Founded in 1992 as Natural Resources Training Institute by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests to train extension agents. The training was based on the Bhutanese farming systems. Crops, livestock and forests are the integral parts of the rural livelihood system in Bhutan. The main reason to establish the NRTI was that the then-National Agriculture Training Institute located at Paro, the Royal Veterinary Institute at Serbithang and the Bhutan Forestry Institute at Taba was brought under one umbrella named as the Natural Resources Training Institute at Lobesa with funding support from Swiss Development Corporation, Helvetas and the Royal Government of Bhutan. College of Natural Resources, Royal University of Bhutan, was born as the Natural Resources Training Institute in 1992 under the Ministry of Agriculture. The NRTI joined the Royal University of Bhutan in 2003 as a founding member college, and was named thereafter as the College of Natural Resources. As NRTI, the institute awarded Diploma courses in the field of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Forestry for the mid-level extension workers of the Ministry of Agriculture until 2002. As a College of Natural Resources, CNR continued to offer Diploma courses as nested programmes in its Bachelor programmes. Since 2010, the college started to provide Bachelor programmes in the field of Agriculture, Animal Science, and Forest Science. By 2012 the college started to offer Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Development and in 2015, Bachelor of Science programme in Environment and Climate Science was introduced. The college has also started to offer post graduate programme such as Master in Development Practices in 2015, which is a global multidisciplinary programme. Similarly, Master of Science in Natural Resources Management by research was introduced in the year 2015. Further, a Bachelor of science programmes namely BSc in Food Science and Technology was introduced in the year 2017 and BSc in Organic Agriculture was 2019. The college is gearing to launch PhD program on Climate Studies by 2020 and, similarly, a Masters program on water resources management and conservation science is also planned.
Accreditation
In 2016, the College was accredited by the Bhutan Accreditation Council, and awarded it the grade of A.
Location
The college of Natural Resources is located in Lobesa Punakha District, Bhutan, in central west Bhutan. The college campus is spread over on the eastern slope of Lobesa and is about away from the Paro international airport. Besides laboratories and academic buildings, the main campus includes housing, and sports a conference center, and a library with over 100,000 volumes of books and other periodicals.
Structure
CNR RUB comprises of six departments and eleven programs:
The College of Natural Resources offers Master's, Bachelor's, Diploma and Certificate courses. Among the programs offered include regular Master of Science in Developmental Practice, Master of Science in Natural Resources Management by Research, Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, Bachelor of Science in Animal Science, Bachelor of Science in Environment and Climate Science, Bachelor of Science Food Science and Technology, Bachelor of Science in Forest Science, Bachelor of Science in Organic Agriculture, and Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Development.
Collaboration
The College has several collaboration such as: Bremen University, Germany,, Göttingen University, Germany, Palacky University, Czech Rep, Pardova University, Italy, Khonkaen University, Thailand, Nagoya University, Japan, Norwegian University of Biological Science, Norway, Research Institute of Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan, Bangladesh Academy of Rural Development, Bangladesh, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal, The Naturalis in Leiden, The Netherlands on Biodiversity and Nature and Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation among others. In addition to the collaboration with international the college has active collaboration with national agencies, NGOs and various civil society organizations.
Research and research centers
The college has its own online journal for publication called Bhutan Journal of Natural Resources and Development. The BJNRD publishes quality research articles both online and print. Besides offering academic programmes, the college has research centres namely;
Centre for Environment and Climate Research,
Centre for Rural Development Studies, and
Centre for Sustainable Mountain Agriculture.
The college also provides professional education, short-course training, and consultancy services.
Directors and presidents
The present incumbent President, Dr. Phub Dorji assumed office on 1 September 2016 succeeding Director General, Mr. Dorji Wangchuk. Dr. Phub Dorji is the fourth Director in the history of the college. Until Phub Dorji assumed office, the position title was the Director or Director General based on the seniority; however, in 2015, the Royal University of Bhutan, changed the position structure, and renamed as the President. The college's first Director was Dasho Sherab Tenzin (1992 to 1996, and in 1997 succeeded by Director, Mr. Jambay Dorji until 1999. By 2000, Mr. Dorji Wangchuk became the third director of the college until 2015. Wangchuk was promoted to director general in 2014. In 2016, Dr. Phub Dorji became the fourth director or the first President of the college.
