(CNN) Bhutan - High up in the Eastern Himalayas is one of the greenest countries in the world. While many nations are struggling to reduce their carbon emissions, the Kingdom of Bhutan is already carbon negative: it takes more greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere than it emits.

Sandwiched between China and India, Bhutan spans approximately 14,800 square miles -- roughly the size of Maryland. Its vast woodlands cover approximately 70% of the country and act as a natural carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide.

As a result, according to its own figures, this nation of around 750,000 people removes nearly three times as much CO2 as it produces.

Bhutan's ability to be a net carbon sink is partly down to its natural forests and the fact that it is relatively undeveloped -- most people work in agriculture or forestry -- which means it emits less than 2.5 million tons of CO2 each year. Luxembourg, for example, with a smaller population, emits four times as much.

Bhutan is renowned for its rich Buddhist culture.

There are other carbon negative countries in the world, and they are also heavily forested and undeveloped. But in Bhutan, there are other factors at play.

For the past 46 years the Bhutanese government has opted to measure progress not through its Gross Domestic Product, but through "Gross National Happiness," which places great emphasis on the protection of the country's rich natural environment.

"Bhutan is the only country in the world that by its own constitution protects its forests," explains Juergen Nagler, of the UN Development Program in Bhutan.

Environmental protection is enshrined in the constitution, which states that a minimum of 60% of Bhutan's total land should be maintained under forest cover for all time. The country even banned logging exports in 1999.

What's more, almost all the country's electricity comes from hydropower.

In fact, it produces so much hydroelectricity that it sells it to neighboring countries, which Bhutan claims offsets another 4.4 million tons of annual CO2 emissions. And Bhutan says that by 2025, increased hydroelectricity exports will let the country offset up to 22.4 million tons of CO2 per year in the region.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/11/asia/bhutan-carbon-negative/index.html