The Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority (BAFRA) under Ministry of Agriculture and Forests received an amount of USD 152,000 in April from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to strengthen food safety and standards in the country.

The project over a span of next two years, will primarily focus on the establishment of a reliable food control system including food safety policy, standards, risk based inspection and awareness of various stakeholders through development of training manuals and promotional materials.

The inspection system will address major food safety concerns like microbiological and chemical hazards.

A Senior Food Safety and Nutrition Officer of FAO for the Asia Pacific region, Dr. Shashi Sareen said that after the establishment of World Trade Organization (WTO), the demand by both governments and consumers for food quality and safety has increased.

With increased complexity in food production chain, she stressed the need to have adequate controls along the food chain to guarantee food safety to the consumers.

She said, “Food control needs to be driven by the government with active involvement of other stakeholders namely producers, processors, transporters, service suppliers, consumers etc”.

The Food Safety and Nutrition Officer of FAO for the Asia Pacific region also shared information on similar projects being carried out around the Asia Pacific region on food safety.

According the BAFRA officials, there is a need to establish a good food- inspection system. The project besides this issue pertaining to food safety will also work toward capacity-building to improve food safety along the food chain.

BAFRA officials said that food-contaminant monitoring will also be boosted with such projects in place.

The two-year project which will function till March 2014 will directly benefits general consumers through having access to safe and standard foods available. The project benefits will also extend to producers, industries, food service establishments and government institutions involved in food safety.

The project is also expected to indirectly benefit individual farmers or farmers’ group, commercial producers and its allied business partners and vulnerable groups especially the women engaged in food industries.

An FAO inception-workshop titled “Strengthening Food Safety and Standards in Bhutan” was also organized last week.

Husband arrested due to wife’s burglary charges

The police arrested a 59 year old man on suspicion of committing burglary in his wife’s house in Dhur, 15 kms away from Chamkhar town in Bumthang on 23 July.

The incident occurred when the woman was with her friends and families offering butter lamps and visiting few monasteries around Bumthang on the auspicious day.

However when she returned home she found that the bolt of the door was broken and as she entered inside the house she found that the metal box where she had saved Nu 60,000 was unbolted and the money was found missing.

The case was reported to the police the next day after the incident.

When the police reached the crime scene the woman said that she suspected her husband for being behind the theft and the police on the same day arrested the man.

The police while investigating the suspect retrieved Nu. 100,000 which the suspect claimed he had earned by selling cordyceps.

According to the victim’s statement, the suspect is her husband and she is currently in the process of divorcing him after she was manhandled by him. The case is currently going on in the Bumthang court.

However, the suspect denied the crime saying he did enter the house but did not pick anything from the house. The suspect is a former soldier and the police are still investigating the case.

Husband arrested due to wife’s burglary charges

The police arrested a 59 year old man on suspicion of committing burglary in his wife’s house in Dhur, 15 kms away from Chamkhar town in Bumthang on 23 July.

The incident occurred when the woman was with her friends and families offering butter lamps and visiting few monasteries around Bumthang on the auspicious day.

However when she returned home she found that the bolt of the door was broken and as she entered inside the house she found that the metal box where she had saved Nu 60,000 was unbolted and the money was found missing.

The case was reported to the police the next day after the incident.

When the police reached the crime scene the woman said that she suspected her husband for being behind the theft and the police on the same day arrested the man.

The police while investigating the suspect retrieved Nu. 100,000 which the suspect claimed he had earned by selling cordyceps.

According to the victim’s statement, the suspect is her husband and she is currently in the process of divorcing him after she was manhandled by him. The case is currently going on in the Bumthang court.

However, the suspect denied the crime saying he did enter the house but did not pick anything from the house. The suspect is a former soldier and the police are still investigating the case.

Victim later turned into suspect

Two students of Yangchenphug Higher Secondary were arrested for battering a 24-year old man in Central Plaza in Thinphu on June 7.

The case was reported by one informer to the police when the informant found one man being stabbed at around 7pm while the crime occurred at around 6 pm.

The incident occurred when the victim who is a school dropout, went to the entire neighbor’s place looking for his wife and entered into a house where the two boys were residing and after he strangled one of the two boys, they took him out to the corridor and kicked him in every parts of his body; banged him on the pillars and wall of the buildings.

The boys in their statement stated that the victim was annoying them and was insisting them by saying that they would know about where his wife must have been.

 The boys after battered the man left him lying in the corridor and have gone to their home.

However he followed them to their place and met with the cook who is working with one of the restaurant in Central Plaza and he stopped him from finding the boys.

When he insisted to follow the boy, the cook lifted him up and dropped down on the cemented corridor and the cook left him.

Later when the cook was walking to his home, the man stabbed him from the back, which the police describe as a clean and regular major cut on the outer aspect of the right eye and on the right shoulder blade.

The police recovered the kitchen knife from the victim who later turned into a suspect.

The four suspects were arrested on the same day and they are under the police custody for necessary action.

The law is confused

A child is like a doll and is incapable of crime, so says, provisions in the books of law, but in the case of two minors who burnt down a hut, all loop holes based on this provision failed to save their legal guardians from the lawfully-ordered compensation payments.

The legal guardian of the two minors who set fire to a hut in Jungshina, Thimphu on February 17 appeared in Thimphu District Court for their final hearing on July 4.

The owner of the house who lost his home and his belongings for the fire will be compensated with Nu 18,000 while the tenant will receive Nu 9,000. The compensation will be paid by the parents of the two minor defendants within one month from the day of their final hearing.

Though circumstantial evidence of the crime committed by the two defendants is beyond reasonable doubt, the defendants are not liable to pay compensation in accordance to the principle of Doli Incapax which explains that a child is like a doll and is not capable of punishment to any offences committed.

Section 9 of Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2011 states that “if the defendant is a child of 12 years and below, he/she shall not be held liable for any offence committed by him/her.”

Section 9 of the same law book, ‘the Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2011’ states that a child can never be found guilty even if he/she has committed a heinous crime and the law does not allow them to appear in the court.

And yet, at the same time, there are provisions by which compensation becomes mandatory.

This confusion bears argument mainly because, of section 12 of Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2011 and section 111 of The Child Care and Protection Act 2011  which contradicts the principle of Doli Incapax.

The two sections state that “if a child is found guilty of an offence for which damages are appropriate, the court may order the parents or legal guardian of the child in conflict with law to pay the damages”.

The law is not clear whether the section 12 is applicable to section 9 or if it is only applicable to section 10 which states “if the defendant is a child above 12 years, the court shall sentence the child in conflict with the law to a minimum of half of the sentence prescribed for the offence”.

If compensated, the child is convicted and if not the victims are victimized wherein the court has to interpret the applicability and meaning of section 9, 10 and 12 of Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2011 and section 111 of The Child Care and Protection Act 2011.

In  the current case, the court ordered the parents to compensate the victims on reasonable and appropriate damages  caused,  since the mother of the two defendants agreed to compensate and also the country do not have separate fund called the ‘Solatium Fund’ like other countries to compensate in such cases.

The defendants are given 10 days to appeal to the High Court if they are not content with the final judgment of the District court but the victims are forced to be content when the law does not allow them.

In cases, where a child is in conflict with the law, the case should not be forwarded to the court according to the law, but in this case a victim pressurized the Royal Bhutan Police to forward the case to the court (in hope for compensation).

This is the first case of a child defendant forwarded to the court.

Standard guidelines for timber marketing

The community forest management groups (CFMGs) in the country are generating substantial income through timber sales from their Community Forests (CFs). The absence of proper guidelines for timber-marketing however proves a deterrent for many to venture into the same field.

The CFMGs can now look forward to better-streamlined timber marketing with Social Forestry Division (SFD) under Department of Forests and Park Services (DoFPS) in the process to develop or formulate timber marketing guidelines for the CFs.

CFMGs across the country are highly hesitant and skeptical of timber business in the absence of a definite marketing guideline for the timber commerce.

“The guideline will facilitate and guide the timber sales from CF,” said Karma Jigme Temphel of social forestry division. He said the development of specific guidelines will be done after comprehensive stakeholders meetings and workshops which will include the CFMG members.

The SFD official said that currently such timber marketing is reflected nowhere in the policies and rules.

The guideline currently is at the conceptual development stage and before implementation it will go through field tests.

The country currently faces an acute shortage of timber a gaping difference of 1.84mn cft between supply and demand.

A prominent reason for the shortage lay in the fact that majority of the community forests in Bhutan have harvested, way below the Annual Harvesting Limits (AHL). This is further substantiated in studies conducted in the past which mentions, community forest management groups harvest timber conservatively and at levels below the prescriptions in the CF management plan. The studies stated that the community forest management groups are very careful while they harvest forest products from the CFs.

All things considered, there is a need to standardize and encourage more CFs into timber sale which the studies mentioned as long overdue. This will have far reaching impacts not only in closing the timber-shortage gap but also on the poverty reduction which is predominantly a rural phenomenon.

A CF seminar on poverty held at Bumthang specified there is no such thing as standard timber marketing procedures at the national level and the procedure adopted by most of the CFs when it comes to timber marketing is based on trial and error.

It is deemed most vital the timber marketing guidelines be formulated so that the CFs are encouraged to indulge in timber marketing.

Tsirang hails first as independent CF manager

Tsirang hails first as independent CF manager

In sync with the government’s vision to have Community Forests managed independently in all aspects by members without government support, three Community Forests (CF) in Tsirang recently made the successful transition to manage and plan all on their own with minimal government support.

Community Forests Management group members of Dangraybu CF under Doonglagang Gewog, Chirphen CF under Mendrelgang gewog, Darjeling CF under Rangthangling gewog in Tsirang Dzongkhag not only personally contributed money for the CF activities but also took the lead to execute the activities.

The members contributed certain amounts to meet the expenditures incurred in management planning and ownership certificate handing-over which conventionally is sponsored by the government.

The section head of Social Forestry and Extension Division (SFED), KJ Temphel said this is the vision of the government in the long run.

“This is the ultimate way forward for CF programs in the Country,” he said.  “Through enabling plans and policies, the government is trying to encourage such model of CF management in the country.”

An official of the SFED said a time will come when the CF members have to pay the foresters for provision of technical backstopping and other services related to CF. This means that the CF programs in the country should slowly mature and function independently. The government currently provides most of the supports since the program is in its infant stage.

Tsirang Dzongkhag Forest Officer, Pema Tshewang said he was overwhelmed and encouraged when the CF members came forward with such the proposal. “We know this has to happen one day and someone should initiate and take the step forward,” he said.

On the flipside many CF Management groups in the country are still largely dependent on government support.

Community Forestry Programs in Bhutan is about handing over a chunk of Government Reserved Forests with sustainable management, utilization and ownership rights to a group of communities. The program aims to enable these beneficiaries to generate income through sale of excess timbers and other income sources and help reduce poverty which predominantly is a rural phenomenon.

The program is incepted with the belief that the forests and natural resources within the proximity of the community are best managed by themselves and benefits should also flow to the communities themselves. “When the communities are entrusted with the responsibilities and the power to protect, utilize and manage certain portion of forests, the overall health of the forests improves,” said an SFED official.   

SFED is putting up concerted efforts toward creation of enabling environments for CF establishment. They have developed a CF strategy in Bhutan which is being implemented, while the CF Action Plan is under finalization. The training of 45 foresters on CF management planning, sponsoring of study tour to 22 CFMG members to Nepal, provision of training package on record and book keeping, seminar on CF for poverty reduction, economic analysis and market chain of timber products within CFs have been carried out.

Already major positive impacts have been witnessed since the program started. For instance, there has been drastic reduction of illegal activities while the number of forest fire incidences has also dwindled significantly. Officials claim that such programs have also helped bring degraded land under plantation.

Tsirang Dzongkhag currently has 24 approved CFs with 10 more in the offing. While at the national level, at the end of March this year, there are 382 numbers of CFs which comprise 17,000 households (CFMG members) which is almost 34 percent of rural households.  These totals to one-sixth of all rural households while 43,000 hectares or 1.5%of the overall forests areas in Bhutan have been handed over as CF.

Government targets to establish minimum of 400 CFs and hand-over at least 4% of government reserved forest land as CFs by the end of 10th five year plan.