The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild lands through careful science, international conservation, education, and the management of the world’s largest system of urban wildlife parks. Together, these activities change individual attitudes toward nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in sustainable interaction on both a local and a global scale. WCS is committed to this work because we believe it essential to the integrity of life on Earth.

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USAID/Mongolia
P.O. Box 1021
Ulaanbaatar-13
MONGOLIA
Phone: 976-11-312390
Fax: 976-11-310440
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April 2009

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

Wildlife Conservation Society
www.wcs.org

During the month of April Eastern Steppe Project staff attended important meetings in Dornod about future agriculture development in Eastern Mongolia, and offered recommendations on maintaining a healthy ecosystem in light of this development. In addition, staff visited herder communities in their areas to follow up on past work and review wildlife protection methods with volunteer rangers.

Living Landscapes Program (LLP)

Eastern Steppe Environmental Officer Workshop: The WCS Mongolia Remote Sensing/GIS analyst attended a “Workshop for Environmental Officers of Dornod Aimag” on April 15th and 16th. The material presented during this meeting focused on legislation which environmental officers need to be aware of and familiar with in order to carry out their job. Hosting agencies included the Dornod aimag Governor’s Office, Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism, General Specialized Inspection Agency and the Eastern Mongolian Protected Areas Administration. During this workshop’s discussion, WCS recommended that herder community areas be officially registered and entered into the land use database of the Aimag Land Agency.

This workshop offered an opportunity to discuss ranger training curricula with key agency personnel and offer WCS’s collaboration for future ranger training activities. In particular, a short training course is being developed for environmental rangers, and the technical college and director of the Dornod Environmental Protection Agency is interested in WCS’s involvement with curriculum development.

Numrog Strictly Protect Area (SPA) Collaborative Wildlife Protection Follow-up: In April, 30 completed patrol forms were collected from the Sumber Otryad via Captain O. Adiya, Deputy Director of the Dornod Intelligence Agency. Most forms contained wildlife monitoring information with no illegal use recorded. These data will be entered into a database and summarized. More forms will be collected in the future as they become available.

Eastern Steppe Community-based Conservation Field Visits: From April16th – 28th, the Eastern Mongolian Community Conservation Association (EMCCA) manager/WCS local conservation coordinator and assistant traveled to 9 herder communities in Dornod and Sukhbaatar. The purpose of this trip was to assess community work and activities, and to practice wildlife protection and monitoring methods with volunteer rangers. In addition, the field team distributed the proceedings from the “Collaboration between Local Government and Herder Community Partnerships” workshop held in January. They also met with 7 soum governors to follow-up on the January meeting and encourage closer cooperation and collaboration between local government and community partnerships.

Donor/Project Coordination: The final report on the first year of the project entitled “Protecting Mongolia’s Wildlife through Wildlife Trade Law Enforcement” was submitted to the MNET and NEMOII in April. The two primary activities under this project included an examination of the current and potential strategies for enforcing wildlife trade law in Ulaanbaatar and the formation of a multi-agency wildlife trade crime unit or team who were provided training and opportunities to examine wildlife law enforcement approaches across Asia. The multi-agency wildlife trade crime unit/team was tasked with improving the strategies and practice of enforcing wildlife trade law in Ulaanbaatar markets and trade points around the city. The overall goal of the project is to decrease the volume and scale of illegal wildlife trade in Mongolia, thereby reducing the impact the trade has on a wide range of wildlife species threatened by over hunting for commercial trade.

WCS TransLinks

TransLinks is a 5-year Leader with Associates cooperative agreement that has been funded by USAID to further the objective of increasing social, economic and environmental benefits through sustainable natural resource management (details provided in the March notes). One of the case studies here in Mongolia looks at policy and decision making (governance) related to land use and land use change on the Eastern Steppe with a focus on the potential conversion of pasture land to more intensive crop-based agriculture.

Eastern Steppe Agriculture Development Meeting: On April 17th, the WCS Mongolia Remote Sensing/GIS analyst attended a conference initiated by the governor’s office on “Eastern Mongolia Agricultural Development,” in Choibalsan, Dornod. Other agencies that sponsored this workshop included the Dornod Agriculture College, Dornod aimag Government house and Mongolian State University of Agriculture. The GIS analyst presented WCS’s work and initiatives, and explained our partnership with The Nature Conservancy and World Wide Fund for Nature. He also offered recommendations that no new lands are cultivated and that fencing of cropland is kept to a minimum, given the serious impacts these two activities are likely to have on the ecosystem, nomadic livestock herders and wildlife.

WCS Global Health Program

Avian Influenza: In April, the Avian Influenza project assistant began preparations for the 2009 field season. The 2008 “Summary of Avian Influenza Surveillance Activities” was translated and distributed to 15 authorities. The assistant also met with the head ornithologist at the Mongolian Academy of sciences, and a senior specialist at the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism (MNET) to submit the 2008 AI field season report. The 2009 field season “Technical Application for Monitoring Wild Bird Populations” was submitted to the MNET. More than 7,000 samples tubes containing virus transport media were imported successfully for the 2009 field season. Preparations for the 2009 field season continue, with field season activities anticipated to begin in June.

Additional WCS Activities

WCS Mongolia submitted two proposals on controlling the illegal wildlife trade in Mongolia under the request heading “Global Natural Resource Partnerships: Wildlife Trafficking” to the US Embassy in Ulaanbaatar. These proposals are closely linked, and take on the issue of illegal wildlife trade at both ends of the trade chain. Our first proposal recommends extending our years of work with local communities to develop their capacity to control wildlife trade at its source. Our second proposal is to continue our work building government capacity to monitor and enforce wildlife trade regulations at critical points along the border, working with Customs, Border Guards, and other agencies to enhance their ability to enforce Mongolia’s laws and stem the trade where it becomes an international issue. We will also partner with our WCS China Program to address international agreements between the two countries that prohibit this trade, and encourage coordination and collaboration at a trans-boundary level.

WCS Mongolia staff met with Dr. Kaush Arha, former Deputy Assistant Secretary, Fish, Wildlife and Parks, on April 23rd to brief him on WCS Mongolia Program activities and future initiatives. He offered some advice regarding more effective policy for wildlife protection. WCS Mongolia offered its assistance in carrying out the MoU signed last September between the US DoI and Mongolian MNET.