Bhutan National Adaptation Programme of Action.

The Bhutan NAPA preparation has been a timely opportunity to look at the country’s climate change related vulnerabilities in its unique geographical setting. The peaceful Kingdom nestled among the highest mountainous regions of the globe has enjoyed political peace, stability and development progress for the last 100 years, but the process objectively showed how highly vulnerable the country is to effects of climate change given its fragile mountain eco-systems, high dependency on monsoon rains, and the ever present threats of Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) from its northern mountain ranges. The process for the first time involved looking at effects of climate change as a threat mainly to the largely agrarian population that still depends on subsistence agriculture for their daily livelihood. Given past trends, the threat from GLOFs is now more than ever imminent due to evidence of temperature increases from the global warming; the incessant and frequent flooding and flash floods, especially in the summer of 2004 was a stark reminder of the deadly effects of climate change and environmental degradationas witnessed especially in the eastern regions of the country.