Like water for tigers

Tourism and conservation

Tourism offers one such opportunity.

Sangay Penjor, Namgay Wangchuk and Lam Dorji are three of the nine members of the River Guides of Panbang who are pursuing this opportunity.

Lam Dorji from the River Guides of Panbang. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES

River Guides of Panbang is a community-based rafting company that also runs a lodge in Panbang, a small town of about 1,600 people that lies adjacent to Royal Manas National Park and is only 13km from the Indian border. 

Namgay Wangchuk from the River Guides of Panbang. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES

River Guides of Panbang members have been running their tourism business for close to 10 years, simultaneously contributing to the well-being of their community as well as conservation goals.

Sangay Penjor from the River Guides of Panbang. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES

As certified White-Water Rescue Technicians, RGP members have played a vital role in national river search and rescue missions; they have participated in curbing illegal fishing and poaching, and have engaged with their local community as well as neighbouring communities across the border to conserve their rich environment.

Aquaponics Pioneers

As a measure to build the community’s resilience to the economic and social impacts of the pandemic the Bhutan Ecological Society is pioneering aquaponic agriculture in Bhutan.

Aquaponic facility construction. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES

As an environmental NGO that works to create resilient and sustainable livelihoods that preserve the integrity of their ecosystems, the Bhutan Ecological Society chose the River Guides of Panbang (RGP) as a beneficiary and partner for the aquaponic project.

Lam Dorji, one of the River Guides of Panbang, working in the aquaponic facility. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES

RGP was chosen due to their proximity to the highly biodiverse Royal Manas National Park and the area’s manifest increase in vulnerability due to the impacts of COVID-19.  

Aquaponics combines aquaculture (growing fish) with hydroponics (growing plants without soil) by developing a complex, circular agricultural ecology.

Nutrient-rich fish wastes are broken down by microbes into plant fertilizers, and by absorbing these nutrients, plants purify the water for fish.

Aquaponic systems can be extremely productive, yielding an abundance of vegetable crops and fish within a small space.

The introduction of fish (common carp Cyprinio carpio), sourced from the National Research and Development Center for Aquaculture in Gelephu in December 2021. These fish are extraordinarily hardy with low-risk of mortality. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES

The project is based on the understanding that if local communities living in the area surrounding Royal Manas National Park have enough to eat and can maintain their livelihoods from alternative economic activities, the unsustainable use of natural resources and habitat fragmentation will decrease.

Encroaching on the surrounding ecosystem for firewood or food contributes to fragmentation, which leaves tigers and their fellow fauna confined to ever-smaller areas, restricting animals’ movement and gene flow, and disrupting the health of the ecosystem overall.

Local community around Royal Manas National Park farming. Photo: River Guides of Panbang/BES

But with an alternative, environmentally-sensitive source of food, the surrounding forest and habitat for tigers can be left intact.

Resilience in Wildlife Community Grants

In recognition of Covid-19’s world-altering effects, The Lion’s Share, and the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme - implemented by UNDP - made a call for proposals in April 2020 to support communities dependent on wildlife-based tourism.

The nine successful recipients of grants from the ‘Covid-19 Response: Resilience in Wildlife Communities’ initiative were selected from over 1,600 proposals by organizations across 106 countries.

BES training RGP on the fishes that live in the rivers of Panbang. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES

These projects have been working to build resilience in communities in wildlife-rich areas and support the continued protection of threatened wildlife in their remaining strongholds despite pandemic hardships.

BES/RGP group picture. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES

As a part of this effort to foster sustainable, eco-conscious development in the wake of COVID-19, the grant for the Bhutan Ecological Society is working with the cooperation of the Royal Government of Bhutan to pioneer aquaponics.

The science of farming

For the community of Panbang, aquaponics represents a key alternative source of income and food security.

Additionally, this new, ecological approach to farming can improve the climate resilience of the community food supply by growing crops within greenhouses protected from harsh conditions and pests.

Photo: Aquaponic facility construction. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES

The small, but productive, footprint of aquaponics can also reduce the pressure on local natural resources and decrease human-wildlife conflict in the biodiverse landscape of Royal Manas National Park.

With a secure source of food, community members can reduce their use of natural resources within wildlife habitats, leaving those areas as intact sanctuaries.

The aquaponic facility is already fostering a greater appreciation of ecological processes among RGP staff including Sangay, Namgay, Lam and their colleagues.

Group shot as the aquaponic facility construction gets underway. Photo: Joshua F. Goldberg/BES