Participatory Wildlife and Natural Resource Assessment with Herder Communities in Eastern Mongolia

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) strives to support the sustainable management of natural resources and conserve wildlife by further developing natural resource stewardship in community-managed areas on the grasslands of Mongolia’s Eastern Steppe. To achieve this goal, the WCS Mongolia Program and the Eastern Mongolian Community Conservation Association (EMCCA) facilitated workshops at 10 different locations with participants from 11 herder communities from July 17th to August 15th, 2008, in Khentii, Dornod and Sukhbaatar aimags. Community leaders, volunteer rangers and community members participated in the workshops. The goal of these field visits was to more clearly understand Eastern Steppe livestock herders’ perceptions of wildlife abundance, wildlife use and natural resource management capacity.