I am writing this posting from Dartmoor, a huge and open expanse of heather and bog. Centuries ago it was apparently a vast forest, but at some moment in history someone discovered tin, much prized by the Romans, among others. In order to process the tin heat was required, and this could only come from burning wood. The whole area was, over several centuries, totally de-forested, and remains de-forested. This illustrates what happens when an invasive species, in this case Man, intrudes itself into a beautiful area which had been virgin forest for several hundred thousand years.

The government of Bhutan, on its website, spells out what it seeks to do in terms of all the categories of Gross National Happiness. But could the fact that there are no comments under “Ecological diversity and resilience” suggest that it is having a problem with the idea?

The following are some of the threats to ecological diversity and resilience:

– invasive species that are introduced by tourists, in container ships or on planes and take root in new homes. They include everything from foreign weeds, to fish and aggressive plants that destroy local plant life that animals rely on. Disease is also effectively an invasive species. Some invaders are harmless, like the budgerigars imported into the British Isles as pets; others, like the pythons in Florida were also introduced as pets, and are a menace.

– Monoculture – the exclusive growing of a single crop, such as corn, and the massive use of Roundup that, in Mid-West America, is accused of destroying the ecosystem.

– unrestricted population growth, such as you have in Brazil, where Mankind is encroaching onto the tropical jungle on a massive scale.

What can a small country like Bhutan do about this, no doubt wanting tourists and trade? What I think it should be doing is to form a really knowledgable body of people, probably academics, who can teach younger people about the environment and keep a watching brief on threats to the country’s water, forests, and native plants and animals and recommend regulations that will halt and reverse depredations. Epicurus would approve.