The Wiki Loves Butterfly (WLB) is a digital conservation and scientific documentation project led by a passionate group of volunteers dedicated to butterflies. Over the course of its 9-years journey, WLB has reached an impressive milestone, contributing to around 15,000 high-quality images to Wikimedia Commons till now. As the project enters its eighth phase, WLB has expanded its scope to include Bhutan, India’s beautiful neighboring country.
Bhutan is renowned for its exceptional biodiversity, with diverse ecosystems ranging from subtropical forests in the south to alpine meadows in the north. This rich variety of environments makes Bhutan one of the world’s most biologically diverse regions. Bhutan is also home to many unique species of butterflies, thanks to its varied landscapes and climate. Despite its small size, Bhutan is recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot, and its natural heritage plays a central role in the national identity and conservation efforts. The country is deeply committed to environmental conservation, with a strong focus on maintaining its carbon-negative status and promoting sustainable development.
In Bhutan, Dzongkha is the official language and is spoken by the majority of the population. It belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family, and its script is derived from Tibetan. While Dzongkha Wikipedia started its journey more than a decade ago, it has not seen growth since its inception both in regards to community building and daily editing due to several socially relevant challenges. In this regard, it has become very crucial to invest time and energy to build a strong volunteer community there, which can sustain itself for the sake of the open knowledge in Bhutan.
Kheng Singye Dorji (KSD), a Dzongkha Wikipedian, had invited two of us as representatives of the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group to Thimphu to help him organize a workshop on building a Wikimedia community in Bhutan and with whom, we had the opportunity to engage in discussions about the expansion of Wikimedia projects in the country, particularly the growth of the Dzongkha Wikipedia. In that meeting, we met with 23 enthusiastic young students from different backgrounds (61% of them were female), a few experts in language and culture as well as 2 regular contributors of Dzongkha Wikipedia. Our primary goal was to raise awareness about the open knowledge movement especially, Wikimedia movement, to these participants, many of whom heard the terms for the first time. Through a presentation on Building a thriving Wikimedia community in Bhutan, we discussed the challenges of community-building, ways to overcome them, importance of capacity building and long-term sustainability. We also showcased how Wikimedia had flourished in West Bengal, emphasizing on digital preservation of Bhutan’s unique cultures, languages, heritages, nature etc. and the importance of showcasing them to the world. In another presentation focusing on Wiki Loves Butterfly (WLB) with an approach to forge a community in Bhutan, we encouraged the participants to take the initiative in building a like-minded community in Bhutan focused on documenting and maintaining data on the butterfly species found there and emphasized the importance of expanding this effort to include other species in Bhutan, thereby enriching the overall understanding and documentation of the country’s biodiversity.
This meeting not only offered valuable insights into the local Wikimedia initiatives but also strengthened our collaboration in advancing the digital preservation of Bhutan’s unique cultural heritage and biodiversity. We believed it marked a significant step toward fostering a vibrant and thriving Wikimedia community in Bhutan and a possible future collaboration with the user group.

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