Resource information
The country environmental safeguard
review provides an overall assessment of Bhutan's
environmental safeguard system. The study is not intended to
be comprehensive or prescriptive. It is meant to provide a
broad overview of some key legal, policy, and institutional
challenges and highlight some options for possible future
action. The following points identify the broad focus of the
review: (i) identify critical gaps in Bhutan's policies
and regulations for environmental safeguard management and
specific measures to reach equivalence with international
best practice (equivalence analysis); (ii) evaluate
Bhutan's capacity and commitment to implement its
environmental policies and regulations and assess specific
actions that are necessary to strengthen institutional
capacity and improve outcomes (acceptability assessment);
and (iii) prioritize options for enhancement of
Bhutan's environmental safeguard systems, particularly
critical actions needed to keep pace with economic
development and Royal Government of Bhutan (RGOB) commitment
to decentralize decision making to the district level. This
review recognizes that the differences between Bhutan's
system and the corresponding Bank policies identified in the
equivalence analysis could be readily addressed by revisions
to the relevant code of environmental practices or by the
introduction of additional codes of practices, which is
within the administrative authority of the National
Environmental Commission (NEC). Others can be bridged on a
systemic basis through legal or regulatory measures and, in
particular, through the development of new legislation for
safety of dams, which will then make Bhutan's
environmental safeguard policies fully equivalent with the
corresponding Bank policies.
