A Country at Risk
Bhutan is a small kingdom in South Asia, landlocked between China in the north and India in the south. The country’s development policies and plans are guided by the concept of “Gross National Happiness” which stresses the achievement of equitable and sustainable development over economic growth. Investments in health, education and a peaceful transition to a democratic constitutional monarchy have resulted in a reduction in poverty from 23.% to 8.2% in just a decade.
But Bhutan is located in one of the most seismically active zones in the world. The country is prone to earthquakes, floods, glacial lake outburst floods, landslides and forest fires, and is located in a region where the level of risk from climate variability and climate change varies from “extreme” to a “very high.” The impacts of climate change are expected to lead to even more frequent and intense disasters, threatening to reverse Bhutan’s progress.
The country’s mountainous terrain limits commercial farming and isolates rural populations from markets. These constraints mean Bhutan imports about half its food from neighboring countries.
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