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Conservationists from Mongolia, U.S. Swap Grasslands Knowledge

November 29, 2005

When Gongor Gansukh, a Mongolian conservationist who serves as consultant for all of his country’s national parks, first visited the Boise Foothills of southwestern Idaho, he wanted to make sure Americans were in every photo. He later remarked that this was so Mongolians back home would believe he actually left Mongolia. Indeed, the sagebrush country of southern Idaho looks remarkably similar to the grasslands of Mongolia. And many of the lessons learned in the Idaho “sagebrush sea” can be applied to Mongolian conservation.

Gansukh was part of an exchange program between The Nature Conservancy and Mongolia that will inform conservation practices on both continents. While the Conservancy does not operate a program in Mongolia, two groups of Mongolians spent time with Conservancy staff in Idaho and Colorado this past October.

Colorado’s Front Range is around 6,000 miles from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city, but, like Idaho, there are some distinct similarities including large swaths of grasslands which provide critical habitat for dozens of endangered species.

Traveling by helicopter, horse, foot and trucks, delegates from Mongolia toured Colorado’s grasslands experiencing on-the-ground results of the Conservancy’s science-based planning approach.

“The similarity between our prairie landscapes and the threats they face, including development, mining and oil and gas extraction make this partnership a natural,” said Chris Pague, senior conservation ecologist for the Conservancy’s Colorado chapter.

Pague took part in the exchange program and spent May exploring a small part of Mongolia’s vast grasslands and sharing conservation tools that might be used to effectively conserve these increasingly threatened lands and to help build their nascent environmental movement.

"We have a lot to learn from the nomads of Mongolia who sustainably lived in the high prairie of Central Asia for two millennia and manage the land by the movement of their livestock," Pague continued.

Colorado conservationists hoped to learn more about community-based conservation and sustainable grazing from the exchange, while Mongolian participants drew on The Nature Conservancy’s experience in conservation planning and measures, and knowledge of applying science to on-the-ground practices.

The leader of the Mongolian delegation to Colorado, N. Sarantuya, was the director of strategic planning for the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment before establishing the Environment Initiative Center in Ulaanbaatar.

“We’re in a challenging time in Mongolia, as we try to establish democratic institutions and a market economy," Sarantuya said. "We have the opportunity to avoid some of the mistakes that developed countries have made, in building a strong long-term base for the conservation of our environment.”

In Idaho, Gansukh visited Nature Conservancy projects in southern Idaho and spent time with partners learning about conservation planning, grazing management and predator-friendly livestock raising techniques. He rode on horseback across the range with Idaho cowboys, canoed the clear waters of Silver Creek, banded songbirds on the Boise Ridge, and watched sheepherders bring their flocks out of the mountains.

The exchange program began in 2002 when Mongolian Prime Minister Enkhbayar personally invited The Nature Conservancy to work in Mongolia with the goal of placing 30 percent of their territory in to protected area status. Since that time, Conservancy staff have worked with colleagues in Mongolia to assist them in identifying key sites for conservation and helping them find creative ways of balancing the sustainable use of grasslands with the degradation of this irreplaceable natural resource.

Another delegation of Mongolian conservationists will be visiting Arizona in early January to view large-scale science and ranching partnerships in the Malpai Borderlands, learn about water-focused projects on the San Pedro River and tour the Hassyampa River Preserve and Big Chino Valley.

For More Information:

• Where We Work: The Nature Conservancy in Colorado
  Working with partners, local communities, and people like you, The Nature Conservancy has protected more than 600,000 acres of critical natural area in Colorado.
• Postcards from the Field: Looking into the Past to Protect the Future
  What do Mongolia and Colorado share in common? Large swaths of grasslands and an innovative partnership designed to protect these rapidly disappearing lands.
• How We Work: Preserving Colorado's Grasslands
  These three important grassland projects in the often overlooked, but incredibly significant, prairie of eastern Colorado will have a tangible, lasting, large-scale conservation impact.
• Press Release: Colorado's Grasslands Draw Mongolian Conservationists
  A hands-on exchange program will inform conservation practices in america and Mongolia by promoting the exchange of information and techniques for protecting grassy landscapes.
• Press Release: Mongolian Scientists Study Arizona's Grasslands
  Two young women scientists working to save Mongolia’s Gobi Desert are touring grasslands throughout Arizona in an innovative partnership with The Nature Conservancy designed to protect these rapidly disappearing lands on both continents.
• How You Can Help: Donate Online to Support Our Efforts
  Your online donation helps us to protect grasslands around the world. The Nature Conservancy is working to protect these rapidly disappearing wide open spaces.
• Archive of our Saves of the Week and Success Stories
  Read more about The Nature Conservancy's work to save the last great places on Earth.