Across much of Asia protected areas have a dual objective of conserving biodiversity and supporting rural and indigenous livelihoods. For the red panda Ailurus fulgens and other sensitive species of concern, even limited anthropogenic disturbance may influence their use of protected areas. We quantified the prevalence of timber collection and livestock grazing, and their impacts on red panda habitat use, in Phrumsengla National Park, Bhutan. Red pandas used sites with at least 20% bamboo cover, as evidenced by presence of their faecal pellets. They avoided sites disturbed by livestock, regardless of bamboo availability. Timber collection itself was not an important predictor of red panda presence but bamboo may be harvested opportunistically from sites where timber is collected. Conservation efforts for the red panda should not rely on protected areas alone but should explicitly consider and mitigate impacts of anthropogenic disturbances in protected areas.

In order to understand the dynamics of unemployment in Bhutan at a macro-level, this study has explored the association among economic growth, inflation and unemployment from 1998 to 2016. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was applied to estimate the impact of economic growth and inflation on unemployment. The results of this empirical analysis suggest that economic growth had no impact on the reduction of unemployment rate in Bhutan both in the short and in the long run. In fact, as the economic growth increased, so did the unemployment rate. However, inflation had a negative association with unemployment rate in the short run and a positive association in the long run. In other words, an increase in the employment rate led to an increase in the inflation in the short run. Likewise, if inflation is not monitored or controlled, the uncertainty of inflation can lead to lower investment and lower economic growth, thereby causing unemployment to rise in the long run. This study, therefore, recommends policymakers to take into account the employment elasticity with respect to economic output and focus on sectors, which have more absorptive capacity in engaging the young labour market entrants. JEL: B22, C22, E24, E31

BackgroundAltitudinal migration systems are poorly understood. Recent advances in animal telemetry which enables tracking of migrants across their annual cycles will help illustrate unknown migration patterns and test existing hypotheses. Using telemetry, we show the existence of a complex partial altitudinal migration system in the Himalayas and discuss our findings to help better understand partial and altitudinal migration.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe used GPS/accelerometer tags to monitor the migration of Satyr tragopan (Tragopan satyra) in the Bhutan Himalayas. We tagged 38 birds from 2009 – 2011 and found that tragopans are partially migratory. Fall migration lasted from the 3rd week of September till the 3rd week of November with migrants traveling distances ranging from 1.25 km to 13.5 km over 1 to 32 days. Snowfall did not influence the onset of migration. Return migration started by the 1st week of March and lasted until the 1st week of April. Individuals returned within 4 to 10 days and displayed site fidelity. One bird switched from being a migrant to a non-migrant. Tragopans displayed three main migration patterns: 1) crossing multiple mountains; 2) descending/ascending longitudinally; 3) moving higher up in winter and lower down in summer. More females migrated than males; but, within males, body size was not a factor for predicting migrants.Conclusions/SignificanceOur observations of migrants traversing over multiple mountain ridges and even of others climbing to higher elevations is novel. We support the need for existing hypotheses to consider how best to explain inter- as well as intra-sexual differences. Most importantly, having shown that the patterns of an altitudinal migration system are complex and not a simple up and down slope movement, we hope our findings will influence the way altitudinal migrations are perceived and thereby contribute to a better understanding of how species may respond to climate change.

Bhutan lacks the solid waste data which are essential parameters for planning and scheduling of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) systems. The first ever large-scale research survey on solid waste generation and characterization in the urban areas of Bhutan was conducted between November 2007 and January 2008 using the method of waste sampling at source. The MSW generation rates in the urban centres were 0.53 kg capita(-1) day(- 1), which consists predominantly of organic waste materials of up to 58% indicating a great opportunity for composting. Domestic waste from the households contributed the maximum (47%) component of the total MSW generated from the urban centres followed by wastes from the commercial establishments. Attempt to study the correlation between household monthly income and the waste per capita generation rates did not yield any conclusive result.

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