Bhutan is an in the form of a kingdom located in Southeast Asia. This most landlocked country is located in the Eastern Himalayas, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region in the north. Bhutan has declared the world’s first carbon-free country.

Bhutan can be categorized as a small country even included in the list of the smallest country in the world. The area is only about 47,000 km2 with a total population of about 770 thousand inhabitants in 2015. This country is on the slopes of the Himalayas and 85.8% of the area covered by dense forest.

Most of the inhabitants work as farmers so that the forest land they own is a valuable asset for  Bhutan. This country official name is”Druk Yul” or “Dragon Land of Thunder”. Bhutan more active in taking care of the available forest trees due to the threat of global warming.

The threat of global warming is not only a threat to Bhutan, but also to the rest of the world. Therefore, every country is actively avoiding increasing global warming. One of the most effective efforts is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Being a country with a carbon neutral level alone is quite impressive because it is not easy to reach that point. What happened to Bhutan is amazing because Bhutan is able to become a carbon negative country. This achievement made it the first country in the world to be officially declared a carbon-absorbing country.

Bhutan is one of the smallest countries in the world is the country with the cleanest air in the world. Within a year, Bhutan can produce 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide. With the help of the forest wealth, Bhutan able to absorb 4 million tons of carbon dioxide. That is, carbon dioxide is absorbed more than the results so naturally, this country became one of the greenest countries in the world.

The success to be the greenest country because of the good cooperation between the government and its citizens. The king of this country, Jigme Singye Wangchuck has developed the Gross National Happiness program, an approach devised with the goal of making his country the happiest country in the world.

As the King achieved this goal, he indirectly made his country the greenest in the world. This is due to the four pillars applied, including the development of sustainable, environmental protection, cultural preservation, and good governance. That’s the recipe for building a happy nation and environment.

The country also implements some green policies, one of which provides a law that 60 percent of the land there should be preserved and protected, such as forests for example. Bhutan even banned an export logging.

Another effort to safeguard the environment is to provide only controlled, low-impact tourism, which involves changing the entire cost of developing sustainable visitors. Not only that, the world record of the country’s most widely grown trees per hour was achieved.

The trees they plant are what plays a huge role in absorbing carbon. Forest trees are able to absorb up to 6 million tons of carbon per year. Though the amount of carbon produced by the country is only about 2 million tons.

The Government of Bhutan is also working to make its country free of greenhouse gas emissions and waste by 2030, and 100 percent of organic food production by 2020. The form of efforts is done by replacing all fossil-fueled vehicles with electricity.

The resources will come from wind, biogas, and solar power. So far, this country produces electricity from hydroelectric power plants that are environmentally friendly. The electricity generated is even exported to India.

With all the efforts that have been made, it can be concluded the reason why this country became one of the greenest in the world. May the effort of Bhutan can also be made by other countries.