Climatic changes and their impact on socio-economic sectors in the Bhutan Himalayas: an implementation strategy

Hoy, Andreas; Katel, Om; Thapa, Pankaj; Dendup, Ngawang; Matschullat, Jörg

doi:10.1007/s10113-015-0868-0

Cited by 54 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…However rapid urbanisation along with industrialization were seen as the drivers of GHG emissions in South Asian countries including Bhutan (Shrestha, Ahmed, Suphachalasai, & Lasco, 2013). Furthermore, being in the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayan range, Bhutan is very much vulnerable to the impacts of global climate change (GNHC, 2011;Hoy, Katel, Thapa, Dendup, & Matschullat, 2015;NEC, 2011). Bisht (2013) even suggests that climate change is the key determinant of Bhutan's future development and security.…”

Section: Environment and Human Wellbeing In Bhutanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bhutan: Can the 1.5 °C Agenda Be Integrated with Growth in Wealth and Happiness?

Yangka

Newman

2018

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Bhutan is a tiny kingdom nested in the fragile ecosystem of the eastern Himalayan range, with urbanisation striding at a rapid rate. To the global community, Bhutan is known for its Gross National Happiness (GNH), which in many ways is an expression of the Sustainable Development concept. Bhutan is less known for its policy of being carbon neutral, which has been in place since the 15th session of the Conference of Parties meeting in 2009 and was reiterated in their Nationally Determined Contribution with the Paris Agreement. Bhutan achieves its carbon neutral status through its hydro power and forest cover. Like most emerging countries, Bhutan wants to increase its wealth and become a middle income country by 2020, as well as increase its GNH. This article looks at the planning options to integrate the three core national goals of GNH, economic growth (GDP) and greenhouse gas (GHG). We investigate whether Bhutan can contribute to the 1.5°C agenda through its 'zero carbon commitment' as well as growing in GDP and improving GNH. Using the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning model, this article shows that carbon neutral status would be broken by 2037 or 2044 under a high GDP economic outlook, as well as a business as usual scenario. National and urban policy interventions are thus required to maintain carbon neutral status. Key areas of transport and industry are examined under two alternative scenarios and these are feasible to integrate the three goals of GHG, GDP and GNH. Power can be kept carbon neutral relatively easily through modest increases in hydro. The biggest issue is to electrify the transport system and plans are being developed to electrify both freight and passenger transport.

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Section: Environment and Human Wellbeing In Bhutanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bhutan: Can the 1.5 °C Agenda Be Integrated with Growth in Wealth and Happiness?

Yangka

Newman

2018

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“…Alongside Chinese actions, climate change is predicted to be the most influential geopolitical factor in transboundary water relations. Regionally, climate change is already being felt [24,25]. The Himalayan region is the world's third largest source of ice and snow and feeds the main South and Southeast Asian rivers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Mekong's flood pulse is highly important for fisheries and agriculture and so disruptions could impact human security in the basin. Downstream, regions such as the Mekong delta are also vulnerable to sea level rise and saline intrusion [24]. The Ganges and Brahmaputra are more reliant on rainfall runoff, so are more vulnerable to changes in precipitation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stagnant Rivers: Transboundary Water Security in South and Southeast Asia

Williams¹

2018

Water

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Transboundary rivers are increasingly difficult to govern and often involve issues of national security, territoriality, and competition. In developing countries, the management and governance of these rivers is dominated by a particular decision making group, often comprised of politicians, bureaucrats, and engineers. These groups perpetrate a technocratic paradigm towards the management of transboundary water, with limited genuine international cooperation. The transboundary water situation in South and Southeast Asia is becoming increasingly fraught as the geopolitical context is changing due to China's increased involvement in regional issues and climate change. With over 780 million people dependent on these rivers, their governance is vital to regional and international stability. Yet, the technocratic management of transboundary rivers persists and is likely to become increasingly unsustainable and inequitable. A discourse-based approach is applied to consider transboundary water governance in the shifting South and Southeast Asian context. The result is an alternative perspective of why governance approaches on transboundary rivers have resisted meaningful reform.In developing Asian countries, the state is often dominant in water governance. As a result, water governance tends to be dictated by state-centric thinking and bureaucratic management policies that support the state's role [5]. Even in the era of governance and decentralisations, governments are reluctant to concede sovereignty and so states often retain power through re-regulation. This redraws the boundaries of a state's mandate and shifts power structures without detracting from state power [6].The group responsible for water governance is termed the 'hydrocracy' [2], or the hydraulic bureaucracy [7]. This group comprises of bureaucratic agencies responsible for designing, planning and implementing water resources management, and elite decision makers. The decision makers are those who hold influence and responsibility for actions concerning water allocation, utilisation, and general transboundary water resources management. In the developing world, this group is often dominated by engineers and technocratic thinking. The hydrocracy is, in essence, a state creation, and consequently reflects state objectives and concerns. As such, states can utilise this group to strengthen their legitimacy [7], and the hydrocracy commonly maintains that the state has a duty to develop its water resources [2].The hydrocracy has a history of dominance in governing transboundary water [8]. Its power largely relies on maintaining the cyclical planning-to-construction process of hydraulic infrastructure development. Consequently, the interests of the hydrocracy are often shared by politicians, construction companies, landed elites and development banks. This actor constellation is described as forming an 'iron rectangle' between businesses, politicians, bureaucrats and development banks in the developing world [7]. As a result, alternative groups and interests ar...

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“…GNHoriented policies have initiated many development projects in the areas of tourism, agriculture and hydro-power (Hoy et al 2016). Whether or not GNH has been the major driving force for its development cannot be said for certain, but compared to most other countries in the South Asia region, Bhutan is performing relatively well in the international indicators (Hoy et al 2016 Table 9) show that the main societal problems in all areas are the increases in the indicators for rural-urban migration and farm labour shortage. These issues are strongly related.…”

Section: Gnh: Future Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crossbreeding and gross national happiness of Bhutanese farmers

Samdup¹

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Bhutan has embarked on the gross national happiness (GNH) development concept. However, its operationalisation needs more focus on the issues of the smallholder farmers which comprise about two-thirds of the population. A practical implementation of GNH for rural areas is cattle crossbreeding for dairying, aiming not only to improve livelihoods of farming households and to meet the increasing demands of livestock products, but also to sustainably use natural resources. This thesis evaluates whether crossbreeding has benefited farmers from a GNH perspective across time and space. The study areas are described as extensive, semi-intensive, intensive and intensive peri-urban. In 2000, in each area participatory field workshops with farmers (n=120) and other stakeholders (n=28) were organised to select issues at farm level. Data on households, cropping, livestock and off-farm activities were collected by trained enumerators through interviewing 183 households in 2000 and 2004. In 2015 only 123 of the same households could be revisited; the other households had migrated to other areas or had given up farming, as rearing of livestock was no longer permitted in the intensive peri-urban area. In 2002, a national workshop with 20 experts was organised to select issues and their indicators for developing an integral approach to communicate progress in GNH development in the four areas. Selected indicators were standardised by establishing a performance value range for five performance categories of each indicator. The standardised indicator values were aggregated to an economic, societal and environmental index. The adoption of crossbreeding varied strongly between areas with high percentages of crossbred cattle in intensive areas and low percentages in the extensive area. Favourable conditions for adoption of crossbreeding were support by projects, functioning farmers' groups, access to urban markets and access to artificial insemination and extension services. Farmers in the intensive areas find livestock intensification through crossbreeding attractive as a source of regular and reliable income. Crossbreeding has not yet been able to reduce the gap between supply and demand of dairy products in Bhutan, but it reduces grazing pressure on common property resources. The integral assessment shows that challenges in the implementation of the GNH concept in rural areas are the increases in rural-urban migration and farm labour shortages, and the need for more equitable socio-economic development.

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Climatic changes and their impact on socio-economic sectors in the Bhutan Himalayas: an implementation strategy

Cited by 54 publications

References 54 publications

Bhutan: Can the 1.5 °C Agenda Be Integrated with Growth in Wealth and Happiness?

Bhutan: Can the 1.5 °C Agenda Be Integrated with Growth in Wealth and Happiness?

Stagnant Rivers: Transboundary Water Security in South and Southeast Asia

Crossbreeding and gross national happiness of Bhutanese farmers

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