A reference book for on the environment challenges and polices of the country, Bionomics in the Kingdom of Bhutan, by Ugyen Tshewang (Dr), Jane Gray Morrison and Michael Charles Tobias provides a compact detail on the ethics and economics of the country’s ecology.

The book also touches on the aspects of Bhutanese culture and animal rights among others. While giving details on the current status of the environment such as national parks, and mountains, the book also has the country’s current declarations, climate change action plans, polices and constitutional mandates for conservation in the country.

Former national environment commission secretary Ugyen Tshewang said the book could be a reference for scientists, planners, students and researchers.

“I didn’t read many books that talk about happiness and environment together. At the same time how animal rights can be protected in a holistic manner and integrated into the bionomics of Bhutan.”

Bhutan’s current climate change issues, biodiversity loss, animal rights, loss of species and organisms are highlighted as some of the major challenges in the book, Michael Charles Tobias said.

“This book is a small book, really meant for an enquiring student who wants to cover all the issues in a tight compact way and get the state of the world in Bhutan as of now.”

Michael Charles Tobias is the president and chief executive officer of a non-profit public benefit corporation called Dancing Star Foundation based in California.

He said that today Bhutan has become the torchbearer of ecological sensibility and that Bhutan was one of the few remaining countries with a degree of human innocence in them.

“One of the aspects of this book, bionomics, certainly is to integrate conservation with animal rights, legal, political and the spiritual realms,” he said. “I think Bhutan can do much more but that’s unfair because if a country like Bhutan has to do more, then country like America has to do much more. You have already done a lot by keeping your forest intact.”

The book, which runs 159 pages and published by Springer was released last week.

Phurpa Lhamo