Conservation on the front line

Released eagle flying in Mongolia

Paul Allen talks to Dr Richard Reading, head of environmental charity Earthwatch’s conservation project in Mongolia

  • Q:

    Why is Mongolia such a special place for conservation?

  • A:

    You don’t expect to see things you see in nature shows in real life, but in Mongolia, that happens all the time. It’s a special place for many reasons - it is home to many elusive and threatened species.

    These include wild Bactrian camels, the world’s largest sheep (argali sheep), black vultures (the largest raptors in Eurasia), pygmy hamsters, antelope and wild horses, which were successfully reintroduced to Mongolia.

  • Q:

    How do local people in Mongolia view your conservation efforts?

  • A:

    There’s definitely a tension in any conservation. But Mongolia is quite unlike many other countries, where [rural people] often have an antagonistic attitude towards it.

    In Mongolia, people still live a very sustainable and traditional lifestyle. They live in gers [yurts], still ride horses and are nomadic – they move two to twenty times a year. They love and respect their environment.

  • Q:

    So why are Mongolian habitats threatened?

  • A:

    There are many reasons. In Mongolia, livestock grazing has traditionally been sustainable. Twenty years ago, the communist system’s collectives dictated what you grew and where. Before that it was feudal system where, again, you were constrained to a territory.

    But now people can go anywhere and they do. When communism ended, there was a mass influx of people into the countryside looking to get rich.

    The problems today are the huge increase in livestock numbers and many new farmers not knowing the traditional methods for protecting a winter pasture. They might find a pasture in summer and think “This is great”, but they don’t know that it is traditionally set aside for winter. When others turn up in winter, that pasture is no good.

    Also, farmers no longer have to sell their livestock when the overseer says so. So they look at livestock prices and won’t sell if prices are too low. Again, this leads to ever-increasing numbers, which puts pressure on the environment. If there are bad winters, there could be a really big crash.

    In Earthwatch’s protected area, we are piloting grasses set aside for bad years. After one tough year, farmers will see the benefit of having that.

  • Q:

    Do the country’s precious natural resources also play a factor?

  • A:

    Definitely. The push for natural resource exploitation comes from people in cities. I moved to Mongolia in the early 90s. It is one of the world’s least developed nations – there is not even a paved road that crosses the country. But the Chinese are building roads because it gives them access to resources.

    Today, we have China’s mining companies coming in, creating factories to mine minerals and they are not employing Mongolians. Before, China almost had a free ride – they paid almost no tax, no royalties and brought in their own skilled labour.

    At least now, the Mongolian government has passed a law to stop this. But the mining activities are still damaging habitats and the environment.

  • Q:

    Are there ways for local people to benefit from the countryside, such as ecotourism?

  • A:

    Ecotourism will always be limited because Mongolia is relatively expensive to travel to and quite difficult to get around. Visitors are not going to have the kind of comforts of, say, many Africa resorts. However, lots of people are interested in going to incredible wildernesses and they will pay a premium.

  • Q:

    What are the aims of the Earthwatch project?

  • A:

    We want to make our protected park a model for rest of Mongolia. Earthwatch employs local people, hires rangers, has links with local tour operators and have a head tax of 20 US dollars per tourist to help manage the protected area.

    Each camp is communally owned, which provides local jobs. It’s a sustainable way to do business and means we can all learn from each other.

    The Mongolian people want to create new opportunities for conservation, within the park and outside of it. They enjoy watching wildlife, as opposed to the visual destitution of large-scale open mines.

    We only protect the things we love and we only love the things we know. I’m very confident that the conservation project has already created a strong infrastructure of knowledge and support.

    • Dr Richard Reading will be speaking at Earthwatch’s ‘Shrinking Habitats, Species Survival’ lecture in London on 16 October 2008. See: http://www.earthwatch.org/europe/get_involved/events08/habitats
    • Earthwatch will also be running two-week expedition trips to the Mongolian Steppe in May, June, August and September 2009. To find out more, visit Earthwatch.