Imagine vast steppe ecosystems stretching across hundreds and thousands of square kilometers, interspersed with rugged mountains and alpine/taiga forests. These diverse landscapes are home to remarkable wildlife. They support the world's largest populations of Mongolian gazelle (Procapra gutturosa) and khulan (Equus hemionus), as well as the second-largest global population of snow leopards (Panthera uncia).
This is Mongolia – a biodiversity powerhouse in the process of transformation. Its unique ecosystems and extensive rangelands are crucial for regional and global biodiversity conservation. However, they face unprecedented challenges linked to rapid economic development, increasing livestock numbers, continued natural resource exploitation, climate change, and associated land degradation.
Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Mongolia Program Strategy for 2024-2030 focuses on maintaining and restoring the integrity and connectivity of Mongolia’s ecosystems for the well-being of both wildlife and people. The strategy is articulated around three overarching priorities:
- Function: Enhancing ecosystem functioning and resilience by protecting and restoring key habitats.
- Connectivity: Ensuring functional connectivity to enable threatened species to move freely through the steppe and mountain ecosystems.
- Adaptation: Promoting climate adaptation of pastoral communities and vulnerable ecosystems.
Results are set out for each of these priorities.
Overall, WCS Mongolia and its partners aim to achieve by 2030 significant conservation and socio-economic outcomes. These include: protecting 30,000 km² of steppe ecosystem; ensuring functional connectivity across 100,000 km² of landscape for threatened species; supporting ecosystem services for 12,500 people; and influencing national policies to address climate change, connectivity, and biodiversity.
Our approach specifically targets the conservation of Mongolia’s unique steppe ecosystem, focusing on three Nature Strongholds: the Gobi, Eastern Steppe, and Mountain Steppe. Here, we prioritize the following flagship species; khulan, Mongolian gazelle, snow leopard, and migratory and resident steppe birds, while also working to protect other species within their landscapes. These require a large-scale integrated conservation strategy, a focus on achieving ‘connectivity’ across habitats and ecosystems, and action to address the growing challenges posed by climate change.
WCS Mongolia will engage with partners at all levels – particularly local communities, government entities, and the private sector – to influence systemic change, based on the latest scientific research in support of national conservation goals. We will directly align with and support Mongolia's Vision 2050 and its international biodiversity and climate change commitments.
By 2030, we envision a Mongolia where wildlife roams freely across connected landscapes, communities thrive alongside nature, and the country stands as a global model for large-scale conservation. We look forward to working with partners in safeguarding Mongolia's biodiversity for the benefit of all.