Eastern Steppe Living Landscape Project - Sustaining Wildlife and Traditional Livelihoods in the Arid Grasslands of Mongolia

Wildlife Conservation Society
www.wcs.org

Living Landscapes Program (LLP)

Eastern Steppe Conservation: The Eastern Steppe is recognized as the largest, most intact grassland in the world with a wide range of unique species and special features including the Mongolian gazelle and the wetlands that form the upper watershed of the Amur River. On August 26, 2008, the Mongolia program offices of The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), signed a memorandum of understanding, entering the parties into a conservation collaboration agreement to establish a long-term biodiversity conservation plan for Mongolia’s Eastern Steppe, known as Zuun Bus, consisting of the three aimags, Khentii, Dornod and Suhkbaatar.

The memorandum was signed by country directors Enkhtuya Oidov of TNC, Chimed- Ochir Bazarsad of WWF, and Amanda Fine of WCS. The memorandum outlined TNC, WCS, and WWF’s desire to work together to present a coordinated program of work that establishes geographic priorities, maximizes conservation impact, and reduces the duplication of efforts among partners and donors by collaborating on project planning, formulation and implementation.

Eastern Steppe Community-based Conservation: In August WCS/USAID Living Landscapes staff, Mr. Baterdene from the Eastern Mongolian Community Conservation Association and a masters student from the National University of Mongolia completed a 30-day field trip to visit 14 herder communities. The team delivered a total of 11 mini workshops (6 in July, 5 in August) to assess community perspectives on the wildlife populations in their areas, map habitats, discuss natural resource use monitoring and begin drafting action plans for their community managed natural resource use areas. Activities with the communities also included community area boundary demarcation (GPS coordinates) and introducing wildlife monitoring methods to volunteer rangers. Booklets containing data sheets for natural resource use monitoring, wildlife monitoring and wildlife/natural resource impacts/violations reporting were distributed to volunteer rangers and active community members. Information collected during these workshops is being compiled and will be summarized for each community and delivered back to them for use in community natural resource and wildlife management activities.

Mongolian Gazelle: Research on understanding the habitat use and movement ecology of Mongolian gazelles will continue with a 3 year grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (Titled- Resource Predictability and Movement Strategies in Ungulates: Does Temporal Uncertainty lead to Nomadism?) awarded to the University of Maryland (DEB- 0743385) and the University of Massachusetts (DEB-0743557) with collaborative support from the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation and Research Center, WCS and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biology.

Previous results have shown that Mongolian gazelle’s movement patterns are not migratory, as originally believed, but have adopted a nomadic movement strategy to cope with the high spatiotemporal unpredictability in grassland quality. Mongolian gazelles move over vast regions (>25,000 km2/year) and do not use the same seasonal ranges from year to year. This presents a complex challenge as traditional habitat conservation measures for ungulates, such as the creation of nature reserves based around seasonal migration patterns, only provides partial protection.

Wildlife Trade Law Enforcement: On August 20th an introductory workshop for the project “Protecting Mongolia’s Wildlife through Wildlife Trade Law Enforcement” was held with partners from the State Specialized Inspection Agency, Municipal Inspection Agency, National Police and NGO representatives including WWF-Mongolia, the Mongolian Game & Hunting Society and the Animal Rights Conservation Fund. In the first year the project is designed to tackle illegal wildlife trade in Ulaanbaatar markets and collection points around the city by improving the quality and frequency of enforcement activities and coordination among enforcement agencies. The project is funded by the World Bank’s Netherlands-Mongolia Trust Fund for Environmental Reform (NEMO II) Program and is implemented in cooperation with the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment (MNE).

WCS Field Veterinary Program

Avian Influenza: In August there were two reports of bird die-offs in central Mongolia. The WCS team discovered 3 dead whooper swans and one Mongolian gull on Erhel Lake of Hovsgol Aimag and local herders reported 6 dead whooper swans on Ugii Lake of Arkhangai Aimag to the Mongolian authorities. Samples from birds from both die-off sites were submitted to the State Central Veterinary Laboratory for testing. Confirmatory testing using PCR was negative for the H5, H7 and H9 neuraminidases, indicating that the samples showed no evidence of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus.

The WCS Avian Influenza team has been actively capturing and sampling birds for avian influenza surveillance across Hovsgol, Bulgan and Arkhangai. To date WCS has received bird marking permits for 1,044 birds from the MNE. As of August, the team has been able to fit 965 birds with identifying marks including individually numbered metal leg bands, colored leg flags (to shorebirds) and colored neck collars (to swans and geese). With surveillance activities planned to continue into the middle of September, WCS has submitted an additional request for 500 permits continue marking birds captured for influenza sampling.

Up-Coming Events:

• A wildlife law enforcement training and assessment will be held September 2-10 in Nomrog Strictly Protected Area in Dornod Aimag.
• A Community Volunteer Ranger Capstone Training will be held in Shazaan Nuur Eco-camp, Dornod Aimag, September 12-14.
• Basic veterinary pathology training will be delivered by WCS in conjunction with the annual meeting of all aimag veterinarians at the State Central Veterinary Laboratory (SCVL) in Ulaanbaatar on September 26th.