Thimphu 31st July 2023: Every year, the 31st July the Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. It was also attended by Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Dasho Paljor J. Dorji, Special Advisor to the NEC, and other dignitaries and guests from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
The key event during this year’s Rangers Day was the launch of three important reports, the State of Forest Report 2023; the State of Forest Carbon Report; and the Forest Cover Mapping Report. The State of Forest and the State of Forest Carbon Report is a result of the ground-based National Forest Inventory conducted in 2021-2022. The inventory is a key exercise to monitoring the extent of forest, growing stock, carbon stock, etc. for better planning and management of forest through policy and interventions.
The State of Forest Report 2023 reports a forest cover of 69.7 % from the total land area with a growing stock of 759 million m3 in standing form, a decrease by 20 % since the last NFI in 2015. Of this, Coniferous Forest accounts for only 32 % and the rest are Broadleaved Forest. On the contrary, conifer species are preferred over the broadleaved tree species by the people as timber, so it is vital that management and utilization of specific trees species reviewed and studied.
Another important observation from the reports is the increased proportion of smaller sized trees, with more than 72 % of the trees estimated to be below 30 cm Diameter at Breast Height (DBH). A total of 1,008 million trees are estimated to found in Bhutan forest in addition to 523 million saplings. The number of trees increased by 26% from 2015. Every hectare of Forest has an estimated volume of 283.65 m3 with an average carbon density of 195 tonnes per ha.
The sequestration capacity of Bhutan’s forest has increased to 11 million tonnes of CO2 from 9.6 million tonnes estimated in 2015, according to the State of Forest Carbon (SoFC). Approximately 523 million tonnes of carbon are stored in forest ecosystem of Bhutan from the total carbon stock of 609 million tonnes as per the findings reported in the SOFC Report. The increase in the sequestration capacity of Forest despite decrease of Forest and Forest Carbon Report is because of the increased rate of Basal Area Increment. The total annual Basal Area Increment in last five years in Forest is 1.22 million m2 for the entire Forest. The periodic annual basal area increment is 0.46 m2 per ha per year in Forest corresponding biomass increment of 2.43 tonnes per ha per year
The Hon’ble Minister, MoENR in his keynote address expressed his appreciation and heartfelt gratitude to the Department of Forests and Park Services for their conservation efforts and the National Forest Inventory Crew and the coordination team for their hard work and dedication in coming up with the reports. The minister also congratulated the team of Forest Rangers from Sarpang Forest Division on the receipt of the International Ranger Award, 2023, and emphasized that they are representation of all Bhutanese rangers, who are all deserved winners.
More than 231 officials were involved in the conduct of the National Forest Inventory from 2021-2022 and data analysis was done in 2022-2023. The Reports were published by the Department of Forests and Park Services with technical support from the Soil Plant and Analytical Laboratory (SPAL), National Soil Service Centre of Department of Agriculture, who conducted the laboratory analysis of understorey and soil carbon estimation.
NFI fieldwork and data analysis was funded by the Royal Government of Bhutan, Bhutan for Life Project, the REDD Readiness Proposal Project under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank and the GEF NAPA III-“Enhancing Sustainability and Climate Resilience of Forest and Agricultural Landscape and Community Livelihoods in Bhutan” Projects.
The occasion of the World Rangers Day was funded by the Bhutan for Life Secretariat.
Department of Forests and Park Services
