Una filosofia dell’ambiente: cosa il Bhutan può insegnare all’Occidente

philosophy of the environment: what Bhutan can teach the West

Abstract

Enshrined in the Constitution, Bhutan's environmental protection model is the result of a unique blend of formants. Buddhism is the Himalayan kingdom's cultural and spiritual heritage and provides the fundamental codes from which various operational instruments, such as the well-known Gross National Happiness index, have been constructed. Despite the fascination that the Bhutanese constitutional model exerts on Western scholars, it is questionable whether this paradigm can be exported with regard to environmental protection. Certain cultural and geographical limitations cannot be ignored. However, it is believed that the GNH itself offers a key to understanding this “problem”.