Category: Biodiversity News

This is to inform interested candidates that the admission is open in College of Natural Resources as follow:

1. B.Sc. Agriculture, Animal Science and Forestry (Nested)

2. Master in Development Practice

3. M.Sc. Natural Resources Management

For further details, please visit: www.cnr.edu.bt

A training workshop on plant taxonomy and Bhutan Biodiversity Portal (BBP) (www.biodiversity.bt)  was conducted for the officials of Jigme Dorji National Park (JDNP) at Thimphu on 9^th February 2017. This training workshop aimed to brief the officials of JDNP on the plant identification techniques, herbarium techniques and awareness on the Bhutan Biodiversity Portal (BBP). This training workshop was targeted to the forestry officials of JDNP to continue collecting specimens for herbarium and strengthen the herbarium program at the park. Herbarium would be mostly focused on the collection alpine plant species and documenting the plant species diversity in the park. Basic knowledge and idea on plant identification techniques and herbarium specimen processing techniques were imparted to the officials of the park. Practical sessions were conducted on the herbarium processing and the participants also visited the National Herbarium to learn about the uniformity of labels and specimens’ arrangement techniques. Currently, National Herbarium uses Bentham and Hooker System of Classification.

Training workshop also focused on available books, literature and papers and BBP. Participants were made aware of the understudied biodiversity groups such as ferns, mosses, algae, etc. User interface of the BBP were briefed on the background and importance of BBP and further demonstration on BBP was conducted, which surprisingly many participants were interested to study and document various biodiversity groups such as birds, orchids, mammals, etc. The awareness program on BBP is a part of seminar series which is conducted throughout the country by prioritizing relevant and important institutions such as Department of Forests and Park Services, College of Natural Resources, Sherubtse College, Gaeddu College of Business Studies, Tourism industry and general public at large. BBP acts as an online biodiversity repository contributed by the biodiversity enthusiasts and citizen participations and it is also an online platform which is available to all interested national and international users.

With this kind of awareness programs, it is hoped that the interested foresters will be more aware, motivated and inspired to document Bhutan’s rich biodiversity and ultimately conservation activities. The workshop was organized by the National Biodiversity Centre, Serbithang and was attended by around 20 officials from JDNP. The workshop was supported by the National Biodiversity Centre.

A two-day stakeholders’ workshop on Invertebrates of Bhutan was held in Thimphu from 1 to 2 February 2017. The participants were from the Ugyen Wangchuck Institute of Conservation and Environment (UWICE), the College of Natural Resources (CNR), Sherubtse College, the Royal Thimphu College (RTC), the National Plant Protection Centre (NPPC), and the National Biodiversity Centre (NBC). The project on Invertebrates of Bhutan is being administered and coordinated by the NBC and various stakeholders as mentioned above are involved. This project is backed up by the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands and the MoU has been signed between NBC and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre.

The project on Invertebrates of Bhutan Project acts as an umbrella program, because it concerns the cooperation of several agencies with overall coordination responsibilities entrusted to the NBC. Knowledge on invertebrates in Bhutan is still limited for which reason the Invertebrates of Bhutan Project was started in 2012. This project aims at enhancing the facilities for the study of Bhutanese biodiversity, to increase the knowledge of Bhutanese invertebrate fauna and to train Bhutanese counterparts. Currently, project focused on the five biodiversity groups such as Hymenoptera, Odonata, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Molluscs.

This stakeholders’ workshop mainly focused on the final phase of the project, current results, preliminary checklists, journal paper publications, field guide books publication, poster distribution across the country and focus on understudied biodiversity groups. Current status of the progress, issues and challenges were discussed and in addition, the floor decided to expand the biodiversity groups, mostly under studied groups such as grasshoppers, mosquitoes, etc. This workshop came up with new and innovative ideas to upscale this

project in the second phase as the current project will end in June 2017.

The floor was also briefed on mapping skills and data management techniques using GIS, Microsoft Access, online GIS, and other user-friendly software to manage and analyze huge numbers of data. GIS techniques will be applied in the field and as well as at their respective agencies and NBC will host the overall project data with back-up. The data such as photos, videos, journal papers, and checklists shall be made available in the Bhutan Biodiversity Portal (www.biodiversity.bt). Moreover, the data generated from the project using GIS will be explored to link with the Bhutan Biodiversity Portal.

Most of the biodiversity escapes our eyes. We see just a forest where there are in fact hundreds of plants, we see just a tree where there are dozens of beetles and there is a myriad of invertebrates in the soil as well. Yet this largely unseen biodiversity is key to the proper functioning of ecosystems. Thus, this workshop was timely set rendering enough time to focus on papers, field guide books and field excursions.