Community-based and Community-led Conservation

Since we started our conservation program in 2008, we have involved a selection of individuals from the local communities of our project's areas as Citizen Conservationists and Guardians of Gobi wildlife and nature.

Our main focus has been to involve a few members of the community of a Buddhist monastery located in the core area where the biggest population of the Khulan can be found, as well as a few herders/pastoralists of our projects' areas. We have empowered them as citizen conservationists and as Guardians of the Khulan, Gobi wildlife and nature, training them to collect data on Gobi wildlife and to use camera traps, and involving them in our research and conservation activities. Some of them have been also involved in local environmental awareness.

The members of the Buddhist monastery community of the Native Mountain will remain one of our focus areas within the coming years.  

We are currently finishing to select new groups of local pastoralists and other local stakeholders to involve in our conservation program. In the course of 2024-2025, they will be all involved in sustainable use of natural resources (lands and water sources) to help improve Human-wildlife coexistence and help local pastoralists to better adapt to climate change and be more resilient to extreme weather changes and periods of dzuds (extreme weather event during which temperatures can drop to -30°C or lower, with strong winds. heavy snow falls and ice, thus negatively impacting on livestock and pastoralists). Besides, they will also be involved in Khulan and Gobi wildlife protection. 

They also take part to protect important natural and human-made water sources in the area. 

Some of them will also play a very important role in our conservation tourism program.

We believe that besides helping our organization to collect data about Gobi wildlife, members of the local community can also sharpen their knowledge about Gobi wildlife and the ecosystem services they provide, by taking part to hands-on scientific and conservation activities. 

By working with our organization, they can provide an invaluable contribution to the long-term success of Khulan and Gobi key species conservation and to protection of the unique Gobi Desert ecosystem.

Some of members of the local communities will be also involved as Ambassadors of Khulan Conservation and/or as Ambassadors of Gobi wildlife and nature protection, thus raising local awareness about protection of the Khulan, Gobi wildlife and the Gobi Desert ecosystem.  

~
The enthusiastic involvement of our current citizen conservationists and Guardians of wildlife and nature in our project contributed to gathering a good amount of data on wildlife and livestock use of water sources, on ecology of various Gobi species, as well as on intraspecific and interspecific competitions at these water sources. Besides helping with data collection, they also learned more about behavioral ecology of the Gobi species inhabiting their areas and these species' ecosystem services as we shared with them the results of our research and of their contributions to our research program.
~

Our approach with local communities of our project's areas for 2024 and beyond:

• Outreach activities to bridge traditional environmental knowledge to scientific knowledge
• Reinforce our partnership with our current local communities' members-partners.
• Involve new local partners, including existing community-led wildlife and biodiversity conservation projects, and more. 
• Building environmental capacity to empower local communities in conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and sustainable environmental practices
• Link some of our community-based conservation activities to sustainable, responsible and conservation tourism. 

to find together with local communities' members solutions to environmental problems to protect wildlife and their habitat and also lead to a sustainable use of lands and water sources for people and wildlife to thrive and coexist in harmony on the long-term. 

In 2008, while we were starting our conservation program in the south and southeast regions of Mongolia's Gobi Desert, we discovered by chance the Buddhist monastery of the native Mountain which is located amidst mountains, in a very remote and preserved area, and in the core habitat of the Mongolian Khulan. We then understood the importance of partnering with this monastery's community, in order to strengthen the bonds between Mongolian Buddhism and wildlife and nature protection, to keep wildlife thriving in this preserved area, away from human disturbances. Since many local visitors coming from different regions of the Gobi Desert and Mongolia stop by this monastery every year, this site also plays a vital role in local environmental awareness.

The community of the buddhist monastery of the native mountain supports our actions and is actively involved in our conservation programme since 2008. Some members of this community regularly collect all year round some information about the ecology of the Mongolian khulan and other wild species (argali sheep, black-tailed gazelles, and other) in partnership with our research team. Also, two members of this community have been trained to use and set up camera traps and have successfully helped our team to collect information about water points use by Gobi wildlife. 

This monastery's community also plays a very crucial function in raising local awareness about protection of the Mongolian Khulan, Gobi wildlife and their habitat, as many local visitors visit this site every year, then making a bridge between Buddhism and nature protection in the Gobi Desert. 

This community is also involved in the community-based tourism activities that our organization runs in our study area. 

We have worked together with the community of the Buddhist monastery of the Native Mountain since 2009, after discovering this site in 2008.

With this community our work consists to:

- raise local environmental awareness to enhance protection of the Khulan, but also to protect other Gobi wildlife and natural resources,

- identify important water sources for people and wildlife in the surroundings,

- involve some members of this community as ‘Citizen scientists and conservationists’ to collect data on wildlife ecology and interactions between species (domestic and wild) in the surroundings of this site,

- empower this community in protecting wildlife but also natural resources for people, livestock and wildlife

- involve them in our responsible and community-based conservation tourism activities as hosts and also as guides.

After training a few members from this community as ‘Citizen scientists and conservationists’ and setting up camera traps at some water sources in the surroundings of this monastery, we were able to identify a selection of important water sources (including natural water sources and human settlements) to protect for people, livestock and wildlife, as well as to collect data about these water sources by wildlife and livestock. Involving this community’s members in our project contributed to increase their knowledge about Gobi wildlife, helped us to better understand the dynamic of water sources’ use by livestock and wildlife, but also contributed to empower this local community to stand for these important water sources when a mining project started exploring in the area.

Together with this community - our organization is developing and improving our strategy to protect these important water sources but also to monitor the use of these water sources by wildlife, livestock, and people. A few more water sources are also going to be included in our program.

Our goal is here to assist and support this community to help protect natural resources of this area to help keep it as preserved as possible and maintain it as a ‘wildlife refuge’ as not only the KhulanhashtagKhulan can be observed in this area, but also Argali sheep, goitered gazelle, Cinereous vulture and more (species that are also now included in our research program).

We are currently finishing to select new groups of local pastoralists to involve in our conservation program as Gobi Guardians of the Khulan, Gobi key species and natural resources. 

In the course of 2024-2025, they will be all involved in sustainable use of natural resources (lands and water sources) and wildlife protection, to help improve protection of the Gobi Desert ecosystem and its key species, improve Human-wildlife coexistence and help local pastoralists to better adapt to climate change and be more resilient to extreme weather changes and periods of dzuds (extreme weather event during which temperatures can drop to -30°C or lower, with strong winds. heavy snow falls and ice, thus negatively impacting on livestock and pastoralists). 

We are currently finishing to select additional Khulan Conservation Ambassadors in our projects' areas in the Gobi.