33
credit, UN protected areas data management is continually soliciting updated information from those closest to their subject. While Russia comes in at number 126 on
the ranking (9.73% of its massive land cover), Libya and Afghanistan at the bottom
of 192 ranked nations, the top three are: New Caledonia (54.40%), Venezuela
(54.14%), and Slovenia (53.62%). Bhutan is 4th.
12
Governments of those top three
protection icons cannot simply rest on laurels (nor can Bhutan—with much more
justification than nearly any other nation to do so).
13
The scars of New Caledonia’s
nickel exploitation coincide with a major biodiversity hotspot, while Venezuela’s
deforestation rate is now the third highest in South America, mirroring the country’s
instability and an economy in chaos. Slovenia remains the darling of European land
conservation, but is grappling with two significant health problems stemming from
air quality: “particulate matter and ozone”.
14
In Bhutan, the pillars of her national policy of gross national happiness
15
have
entailed various pieces of legislation and biocultural norms such that, for 2 months
each year, vegetarianism is all but the law, though a microanalysis reveals huge
gaps, hoarding, lapses, even stockpiling of meat in time for the influx of the more
than 200,000 Indian tourists who drive to the country each year, many wanting meat
at mealtime. At the same time, more than 60% of Bhutan’s forests remain intact, the
decision taken many years ago by a 16-year-old king. Such overall contradictions,
one hopes, will ultimately be resolved in favor of an increasingly non-violent
national disposition, in keeping with a Buddhist nation.
Or consider another extraordinary act of globalization in favor of protecting the
planet, namely, the 17.8 million acres of the Southern Suriname Conservation Corridor
in the hands of 3000 indigenous Trio and Wayana Indians. An area of essentially
100% forest cover four times the size of New Jersey, second only in expanse to the
Kayapo indigenous reserve in Brazil. Such conservation achievements translate into
Suriname’s unambiguous carbon credits under the UN REDD+ program, Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation,
16
for the value of carbon
sequestration on world markets. The European Natura 2000 Network Danube Delta
program, widespread European Re-Wilding endeavors, and the Y2Y—Yellowstone
to Yukon Conservation Initiative in the United States—have been following a similar
12 See “Terrestrial Protected Areas,” Index Mundi, https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/
ER.LND.PTLD.ZS/rankings, Accessed February 22, 2020.
13 See Himalayan Transitions: An Assessment of Conservation Priorities in Bhutan, Unpublished
Manuscript in Review, by Dr. Ugyen Tshewang, Michael Charles Tobias, and Jane Gray Morrison,
Dancing Star Foundation Research Project, 2021.
14 See “Slovenia Country Briefing – The European Environment – state and outlook 2015, February
18, 2015, https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/countries/slovenia, Accessed February 22, 2020.
15 See A Compendium of Gross National Happiness (GNH) Statistics, National Statistics Bureau of
Bhutan; See also: The Last Shangri-la? A Conversation with Bhutan’s Secretary of the National
Environment Commission, Dr. Ugyen Tshewang, Michael C. Tobias, 2011, Forbes.
16 See www.un-redd.org/aboutredd
4.2 Psychology and Policy
credit, UN protected areas data management is continually soliciting updated information from those closest to their subject. While Russia comes in at number 126 on
the ranking (9.73% of its massive land cover), Libya and Afghanistan at the bottom
of 192 ranked nations, the top three are: New Caledonia (54.40%), Venezuela
(54.14%), and Slovenia (53.62%). Bhutan is 4th.
12
Governments of those top three
protection icons cannot simply rest on laurels (nor can Bhutan—with much more
justification than nearly any other nation to do so).
13
The scars of New Caledonia’s
nickel exploitation coincide with a major biodiversity hotspot, while Venezuela’s
deforestation rate is now the third highest in South America, mirroring the country’s
instability and an economy in chaos. Slovenia remains the darling of European land
conservation, but is grappling with two significant health problems stemming from
air quality: “particulate matter and ozone”.
14
In Bhutan, the pillars of her national policy of gross national happiness
15
have
entailed various pieces of legislation and biocultural norms such that, for 2 months
each year, vegetarianism is all but the law, though a microanalysis reveals huge
gaps, hoarding, lapses, even stockpiling of meat in time for the influx of the more
than 200,000 Indian tourists who drive to the country each year, many wanting meat
at mealtime. At the same time, more than 60% of Bhutan’s forests remain intact, the
decision taken many years ago by a 16-year-old king. Such overall contradictions,
one hopes, will ultimately be resolved in favor of an increasingly non-violent
national disposition, in keeping with a Buddhist nation.
Or consider another extraordinary act of globalization in favor of protecting the
planet, namely, the 17.8 million acres of the Southern Suriname Conservation Corridor
in the hands of 3000 indigenous Trio and Wayana Indians. An area of essentially
100% forest cover four times the size of New Jersey, second only in expanse to the
Kayapo indigenous reserve in Brazil. Such conservation achievements translate into
Suriname’s unambiguous carbon credits under the UN REDD+ program, Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation,
16
for the value of carbon
sequestration on world markets. The European Natura 2000 Network Danube Delta
program, widespread European Re-Wilding endeavors, and the Y2Y—Yellowstone
to Yukon Conservation Initiative in the United States—have been following a similar
12 See “Terrestrial Protected Areas,” Index Mundi, https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/
ER.LND.PTLD.ZS/rankings, Accessed February 22, 2020.
13 See Himalayan Transitions: An Assessment of Conservation Priorities in Bhutan, Unpublished
Manuscript in Review, by Dr. Ugyen Tshewang, Michael Charles Tobias, and Jane Gray Morrison,
Dancing Star Foundation Research Project, 2021.
14 See “Slovenia Country Briefing – The European Environment – state and outlook 2015, February
18, 2015, https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/countries/slovenia, Accessed February 22, 2020.
15 See A Compendium of Gross National Happiness (GNH) Statistics, National Statistics Bureau of
Bhutan; See also: The Last Shangri-la? A Conversation with Bhutan’s Secretary of the National
Environment Commission, Dr. Ugyen Tshewang, Michael C. Tobias, 2011, Forbes.
16 See www.un-redd.org/aboutredd
4.2 Psychology and Policy