Institutional Support for the Forestry Services Division


( Project BT0011 )

The Nature Conservation Section (NCS), formerly the Wildlife Circle, is part of the Ministry of Agriculture's Forestry Services Division. NCS is responsible for Bhutan's protected areas. In 1993, with WWF support, the Wildlife Circle with only one staff member was upgraded to the NCS and given six additional staff and the responsibility for biodiversity conservation and planning. Currently, NCS lacks trained personnel to coordinate protected area planning in the country. Developing NCS's capacity is therefore crucial to Bhutan's long-term conservation strategies.

From 1993 to 1996, WWF and Forestry Services Division (FSD) activities have focused on protected area planning through rapid field assessments using GIS and remote sensing technology in collaboration with United States NASA. Based on these assessments, revisions were made to Bhutan's existing protected area system. The revised system, which was approved by the Royal Government, represents all of the country's main ecosystems including the temperate broadleaved forests of central Bhutan, which, until then, had been largely unprotected.

WWF has also been training natural resource managers and technicians, organizing and sponsoring study tours for students and field staff, and establishing basic infrastructure at NCS-FSD. Additional office space and facilities have been developed, including the establishment of GIS, survey, inventory, and management planning units, in order to strengthen national capacity to monitor and evaluate Bhutan's biodiversity.

WWF will continue to develop NCS's capacity for long-term conservation management through institutional strengthening and human resource development, and will help NCS to monitor the illegal wildlife trade. The organization will also train FSD staff to implement community development programmes in buffer and multiple use zones, and expand and update conservation education activities.

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Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature