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A boy on horseback watching over his herd in Mongolia.
Mongolian herder boy A young boy on horseback minding his family's herd of goats in the grassland steppe of eastern Mongolia's Toson Hulstai Nature Reserve. © Nick Hall

Stories in Mongolia

Herder Communities and Conservation

In Mongolia, nature is a way of life.

Keeping Communities at the Heart of Conservation Solutions

The boundless plains of Mongolia are open-access, allowing herders to travel and graze their animals freely. In recent decades, traditional herding techniques have changed with the privatization of livestock during the transition to a market economy, leading to overgrazing. For example, herders have exponentially increased herd sizes to increase income, and to meet global demand, have taken on more cashmere goats that are destructive to grasslands. Herders now need to learn new skills to generate income.

To protect pasturelands from further degradation, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is working with herders to take advantage of an amended environmental law giving herder communities formal recognition of their communal pasturelands and resource management rights.

Communities can reduce grassland degradation by keeping other herders out, creating natural resource management plans focused on sustainable herd sizes and working together on alternative businesses to earn more income.

If nature doesn't exist, we won't breathe like we do now. We won't be able to protect it alone. As long as we all have unity, we can protect it.

Ganbaatar Puntsagtseren

Volunteer Ranger, Mongolia
In Mongolia, Nature is a Way of Life (4:01) Over 80% of tourist activities in Mongolia occur in protected areas where tourists explore the pristine wilderness that these parks were set up to protect. Meet a young Mongolian tour guide introducing visitors to his homeland, while treading lightly on the landscape he loves.

In 2017, TNC began working in 28 locations to help herders form community-based organizations (CBOs) that increase their collective ability to make decisions about how their pasturelands will be managed and to explore new opportunities for economic development. For a CBO to be recognized by the local government, herders need to develop a natural resource management plan so TNC has been providing them with strategic guidance. With our support, as of 2024, 281 CBOs covering almost 7.4 million hectares have been established.

Herder communities have always been the most important players in the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, both within and outside protected areas. Through CBOs, herders work together to use sustainable grazing practices that do not negatively impact biodiversity. By virtue of our work with CBOs, TNC is helping them raise their voices and contribute to decision-making processes for the natural resources they depend on by building their skills at negotiating an open market economy and adapting to climate change impacts, as well as by enhancing their knowledge of ecosystem functions.

Map of community-led conservation showing establishment of protected areas.
Community-Led Conservation map showing the establishment of Community-Based Organizations (CBO) and protected areas across Mongolia. © TNC

We will assist CBOs in applying research-based pastureland management solutions, such as an ecosystem health monitoring process within community-managed areas. This monitoring program will help herders collect scientific data showing how they have improved grassland health through their interventions. This will become the basis for the CBOs to periodically revise and improve their pastureland management plans.

TNC will also develop income diversification opportunities that can supplement income from sustainable grazing, giving herders greater financial security to alter their grazing practices and reduce herd sizes.

Here are some examples of these initiatives:

Alternative Livelihoods for Herders

Sustainable Land Management Together with herders, we are testing new livestock management approaches so that herding families can prosper with fewer heads of livestock. © TNC (Edward Game)
Alternative Livelihood Options Community-based organizations allow herders to care for their land collectively, provide opportunities for additional income from handicrafts, dairy/meat and tourism. © TNC (Gankhuyag Balbar)
Women learning wool processing We have provided training in felt-art handicrafts and connecting herders with national wool manufacturers for them to sell the wool directly to the plant. © TNC (Gankhuyag Balbar)
Sustainable Wool Felt from sheep wool is sustainable, because sheep are less harmful to grasslands than goats, which rip grasses up from their roots rather than grazing the tops as sheep do. © Ted Wood
Eco-Camps Two communities established pilot eco-camps as exploratory businesses. If successful, the CBO members have agreed to use 30 percent of the income for conservation. © TNC (Edward Game)
Healthy livestock Using nutrition-rich food for lambs, helps them grow faster, larger and healthier, which reduces the burden on the land and increases herders profits. © TNC (D. Tseveenravdan)
× Sustainable Land Management Together with herders, we are testing new livestock management approaches so that herding families can prosper with fewer heads of livestock. © TNC (Edward Game)
× Alternative Livelihood Options Community-based organizations allow herders to care for their land collectively, provide opportunities for additional income from handicrafts, dairy/meat and tourism. © TNC (Gankhuyag Balbar)
× Women learning wool processing We have provided training in felt-art handicrafts and connecting herders with national wool manufacturers for them to sell the wool directly to the plant. © TNC (Gankhuyag Balbar)
× Sustainable Wool Felt from sheep wool is sustainable, because sheep are less harmful to grasslands than goats, which rip grasses up from their roots rather than grazing the tops as sheep do. © Ted Wood
× Eco-Camps Two communities established pilot eco-camps as exploratory businesses. If successful, the CBO members have agreed to use 30 percent of the income for conservation. © TNC (Edward Game)
× Healthy livestock Using nutrition-rich food for lambs, helps them grow faster, larger and healthier, which reduces the burden on the land and increases herders profits. © TNC (D. Tseveenravdan)

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