Community-driven Conservation in the south and southeastern Gobi Desert

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 primary focus has been to collaborate with members of a Buddhist monastery located in the core area of the largest khulan population of Mongolia, as well as with herders and pastoralists from our project areas in the southeastern Gobi of Mongolia.

Over time, we have supported and empowered them as citizen conservationists and Guardians of the Khulan and Gobi wildlife. Through training in wildlife data collection and camera trap monitoring, they actively contribute to long-term research and conservation efforts.

Several community members have also taken part in local environmental awareness activities, helping to strengthen stewardship and conservation values within the wider community.

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 finalizing the selection of new groups of local pastoralists and other community stakeholders to join our conservation program.

In 2024–2025, these community members will engage in sustainable natural resource management — including rangelands and water sources — to strengthen human–wildlife coexistence, enhance climate adaptation, and increase resilience to extreme weather events. This includes preparation for dzuds, severe winter conditions during which temperatures can drop below −30°C, accompanied by strong winds, heavy snowfall, and ice, placing significant pressure on both livestock and pastoralist livelihoods.

Alongside these efforts, participants will contribute to khulan and broader Gobi wildlife protection through community-based monitoring and stewardship activities.

Notably, a herder whom we have known and worked with since 2012 joined the monitoring initiative at his own initiative in 2025 — a powerful reflection of the long-term trust and continuity that underpin our approach.

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. 

Through their collaboration with our organization, community members play a vital role in the long-term conservation of the khulan and other key Gobi species, as well as in safeguarding the unique Gobi Desert ecosystem.

By combining their deep knowledge of the land with participatory conservation approaches, they actively shape and sustain the protection of their own rangelands, wildlife, and natural heritage.

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.  

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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.
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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' members 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. 

• Ulgii monastery's community in Dornogobi province.
  
  
• 2 locals from Mandakh sum, Dornogobi province.

• A herder from Khatanbulag soum, Dornogobi province, who supported our Conservation Director as a driver during fieldwork in 2012, recently approached our organization at his own initiative to engage in khulan and broader Gobi wildlife conservation through community-based monitoring.
  
  Building on this long-standing relationship, he now actively contributes to biodiversity monitoring efforts in the southeastern Gobi, with our organization providing technical guidance and modest financial support to strengthen his work.

Starting in 2025, our Gobi Guardians of the Khulan and Gobi wildlife will actively engage in sustainable rangeland and water management alongside wildlife protection efforts.

Through this integrated approach, the program strengthens protection of the Gobi Desert ecosystem, improves human–wildlife coexistence, and enhances pastoralist resilience to climate change and extreme winter events (dzuds), which can severely affect livestock and livelihoods.

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).

A local herder we know since 2012 is actively engaged in biodiversity monitoring at a natural spring near a newly constructed railway in the southeastern Gobi. At his own initiative, he joined our community-based monitoring program in 2025 to help track khulan and other wildlife using this important water source.

His involvement strengthens local stewardship in an area facing increasing infrastructure pressure, helping ensure that development and wildlife conservation can coexist responsibly.