Current Biodiversity Conservation Efforts in Bhutan: Potentials and Challenges

About the speaker
Sangay Dema works as Principal Biodiversity Officer at the National Biodiversity Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests of Bhutan. She is the curator of a Botanical garden and also heads the Biodiversity information management program of the Centre.

Sangay Dema hold a Master’s degree in Biology, with major in Plant Taxonomy from University of Missouri, St. Louis, USA.

Her interests are in developing science-based conservation strategies and promoting conservation science in the country. She has been instrumental in setting up Bhutan Biodiversity Portal (like the India Biodiversity Portal) which she sees as a platform to encourage citizen in biodiversity conservation in general and systematics/taxonomy in particular. Other national initiatives include launch of Invertebrate research in the country, assessment of plant species’ conservation status using IUCN criteria, and setting up GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environment) sites in the country for long term observation of the impacts on climate change on alpine environment.