Eastern Steppe Living Landscape Project

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
www.wcs.org

Living Landscapes Program (LLP)

Development and Conservation -- On August 6, WCS staff attended the Eastern Regional Investors Forum in Dornod aimag.  The forum was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Foreign Investment and Foreign Trade Agency, Regional Development National Committee, and the Council of the Eastern Economic Region.  The Eastern Economic Region includes the three aimags of Khentii, Sukhbaatar and Dornod or the “Eastern Steppe” aimags.  There were over 200 participants at the forum from the USA, Japan, Korea, China, Russia, Turkey and Mongolia.  Agenda items included a review of the current economic situation in the eastern region, the opportunities for foreign investment, and presentations highlighting the government-identified priority sectors for development which included the mining, agriculture and tourism sectors.  Many of the development initiatives discussed will have an impact on biodiversity conservation and livestock herder livelihoods on the Eastern Steppe.  The forum provided an opportunity for WCS to provide information on the conservation priorities identified through the Eastern Steppe LLP to key stakeholders present.  It also provided an opportunity to gather information on current development initiatives and future plans.  This information will be critical to understanding how different scenarios of development plan implementation will impact biodiversity, providing an opportunity for input from the conservation community on strategies that will limit the negative impacts on wildlife and biodiversity conservation in the region. 

Coordination and Future Collaboration -- As the Eastern Steppe LLP comes to a close, the WCS project has sought partnerships with institutions, agencies and NGOs to further the conservation work initiated under the ES-LLP.  In August, WCS staff met with representatives from the EU-China Biodiversity Program’s Khulunbuir Grassland project, Dalai Lake Nature Reserve and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) China Program to discuss the feasibility of grassland conservation initiatives between Mongolia and China and strategies for strengthening the effectiveness of the tri-lateral (China, Mongolia and Russia) Daurian International Protected Area.  At the end of August, WCS staff also met with the TNC-Mongolia program and experts from the TNC North America program to learn more about their initiative to bring the “Development by Design” approach to the Eastern Steppe.  The approach combines landscape-level conservation planning with a mitigation hierarchy “Avoid, Minimize/Restore and Offset” to development projects in an effort to limit the negative impacts on biodiversity while meeting development goals.

WCS TransLinks

Case Study Development -- WCS Mongolia staff worked with the US-based TransLinks advisors on finalizing a case study for publication entitled “Participatory Wildlife and Natural Resource Assessment with Herder Communities in Eastern Mongolia.” The case study examines the governance structures available to manage and protect natural resources on the Eastern Steppe and was designed to build core knowledge and an understanding of how natural resource governance systems influence security, benefit sharing and sustainability on the Eastern Steppe.  The study focuses on community-based natural resource management for the Siberian marmot and wildlife that are utilized by livestock herder communities, and the information provided will inform future community-based conservation work on the ES. 

WCS Global Health Program

Avian Influenza Surveillance -- The WCS avian influenza (AI) surveillance team concluded the 2009 field surveys at the end of August and returned to Ulaanbaatar.  Surveys this year were particularly significant, as highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 has been recorded in Mongolia for the first time since May 2006. Two outbreaks have been confirmed this summer in Arkhangai aimag (one in May, the second in August), with a further outbreak reported by Russian virologists along the shores of Uuvs Nuur in Tuva in June. The team, comprising two WCS veterinarians and a group of eight Mongolian students of ecology and veterinary medicine, collected over 3,000 samples between June and August including at two of the outbreak sites—Uuvs Nuur and Doroo Tsagaan Nuur.  Samples are now being prepared for export in late September, with analyses to be performed at the University of Hong Kong and University of California, Davis. A summary of surveillance findings and sampling work is being prepared for distribution to USAID and local partners.