David Zurick

GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL STATUS IN BHUTAN

The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan is in the midst of transformation as it moves from an isolated past to a modern nation‐state and participant in the global community. Its development path embraces the concept of “Gross National Happiness,” a philosophy and policy instrument that seeks to promote human development and manage environmental conservation within a sustainable strategy guided by Buddhist ethics. After examining Bhutans approach to development and the governance and environmental policies stemming from it, this essay assesses its impacts on environmental conditions in the country.

Historical Links Between Settlement, Ecology, and Politics in the Mountains of West Nepal

The paper presents a study of settlement processes in western Nepal. It emphasizes the linkages between settlement history, cultural ecology, and political economy as these relate to resources, marginality, and territory. Regional settlement trends are examined in accordance with land occupancy and tenure arrangements. Village settlement strategies are analyzed within a micro-processual framework that incorporates political economic perspectives on village land use and resource distributions. The past, present, and future roles of settlement in the human adaptation process of west Nepals mountain populations is critically examined in the contexts of historical land policies and current rural political and environmental systems.

Rural transformation and the future of agricultural development policy in Asia

Abstract Fundamental transformations underway throughout rural Asia will influence the future of Asias agriculture. This paper outlines the challenges Asias rural transformation presents to agricultural development policy through discussion focusing on issues of sustainable productivity, technological transformations, environmental limits on agricultural development, the implications of changes in Asias rural economies, and the time-frame of agricultural development policy.

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND CONSERVATION AS A BASIS FOR DEVELOPMENT IN A WEST NEPAL VILLAGE

The roles of traditional environmental knowledge and local conservation efforts in slopeland management and village resource development are examined in Phalabang panchayat in western Nepals Middle Mountains region. The incentives for indigenous conservation development in Phalabang incorporate the following factors: village territory spatial organization, land use, environ- mental perception, social organization, and land tenure. Two contrasting examples, Nigane Ridge and Kalikathan Slope, are discussed in order to identify important motivations for villager involvement in resource conservation. In Phalabang, household level conservation efforts on private lands are generally more effective than community efforts. The scale of conservation development, social organizational modes, and land tenure issues remain problematic in the design of resource development on degraded lands.

Himalaya: Life on the Edge of the World

Sprawling 2700 kilometres across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, the Himalaya possess an abundance of ecological niches, from subtropical to arctic climates, and support vast quantities of flora and fauna - more than 650 varieties of orchid thrive in the we mountain region of Sikkim alone. In the valleys, a number and range of peoples have, over the centuries, carved out diverse cultures in the harsh mountain environment. The mountains themselves continue to grow an average of one centimetre per year, with some peaks rising ten centimetres in a single year. There are also profound environmental and cultural changes occurring throughout the region. In this work, the authors explore these dyncamic changes through geological records, scientific reports and official documents. The authors offer a comprehensive natural history of the region from the birth of the Himalaya out of the tectonic disruptions beneath the primordial Tethys Sea to the variety of landforms, habitats and climates seen today. They present a study of the peoples who make the mountains their home, tracing human history there back more than a thousand years, and provide an in-depth analysis of the relationship between nature and society in the Himalaya and the pressing problems of environmental degradation, explosive population growth, spiralling poverty and globalization confronting the region and its people. Challenging widely held assumptions about the ecological crisis, the authors detail a more complex scenario and also offer reasons for hope, documenting the success of wildlife preserves and national parks, the effective strategies of local environmental activists, and the rise of ecotourism and rediscovered techniques of sustainable agriculture.