved with the market, where as rural areas are just beginning to see the west through their television screens! Further away still are pockets of traditional knowledge that have yet to experience electricity. Since the development of this paper and taking this class I wish to return to investigate differences between rural and urban Bhutan to see how far along the transition each local is. This may perhaps just provide evidence in support of Polanyi or allow an understanding so that innovations may protect the last bits of traditional organization and technique to better influence the global market such as the organization of informal markets. ]

References:

Denman Brian and Namgyel Singye, 2008 Convergence of Monastic and Modern Education in Bhutan International Review of Education

Heilbroner, Robert L. The Worldly Philosophers. 7 ed. The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers (New York: Touchstone, 1999),

Kamchung. 2011 Lament From Villages, Bhutan Observer

Marker Philip. 2006 Export Details Bhutan Economic Studies Group

Penjore, Dorji and Rapten, Phuntsho. 2004 Trends of Forestry Policy Concerning Local Participation in Bhutan, The Center for Bhutan Studies

Polanyi, Carl. 1944 The Great Transformation Beacon Press

Rapten, Phunshto, 2008. Sustainable Development: Bhutan’s Middle Path Center for Bhutan Studies

Sinpeng, Aim, 2007. Democracy from Above: Regime Transition in the Kingdom of Bhutan

Uddin, Sk. Noim. Taplin, and Ros, Yu Xiaojiang. 2006 Energy, Envrironment, and Development in Bhutan Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Wangchuk, Jigme The scavenger boy of Memelakha, Bhutan Observer May 5, 2012

Worden, L. Robert, 1991 Forestry A Country Study: Bhutan Library of Congress Fedral Research Division.

Veblen, Thorstein. Theory of the Leisure New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books 1994 (1899).

Press Release from Tourism Council of Bhutan 2011

Country Watch Incorporated Foreign Relations Bhutan Country Review

Two months of personal investigation on the Community Forestry Policy in Bumthang Dzongka.

Notes:

D. Finance (India)

a. Through subsidies

b. And value systems

1. However, slowly laborious work is no longer sought, people want to be businessman, scientists, work in protecting forests etc.

2. It is seen that people are moving to the city people are making businesses creating trade networks between towns.

a. One man I met owned small store, weavers, was in the Gho trade of expensive handmade textiles.

3. At the same time traditional town trade is still happening and community forestry is thriving through more avenues of surplus extraction.

a. Evidence from my 2 months in Jakar Valley.

i. Farmers market every day.

ii. Bustling eateries

iii. Cottage industry.

iv. Eco-tourism

v. Sustainable forests

On forestry Policy: Pages from Polanyi. And dates from Rapten.

1. 1977 National government weary of ecological conditions with WWF started forest management.

2. 1979 Royal Decree on Social Forestry shut down commercial logging, and power decentralized to community forestry programs once again.

3. Labor has not been yet separated from other forms of life, thus their culture has more or less remained organized traditionally.

No large labor market yet,

Traditional institutions (monasty still exist) and no one starves.

No incentive to join labor force if traditional organization meets your needs. Pg. 172, 173 not compelled to make as much money as possible.

Perhaps threatened by modern education policy. (Bhutan observer)

Still active participation of rural peoples in community forestry protects its existence and legitimization. Pg 174.

4. Community Forestry Group a sort of Union pg. 176, helped by national legislation