Rehabilitating Desert Zone Ecosystems and Promoting Sustainable Alternative Livelihood in Gobi Protected Areas, Buffer Zones and Peripheral Communities in Mongolia

 

The main objective of the project is to promote sustainable ecosystem conservation and management, and to promote alternative sustainable livelihood in Gobi desert/dry zone as a way for mitigating dust and sand storms and rehabilitating their sources.

 

(i) Assessment of the Gobi protected area programmes, its environmental and socio-economic impacts, and their implications to national and sub-regional environment that include dust and sand storms,

 

 

(ii) Multi-stakeholder dialogues with local people on the approaches, measures and strategies to prevent and control the dust and sand storms and to promote alternative sustainable livelihood in the context of protected area programmes,

 

 

(iii) Assessment of traditional practices, community-driven activities, innovative techniques and advanced technologies for preventing sand storms/desertification and rehabilitating deserted lands while promoting sustainable alternative livelihood,

 

 

(iv) Experimentation of innovative and participatory approach to ecosystem conservation/restoration and alternative sustainable livelihood that may include, subject to the final decision by the local people, (a) afforestation, reforestation and agro-forestry on degraded land using selected drought resistant species, (b) protection and improvement of steppe and rangeland through construction of forage-farms, (c) water supply system improvement (e.g., restoration of abandoned wells and mal-functioning irrigation schemes), (d) sand dune stabilization by utilizing mechanical, botanical and engineering approaches, (e) establishment of sand breaks and windbreaks and natural forest protection, (f) control of carrying capacity of grassland and prevention of over-grazing, (g) capacity-building throughout the project activities.

 

 

(v) Evaluation of the afore-mentioned experimental innovative and participatory activities,

 

(vi) Consolidating the assessment on the project impacts, lessons and inputs to be drawn for supporting sub-regional collaboration. 

 

(vii) Providing the aforementioned inputs to the relevant national and sub-regional policy development and implementation processes and partnership building activities.

 

Dr. N.Mandakh

Researcher - Institute of Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences

Baruun Selbe-15 Ulaanbatar – 211238 Mongolia

Fax: 976-11-321862, Cellular: 976-99148380

E-mail: maaggi@yahoo.com