Bhutan’s Forests through the Framework of Ecosystem Services: Rapid Assessment in Three Forest Types

Abstract

Forests in mountain ecosystems provide a diversity of services and goods in mountain landscapes, and the immediate utility of the forest to upstream residents must be balanced with the insurance forests provide for downstream residents in the form of, especially, the services of water regulation and soil stabilization. Little empirical data exist for Bhutan that confirm a causal link between upstream forest use and downstream security. To help to fill this gap, we summarize the results of two literature reviews related to forest ecosystem services and human well-being, using the framework of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH). We report preliminary findings of three field-based assessments of forest ecosystem services on hillsides. We conducted an assessment of the perceptions of local residents about the forest ecosystem services in three distinct forest areas of Bhutan. The studies were carried out in high-altitude oak forests, forest management units (FMUs) in government reserve forests, and community plantations. We engaged villagers in focus group discussions and conducted key informant interviews. The strongest evidence in the literature for linkages between forests and GNH was found for the role forests play in socio-economic development and good governance, particularly through the community forestry program. Regulating services of forests were cited as crucial to several aspects of human well-being, but little empirical evidence was provided. To local residents in the three study locations, the provisioning services of forests were highly ranked, as were water regulating services. At the plantation sites, residents felt that the new forests did improve soil stability and water provisioning services. Cultural services were identified but not highly prioritized. Awareness of forest ecosystem services was high among participants in the study, but understanding of the causal links between forest use and human well-being was mixed. Lack of direct evidence about causal pathways between upstream forest condition and downstream security leaves gaps in our knowledge and even perpetuates myths and misconceptions about the role that forests play. We encourage further research at multiple scales and using mixed methods to test hypotheses on the linkages between forests and human well-being in mountain landscapes.

Socio-Cultural Values of Ecosystem Services from Oak Forests in the Eastern Himalaya

“…In line with other research in the region [14,42], our study confirms that community members understand and prioritize provisioning and cultural ecosystem services over regulating and supporting services. This is probably due to their historic and cultural interactions with these services for livelihood sustenance [15].…”

“…For example, it was reported elsewhere that regular environmental awareness programs were even more influential than the formal education levels in valuing the perceived importance of regulating services to the communities [63]. Given that residents of rural communities in the Himalayas are not highly educated, special consideration should be given to creating regular environmental awareness sessions focusing on all services, with emphasis on regulating and supporting services, so that communities can fully value the importance of their local forests [42].…”

“…Those assessments are focused on biophysical quantification and monetary valuation of ecosystem services [5,41], giving limited attention to the social values of ecosystem services. Ours is part of a broad study in Bhutan on the social values associated with ecosystem services from local forests [42]. Such assessments are important for Bhutan to balance forest utilization with the national goal of forest conservation to meet the constitutional mandate to maintain 60 percent of land under forest cover and in fulfilling the pledge to remain carbon neutral at all times.…”

Non-Violent Techniques for Human-Wildlife Conflict Resolution

“…In one recent study, rapid assessment of community perception on the ecosystem services in Bhutan revealed that forests are seen as a source of rural livelihood with the highest ranking for provisioning services, including water, fuel wood, timber, fodder, and non-wood forest products [119]. On the other hand, supporting services like wildlife species and biodiversity in general received a low ranking in the order of importance indicating the need for community education and awareness on the importance of biodiversity conservation as the source of provisioning services.…”

Typology of coffee-based agroforestry systems in the semi-deciduous forest zone of Togo (West Africa)

“…In the world, forests play an important role in maintaining fundamental ecological processes, such as water regulation, carbon storage, the provision of livelihoods and support economic growth (de Groot et al, 2002;Holvoet and Muys, 2004;Gurung and Seeland, 2008;Thompson et al, 2011;Abson et al, 2014;Sears et al, 2018). However, nowadays, these forests are facing serious degradation resulting from important overexploitation, intensive agriculture, especially in developing countries (Lawson et al, 2014;Duguma et al, 2019).…”