The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

For centuries, Mongolia’s natural wealth has supported nomadic cultures — and they, in turn, have sustained the region’s animals and resources. That relationship has been a fundamental tenet of Mongolian life, even into the 21st century.

But now, that way of life is in danger.

Mongolia’s rich oil and mineral deposits are rapidly attracting the interest of developers. Resource extraction could benefit the country’s burgeoning economy, but it could also irreparably harm Mongolia’s unparalleled temperate grasslands.

The urgency of protecting Mongolia’s pristine natural habitats will soon conflict with the country’s need to develop and build infrastructure. But The Nature Conservancy’s Development by Design approach is helping to guide a compromise.

“In Mongolia, we need to find a way to collaborate with industry and government so we can create a balance between conservation and development,” says Gala Davaa, the director of conservation for the Conservancy’s Mongolia program. “Development by Design gives us a solution to this dilemma.”

Taming the New Wild West

Almost half of Mongolia’s 600,000 square miles have been leased or are available for development — and some of that development could occur in official protected areas. Such activity could fragment the landscape, severing vital passageways for animal migration. It could also monopolize freshwater sources that people and wildlife alike depend on.

Those are discouraging numbers, but for now, Mongolia is still one of the world’s last and best opportunities to conserve massive expanses of wild grassland habitat.

“It’s like the Wild West was in the United States,” Gala says.

The Conservancy has a limited window to help direct Mongolia’s frontier spirit toward sustainable goals. “There is a tremendous opportunity right now to change the trajectory — currently a rush for resource extraction that has blanketed the country with leases — to a future in which mitigation and conservation planning inform this development so that Mongolia’s remarkably intact landscape can be enjoyed by future generations,” says Conservancy scientist Bruce McKenney, who co-leads the Conservancy’s Development by Design program.

When Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj indicated his support for the Conservancy in a meeting with CEO Mark Tercek last fall, the country’s undeveloped land got a break. By allowing the Conservancy to try out the Development by Design process in Mongolia, the government signaled their interest in finding a model that gives equal weight to the needs of conservationists, herders and developers.

Impacts into Offsets

To jump-start the Development by Design analysis, a team of Conservancy and Mongolian scientists began a scientific survey that compiled a significant amount of environmental data across over 150,000 square miles of Mongolia. It determined the areas of greatest need for Mongolia’s people and wildlife, creating a portfolio of high-priority biodiversity sites and suggesting how intelligent development can best protect and improve these areas.

Mongolia’s scientific community now has a clear picture of the various threats — including development, climate change and unsustainable herding — confronting the country’s ecosystems. That information will support decision-makers in steering development away from biodiversity hotspots and devising mitigation opportunities.

“Ultimately, we’ll be able to turn impacts in places that aren’t conservation priorities into offsets in places that are,” says Joe Kiesecker, a Development by Design co-lead. “Mitigation can be achieved very effectively through encouraging developers to better fund protected areas, for example.”

Conservation Culture

To achieve those offsets, the Conservancy must work with a diverse spectrum of partners.

Mongolian scientists and decision-makers offered their input and contributed to the wide-ranging assessment. Policymakers — both national and local — spoke up for the interests of their constituents, ensuring that resources necessary for sustainable herding would end up as priorities for conservation.

The Conservancy will put the results of the scientific analysis in the hands of provincial leaders who seek land-use planning data. Sustainable outcomes are now possible in places that previously lacked sophisticated environmental information. Promoting the conservation culture that has guided life in Mongolia for eons is now easier than ever.

“Development by Design is a pretty new concept,” Gala says. “But from large-scale meetings with the government and scientists and talking to partners about what they want, people are getting it.”

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