APFED Booklet on Good Practices and Innovative Activities 2005 ...

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Mongolia
2006
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Rehabilitating Desert Zone Ecosystems and Promoting
Sustainable Alternative Livelihoods in Gobi Protected Areas,
Buffer Zones and Peripheral Communities
Project Site Location South Govi Province
Background - Problems Addressed and Policy Responses
Climate change poses an increasing threat to Mongolia - its
variable climate, rising mean temperatures, declining average
precipitation and drought and desertification coupled with
over-grazing hamper local livelihoods. It is therefore vital to
promote sustainable natural resource management in the
Gobi desert area, through agro-pastoralism and managing
protected saxaul woodland areas.
Youth exavating soil to lay pipes for
irrigating farmland
Project Outline - Objectives and Activities
The project is aimed at raising community awareness of sustainable natural resource management -
specifically, through (i) optimal use of pasture land, (ii) restoration of degraded pasture land, (iii) small scale
farming, (iv) efficient water resource management, (v) protected saxaul woodland conservation, and (vi)
partnership building. Activities included awareness-raising campaigns, target group discussions, irrigation
pipe installation, fencing protected areas, and mobilising watchdog groups.
Impacts and Achievements
Assessments were conducted on natural resource management and its impacts; Workshops were held
for local herders, villagers and youth groups to raise awareness of optimal water and pasture use, and for
managing fenced windbreak zones; Irrigation systems 750 m in length were restored in the windbreak
fenced zones; A 50 x 50 meter square area of saxaul forest was fenced off, with a conservation sign board
added; Focused group discussions were organised for local communities to play a watchdog role against
illegal goyo collection; and alternative livelihood options such as use of solar cookers and hand craft
making were introduced.
Future Challenges
Options for promoting optimal pasture and water use to simultaneously increase productivity and income
need to be further explored and verified; Alternative livelihood options need to be made available for
illegal goyo collectors while also enforcing measures against illegal goyo collection; Agreements need to
be forged between communities over water and land use in the process of expanding vegetable farming
in the communal areas; and inter-community and multi-stakeholder collaboration have to be further
strengthened for promoting collective action.
General Information
Name of the Implementing Organisation:
Institute of Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences
Type of Organisation: Governmental Research Institute
Contact: Jamsran Tsogtbaatar, Director
Baruun Selbe-15, Ulaanbatar - 211238 BMongolia
Tel: 976-11-321862 / 976-99148380 Fax: 976-11-321862 E-mail: maaggi@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.mas.ac.mn/en/
Project Reviewer (NetRes / Collaborators) that monitors the project:
Masanori Kobayashi, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)
E-mail: m-kobayashi@iges.or.jp
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