Thimphu dzongkhag felled about 29,000 trees last year, or about 80 trees daily, to meet timber and firewood demand, a consumption rate that could leave Bhutan bald by deforestation in two decades. The figure excludes thousands of trees destroyed by forest fires and pest outbreak. "If the trend continues, there will be no question of maintaining the 60 percent forest coverage for all times to come,' said Thimphu divisional forest officer (DFO), Lobzang Dorji. At this rate, our forests will be gone in 20 years.' Types of tree cut For construction Blue Pine 30% Spruce 70% For Firewood Hemlock Spruce * Oak exhausted in FMUs Flag Post Blue Pine 100% According to the DFO, the rising demand for timber, both from rural and urban Thimphu, has made timber harvesting unsustainable. For instance, in just one year, 9,540 trees were felled for rural house building, 4,702 for fencing posts and 10,054 for prayer flag poles. Officials said that an additional 3,423 trees were used to supply timber to urban Thimphu, which also consumed 1,945 truckloads of firewood. This does not include trees for rural firewood and cremations. For 2008, demand for timber has already exceeded 13,865 trees. Meanwhile, the Thimphu divisional office still has a backlog of 72,000 cft of timber, which should have been supplied to the rural population between 2003 and 2007. Lobzang Dorji said that many rural people were issued permits for timber, but the demand could not be met. "It's just not sustainable,' he said. Forestry officials said, that although the demand of timber is higher in Thimphu for hundreds of construction works, the picture in other dzongkhas is the same. Thimphu has two forest management units (FMU) to supply timber to the entire dzongkhag, including urban consumers over a 10-year plan period. But forestry officials said that, because of the demand, the annual allowable cut (amount of trees allowed to be cut from each FMU) has expired in the first year of the plan period itself. Officials said that rural timber demand exerted the greatest pressure on the forests. "There are no trees in the Hongtsho area that can be felled for cham,' said the DFO. For rural house building, forestry rules permit felling four trees (drashing, trees to be sawn with a girth of four inches and above) irrespective of the size of the house, 80 trees for cham size trees (girth of three to 3.11 inches), 80 trees for tsim (girth of one to two inches) and 100 trees for dangchung (girth below an inch). Officials said that permits for an additional two truckloads of firewood are given to each household without electricity every year and 50 trees for posts (used for orchard fencing). The DFO said that people were taking advantage of the forestry rules in availing timber. "Since the rule permits thram holders to avail timber, people segregate their thram to get more timber,' he said. "The booming construction industry had also added to the pressure.' Forestry officials said that given the poor regeneration growth, over grazing and other man-made causes, supply couldn't keep up with demand. "A lot of reforestation work was carried out in the FMUs, but it will take time,' said a forest ranger. A blue pine takes about 90 years to be ready for harvesting. As a measure to reduce the pressure, the annual allowable cut in the two FMUs in Thimphu has been reduced drastically. For instance, the annual allowable cut in the Gidakom FMU was reduced from 13,000 to 1,350 cubic metres per year for the 2002 to 2012 period. Officials said that, without policy intervention, Bhutan's rich forest would deplete faster in the coming years. Bhutan has 72.5 percent of its area under forest coverage, but only 14 percent is available for timber production. Ironically, the National Assembly, in one of its past sessions, raised the number of trees rural population could fell from four trees to eight trees for rural house construction. By Ugyen Penjore