Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Our departure from Bhutan was going to generate a painful withdrawal. For two weeks, life
had slowed to the speed at which I believe we are meant to live. The fresh air, the altitude,
the powerful influence of the Buddhist culture seemed to awaken each of us from the trance,
the self-made cocoon we lived in back home. If only for a short while, we had escaped to a
different place, a geography where a pair of hiking shoes, binoculars, and a cup of hot tea
seemed like enough.
As we packed away our gear and fond memories, a question raised by Bhutan's critics
popped up: What did a small, remote, sparsely populated and still untouched country have to
teach the rest of the world about conservation, reverence for rare species, or anything? Is it
really an outlier among nations?
But the critics ask the wrong question. It is not the size of the country or its intactness per
se, but the philosophy that guides it, that is important. The Bhutanese have taken the prin-
ciples of modern conservation biology and woven them into the Buddhist dharma to chart
a different course for their nation. So perhaps a better question is: What solution does a de-
voutly Buddhist culture offer for the conservation crisis? The answer: The global conser-
vation crisis is ultimately a spiritual crisis in disguise. And what we lack in abundance is
compassion for the millions of other species with which we share the planet, something that
comes as naturally to the Bhutanese as breathing. Perhaps that is the country's most essential
export to the rest of us who are trying to come to grips with the conservation of rarities.
Even in a nation where the majority of civic and religious leaders and its populace express
compassion for all living things, the record is not perfect, of course. Overzealous government
officials can make regrettable decisions. In 2012, several years after we completed this jour-
ney, someone in the government granted permission to “improve” the trail we had hiked on
and turn it into a road with a power line. Some of the massive oaks lay strewn along the way-
side, casualties in the name of progress. Fortunately, much of the old-growth forest remained
intact adjacent to it, but this story illustrates how, in the absence of constant vigilance, a few
individuals can make decisions against the best interests of a nation.
Our cultural evolution as a species is in its adolescence. But evolution never stops, and per-
haps ahead of us is a prominent marker in our own development: the point when we truly
value nature's diversity, a metric noted by conserving rare wildlife. And as with the dying
musk deer, the answer to our dilemma of how to take that next step was right in front of me,
right in front of us, all along. Developing our gift for compassion is a critical contribution to
the persistence of rarities.
Compassion alone, of course, is insufficient. It didn't work for flightless birds against in-
vading rats in Hawaii, nor will it save many other of nature's rarities. Incentives, economic
