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The protected areas of Bhutan are its
national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
s,
nature preserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...
s, and
wildlife sanctuaries A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...
. Most of these
protected areas Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
were first set aside in the 1960s, originally covering most of the northern and southern regions of
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
. Today, protected areas cover more than 42% of the kingdom, mostly in the northern regions. Protected areas also line most of Bhutan's international borders with
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.


Background

The Forest and Nature Conservation Act of Bhutan, 1995 is the primary legislation that provides a framework of protected areas for Bhutan. The Act defines a protected area as ''an area, which has been declared to be a national park, conservation area, wildlife sanctuary, wildlife reserve, nature reserve, strict nature reserve, research forest, critical watershed or other protected areas.'' The government agency responsible for the oversight of protected areas is the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry Services Division. Since 1992, protected areas have been managed by the Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation. In 1993, the Fund revised and reduced its extensive parks system for better ecological representation and management. Through 2008, however, protected areas expanded significantly with the establishment of
Wangchuck Centennial National Park Wangchuck Centennial National Park in northern Bhutan is the kingdom's largest national park, spanning over five districts, occupying significant portions of northern Bumthang, Lhuntse, and Wangdue Phodrang Districts. It borders Tibet to the ...
, spanning a swath in northern Bhutan. The parks and sanctuaries are all connected either directly or by " biological corridors." As of 2011, the Fund had recruited 189 field staff, had trained 24 post-graduate specialists, and had provided over 300 short scientific courses. The Fund alone manages a total protected area of – nearly the size of
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
and more than 42 percent of Bhutan's total . With the exception of
Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary The Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary is the second-smallest national park in Bhutan, covering in western Sarpang District and southeastern Dagana District along the border with West Bengal. It is connected to Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park and ...
and Jigme Khesar Strict Nature Reserve, these protected areas are inhabited or are located within populated areas. In practice, the overlap of these extensive protected lands with populated areas has led to mutual habitat encroachment. The
Lateral Road The East-West Highway, also known as the Lateral Road, is the Bhutan primary east–west corridor, connecting Phuentsholing in the southwest to Trashigang in the east. In between, the Lateral Road runs directly through Wangdue Phodrang, Trongsa, ...
, Bhutan's main highway, bisects
Phrumsengla National Park Phrumsengla National Park (Dzongkha: ཕུརམ་སེང་ལ་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་གླིང་ག), formerly Thrumshingla National Park, in central Bhutan covers just over across four districts of Bhutan, districts, but pr ...
in the centre of the kingdom. Protected wildlife has entered agricultural areas, trampling crops and killing livestock. In response, Bhutan has implemented an insurance scheme, begun constructing solar powered alarm fences, watch towers, and search lights, and has provided fodder and salt licks outside human settlement areas to encourage animals to stay away.


List of protected areas

Below is a list of the ten protected areas of Bhutan maintained by the Trust Fund: *
Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary The Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary (also spelled Bumdelling or Bomdeling), which contains the former Kulong Chu Wildlife Sanctuary, covers in northeastern Bhutan at elevations between and . The sanctuary covers most of Trashiyangtse Distri ...
(
Lhuntse Lhuentse,is a town and headquarter of eponymous Lhuentse District in northeastern Bhutan. It is about 70 km from Mongar, 145 km from Trashigang and 452 km from the national capital Thimpu. Nearest airport is Yongphulla Airport 130 km away. Lhuen ...
,
Mongar Mongar (Dzongkha: མོང་སྒར) is a town and the seat of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. it had a population of 3502. Mongar is on the road from Thimphu to Trashigang. It is one of the oldest educational hubs of the country. It ha ...
, and
Trashiyangtse District Trashiyangtse District ( dz, བཀྲ་ཤིས་གཡང་རྩེ་རྫོང་ཁག་, bkra shis g.yang rtse rdzong khag) is one of the twenty dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It was created in 1992 when Trashiyangtse d ...
s; contains the former
Kulong Chu Wildlife Sanctuary The Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary (also spelled Bumdelling or Bomdeling), which contains the former Kulong Chu Wildlife Sanctuary, covers in northeastern Bhutan at elevations between and . The sanctuary covers most of Trashiyangtse Distri ...
) *
Jigme Dorji National Park The Jigme Dorji National Park (JDNP), named after the late Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, is the second-largest National Park of Bhutan. It occupies almost the entire Gasa District, as well as the northern areas of Thimphu District, Paro District, Puna ...
(
Gasa GASA Group (''Gartnernes Salgsforeninger''; "co-operative marketing organisations") is a Danish company that imports and exports flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Founded in 1929 as a fruit, flowers and vegetable auction co-operative, the mul ...
, Paro,
Punakha Punakha ( dz, སྤུ་ན་ཁ་) is the administrative centre of Punakha dzongkhag, one of the 20 districts of Bhutan. Punakha was the capital of Bhutan and the seat of government until 1955, when the capital was moved to Thimphu. It is abo ...
,
Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient ...
, and
Wangdue Phodrang District Wangdue Phodrang District ( Dzongkha: དབང་འདུས་ཕོ་བྲང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Dbang-'dus Pho-brang rdzong-khag''; previously spelled "Wangdi Phodrang") is a dzongkhag (district) of central Bhutan. This ...
s) *
Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park (formerly Black Mountains National Park) covers an area of in central Bhutan. It protects a large area of the Black Mountains, a sub−range of the Himalayan Range System. The park occupies most of the Tro ...
(
Sarpang Sarpang, also transliterated as Sarbhang or Sarbang, is a thromde or town in Sarpang District in southern Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in So ...
,
Tsirang Tsirang District (Dzongkha: རྩི་རང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Rtsi-rang rdzong-khag''; previously (Chirang), is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) of Bhutan. The administrative center of the district is Damphu. Tsirang ...
,
Trongsa Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gran ...
,
Wangdue Phodrang Wangdue Phodrang (, Dzongkha 'Wangdi Phodr'a) is a town and capital (dzongkhag thromde) of Wangdue Phodrang District in central Bhutan. It is located in Thedtsho Gewog. History The town shares its name with the Wangdue Phodrang Dzong built in 1 ...
, and
Zhemgang District Zhemgang District (Dzongkha: གཞམས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie transliteration: ''Gzhams-sgang rdzong-khag''; previously "Shemgang"), is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is bordered by Sarpang, Tr ...
s) * Jomotsangkha Wildlife Sanctuary (
Samdrup Jongkhar District Samdrup Jongkhar District ( Dzongkha: བསམ་གྲུབ་ལྗོངས་མཁར་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bsam-grub Ljongs-mkhar rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. The dominant langua ...
) *
Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary The Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary is the second-smallest national park in Bhutan, covering in western Sarpang District and southeastern Dagana District along the border with West Bengal. It is connected to Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park and ...
( Dagana and
Sarpang District Sarpang District (Dzongkha: གསར་སྤང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Gsar-spang rdzong-khag''; also known as "Geylegphug") is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. Sarpang covers a total area of 1,946 sq km and ...
s) *
Royal Manas National Park Royal Manas National Park is Bhutan's oldest national park, and the Royal government considers it the "conservation showpiece of the Kingdom" and a "genetic depository" for valuable plants. It has an area of and covers eastern Sarpang District ...
( Pemagatshel,
Sarpang Sarpang, also transliterated as Sarbhang or Sarbang, is a thromde or town in Sarpang District in southern Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in So ...
, and
Zhemgang District Zhemgang District (Dzongkha: གཞམས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie transliteration: ''Gzhams-sgang rdzong-khag''; previously "Shemgang"), is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is bordered by Sarpang, Tr ...
s) *
Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary in Bhutan, located in Merak and Sakteng Gewogs of Trashigang District and just crossing the border into Samdrup Jongkhar District. It is one of the country's protected areas and is listed as a ...
(
Trashigang Trashigang ( dz, བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་།), or Tashigang, meaning "fortress of auspicious mount," is a town in eastern Bhutan and the district capital of the Trashigang Dzongkhag (district). The town lies to the east side of the ...
and
Samdrup Jongkhar District Samdrup Jongkhar District ( Dzongkha: བསམ་གྲུབ་ལྗོངས་མཁར་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bsam-grub Ljongs-mkhar rdzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. The dominant langua ...
s) *
Phrumsengla National Park Phrumsengla National Park (Dzongkha: ཕུརམ་སེང་ལ་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་གླིང་ག), formerly Thrumshingla National Park, in central Bhutan covers just over across four districts of Bhutan, districts, but pr ...
( Bumthang,
Lhuntse Lhuentse,is a town and headquarter of eponymous Lhuentse District in northeastern Bhutan. It is about 70 km from Mongar, 145 km from Trashigang and 452 km from the national capital Thimpu. Nearest airport is Yongphulla Airport 130 km away. Lhuen ...
,
Mongar Mongar (Dzongkha: མོང་སྒར) is a town and the seat of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. it had a population of 3502. Mongar is on the road from Thimphu to Trashigang. It is one of the oldest educational hubs of the country. It ha ...
, and
Zhemgang District Zhemgang District (Dzongkha: གཞམས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie transliteration: ''Gzhams-sgang rdzong-khag''; previously "Shemgang"), is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is bordered by Sarpang, Tr ...
s) * Jigme Khesar Strict Nature Reserve (
Haa District Haa District ( Dzongkha: ཧཱ་; Wylie: ''Haa''; alternative spellings include "Ha") is one of the 20 dzongkhag or districts comprising Bhutan. An alternative name for the district is "Hidden-Land Rice Valley." It the second least-populate ...
) *
Wangchuck Centennial National Park Wangchuck Centennial National Park in northern Bhutan is the kingdom's largest national park, spanning over five districts, occupying significant portions of northern Bumthang, Lhuntse, and Wangdue Phodrang Districts. It borders Tibet to the ...
( Bumthang,
Gasa GASA Group (''Gartnernes Salgsforeninger''; "co-operative marketing organisations") is a Danish company that imports and exports flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Founded in 1929 as a fruit, flowers and vegetable auction co-operative, the mul ...
,
Lhuntse Lhuentse,is a town and headquarter of eponymous Lhuentse District in northeastern Bhutan. It is about 70 km from Mongar, 145 km from Trashigang and 452 km from the national capital Thimpu. Nearest airport is Yongphulla Airport 130 km away. Lhuen ...
,
Trongsa Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gran ...
, and
Wangdue Phodrang District Wangdue Phodrang District ( Dzongkha: དབང་འདུས་ཕོ་བྲང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Dbang-'dus Pho-brang rdzong-khag''; previously spelled "Wangdi Phodrang") is a dzongkhag (district) of central Bhutan. This ...
s) In addition, the Royal Government maintains the following protected areas: *
Motithang Takin Preserve Motithang Takin Preserve, located in the Motithang district of Thimphu, Bhutan is a wildlife reserve area for takin, the national animal of Bhutan. Originally a mini-zoo, it was converted into a preserve when it was discovered that the animals re ...
(
Thimphu District Thimphu District (Dzongkha: ཐིམ་ཕུ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Thim-phu rdzong-khag'') is a dzongkhag (district) of Bhutan. Thimphu is also the capital of Bhutan and the largest city in the whole kingdom. Languages The ...
) The following areas of Bhutan are protected or maintained by private organizations: *
Phobjikha Valley The Phobjikha Valley ཕོབ་སྦྱིས་ཁ spelled as Pho-sbis-kha, (the suffix ''kha'' is an element in many place-names in Bhutan and its use is generally optional both in colloquial speech and in literary forms) is a vast U-shaped v ...
( Royal Society for Protection of Nature)


See also

*
Environmental issues in Bhutan There are a number of environmental issues in Bhutan. Among Bhutan's most pressing issues are traditional firewood collection, crop and flock protection, and waste disposal, as well as modern concerns such as industrial pollution, wildlife conserv ...
* Royal Society for the Protection of Nature (RSPN) * List of Hot Springs and Mineral Springs of Bhutan


References


External links

* {{Asia topic, List of protected areas of
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
Protected areas Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...