Environment and the Constitution of the

Kingdom of Bhutan
Restoration Ecology
ECL302
Kinley Choden
Let us (re)define environment!
What do you understand by ENVIRONMENT?
Let us (re)define environment!
Literally - surroundings (environs)

Inclusive of all other entities in a given surrounding

Interact to varying extents (with conceptual

relationship?)

“Space or a field in which networks of relationships, interconnections and interactions

between entities occur”
Let us (re)define environment!
From ecology - concerns both the biotic and abiotic components and all the
interactions.

Can it be used interchangeably with ‘ecosystem’?

 Environment vs Ecosystem
Environment refers to the surroundings-the
area where living organisms live.

Ecosystem is the community where the biotic

and abiotic elements interact with each other.
Let us (re)define environment!

The International Court of Justice (1996)* defines ‘the environment is not

an abstraction but represents the living space, the quality of life and the very health
of human beings, including generations unborn’.

*Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Judgment of 8 July 1996, ICJ Reports 226, para. 29.
Let us (re)define environment!

A United Nations Environment Programme (1997)* defines includes abiotic and biotic
components, including air, water, soil, flora, fauna and the ecosystem formed by their
interaction’ and might even include ‘cultural heritage, features of the landscape and
environmental amenity’, but it excluded private property.

* Institut de Droit International (1997). Resolution: Environment, Art. 1 (the resolution addresses international law for the management of the
environment).
 Constitution
Article 5 – Environment

1. Every Bhutanese is a trustee of the Kingdom’s natural resources and

environment for the benefit of the present and future generations and it is
the fundamental duty of every citizen to contribute to the protection of the
natural environment, conservation of the rich biodiversity of Bhutan and
prevention of all forms of ecological degradation including noise, visual and
physical pollution through the adoption and support of environment friendly
practices and policies.
Constitution
Article 5 – Environment

2. The Royal Government shall:

(a) Protect, conserve and improve the pristine environment and safeguard the
biodiversity of the country;
(b) Prevent pollution and ecological
degradation;
(c) Secure ecologically balanced sustainable development while promoting justifiable
economic and social development; and
(d) Ensure a safe and healthy environment.
Constitution
Article 5 – Environment

3. The Government shall ensure that, in order to conserve the country’s natural
resources and to prevent degradation of the ecosystem, a minimum of sixty percent of
Bhutan’s total land shall be maintained under forest cover for all time.
Gross National Happiness – pillars
1. Good Governance
2. Sustainable Socio-economic Development
3. Preservation and Promotion of Culture
4. Environmental Conservation
Gross National Happiness - domains
33 indicators of GNH
What is environmental integrity?

Let’s define integrity!

Integrity *
1) the quality of being
honest and having
strong moral
principles

2) the state of
being whole
and undivided

Philosophy**
*Oxford English Dictionary
-**(virtue term) it is a
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/integrity/
quality of a person’s
What is environmental integrity?

Principally expresses a complex set of concepts that describe a healthy

natural system that can support essential processes.

Wild, untrammeled nature and the self-creative capacities of life to

organize, regenerate, reproduce, sustain, adapt, develop, and evolve itself.
What is environmental integrity?

The combined functions and components of whole natural systems are

valuable for their own sake; their life support functions; psychospiritual,
scientific, and cultural significance; and the goods and services they
provide; and as a system’s vigor, organization and resilience.*

*Miller, P. and Rees, W. E. (2000). Introduction in Pimentel, D., Westra, L., and Noss, R. F. (eds.), Ecological Integrity: Integrating Environment,
Conservation, and Health. Washington, DC: Island Press
What is ecological integrity?

Leopold (1949)* says “a thing is right when it tends to preserve the

integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it
tends otherwise”

*Leopold, A., 1949. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
 What is ecological integrity?

Karr and Dudley (1981)** defined as “the

ability of an ecosystem to support and maintain
a balanced, adaptive community of organisms
having a species composition, diversity, and
functional organization comparable to that of a
natural habitat of a region”
- Health, resilience and ability to self-organize
and recover

Courtesy: Biodiversity BC, 2008

**Karr, J.R., Dudley, D.R., 1981. Ecological perspective on water quality goals. Environ. Manage. 5, 55–68.
Typical component feature of ecological integrity (biodiversity and beauty represents stability, sustainability,
naturalness, and wilderness) (Reza, M. I. H. and Abdullah, S. A., 2011)
Elements of ecosystem for defining ecological
integrity
1) Ecosystem structure – Complexity of all the living and non-
living physical components that make up that ecosystem.
2) Ecosystem composition – the variety of living things found within an
ecosystem.
3) Ecosystem function – natural ecological processes that occur within
an ecosystem.
Natural ecological processes/supporting
processes
Many natural processes must take place for an ecosystem to function normally and have ecological integrity.

Some of these processes are:

•Predator /prey cycles – for example, bears eat fish and fish eat plankton

•Nutrient cycling – as plants and animals die and decompose on the ground, they
release energy and nutrients, as well as provide food or shelter for other species

•Fire – this is an essential process for some plant species to reproduce (e.g., the heat opens the seeds on a Jack
pine)

•Hydrologic cycle – water cycles from the atmosphere to Earth and back into the atmosphere again
Self-organization components of a typical ecosystem for the evaluation of ecological
integrity (Müller et al., 2000).
Example - Indices of ecological integrity for rivers

1. Nativeness
2. Pristineness
3. Diversity
4. Resilience
Ecological integrity
Let’s review!

Environment – How would you define it?

Environmental Integrity – Is it a better way to define environment?

How does article five of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan

encourage environmental conservation?