The Eastern Steppe Living Landscape:             Sustaining Wildlife and Traditional Livelihoods in the Arid Grasslands of Mongolia

Through the Global Conservation Program (GCP), USAID has provided WCS with the resources needed to develop, test and disseminate wildlife-focused planning and implementation tools for conservation of biodiversity and wildland values across globally significant wild landscapes. The GCP Mongolian Eastern Steppe project will use the growing database of information built over the last five years by ESBP and WCS to define conservation targets, characterize and prioritize threats to steppe wildlife, and refine through a participatory process a conceptual model that maps the causal links between and amongst direct and indirect threats. A diverse program of analysis, capacity building, education, community development, and policy initiatives will proceed concurrently. The aim is to develop a threats-based adaptive management strategy that will guide major infrastructural development actions in the region, as well as promote site-based management of wildlife and other natural resources in the Eastern Steppe.

Collaborative Efforts

Since starting work in the region WCS has collaborated with the full range of stakeholders on the Eastern Steppe. This collaboration will provide an invaluable foundation upon which we intend to promote integrated, large-scale wildlife conservation and natural resource management. WCS has an extensive history of contacts and relationships with community members through our partnership with the UNDP-GEF Eastern Steppe Biodiversity Project (ESBP), under whose auspices we have worked on gazelle conservation for the past four years. This work has led to daily contact and conversations with local herders and regular meetings with soum and aimag government officials. In addition, WCS has trained local students and community members as research assistants. WCS has collaborated with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Nature and Environment, and the National University. WCS has also worked closely with at least eight local and international NGOs working or considering work on the steppe. Through our extensive contacts, WCS will be able to guarantee close coordination between ESBP and future work on the Eastern Steppe, including leveraging previous activities, promoting coordination of sound strategies and adaptive management, community-based resource management, and landscape-scale monitoring efforts. 

Program Activities

• Develop a spatially explicit landscape model that will detail Eastern Steppe ecological and socio-economic structures and systems to indicate key threats, conservation conflicts, and opportunities for future management efforts.
• Identify a suite of Landscape Species based on the WCS Landscape Species Approach to help define conservation lands and management priorities.
• Continue research on Mongolian Gazelles to lay the groundwork for providing recommendations to all stakeholders regarding sustainable harvest regulations, land use issues, and development plans based upon solid scientific understanding of gazelle biology, behavior, population, and movement patterns.
• Develop a field research program for other Landscape Species on the Eastern Steppe to determine threats and needed conservation actions, and to help build capacity in the next generation of Mongolian conservation biologists.
• Perform a variety of assessments, from a formal threats assessment of the entire steppe region to an informal assessment of government agencies such as the Protected Areas Management Division, to ascertain needs and help rank conservation actions.
• Develop a three-part conservation education program targeted at key stakeholders, including local communities and herders, schools, and government personnel.
• Develop a community conservation program that will use socio-economic surveys, PRA, stakeholder meetings and workshops, and pilot projects to facilitate natural resource co-management agreements and develop management concepts that are appropriate to local challenges and opportunities.
• Develop a wildlife/livestock/human veterinary health program through the WCS Field Veterinary Program.
• Provide input to the Mongolian Government on a range of development and management programs so that sustainable international best practice will be incorporated in plans for development and management of the Eastern Steppe.
• Create a Mongolian conservation NGO networking group to share information about critical environmental issues and investigate collaborative possibilities.
• Develop links with other programs, including those in Mongolia, other WCS LLP programs, and throughout the conservation world, to share lessons learned, assist in capacity building within the Mongolian scientific community, and promote adoption of best practices and proven research designs.

To learn more, please visit the WCS-Mongolia website.