The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MoET) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations (UNFAO) have successfully implemented “Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation, Sustainable Forest Management and Carbon Sink Enhancement into Mongolia’s Productive Forest Landscapes” project.

              The project has been implemented since 2015, and worked together 101 Forest User Groups (FUG) and 11 Intersoum Forest Units (ISFU’s) in Selenge, Darkhan-uul, Bulgan, Khuvsgul and Khentii aimags.

               The forest user groups together protect approximately 7% of the regions in the provinces which cover four ecologically important areas and 10 river basins.  Specifically, 55 species of Mongolian mammals, around 250 species of birds, and 10 species of reptiles and amphibians are habitual in the region.  Furthermore, around 40 species of fishes, 2000 species of 34 groups of insects, and about 60 species of around 100 endangered plant species are under protection of the 101 FUGs. This plays a vital role in protecting the biodiversity not only in Mongolia, but also contributes to the global protection.

              The project supported the activities of FUGs, strengthened capacity, provided trainings and technical support on ways of implementing forest activities.  During the closing ceremony of the project in Khentii aimag, Mr. Nergui.D, the head of Bayan-tsagaan FUG said “In 2006, people with a common desire to protect the environment came together to form forest user groups. Initially, the communities lacked legal knowledge on how to manage and operate the group to protect the environment. Therefore, starting from the year 2010 we have participated in several trainings organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). From the year 2015, we started working together as a formal group and now we have already worked for 5 years with the FAO in building capacities of our members. We now have professional sawmiller, biologist, and financial specialist working for each group and finished trainings on identifying rare medical plant species and pest control. In addition, we are attending handcrafting trainings where we develop our skills in producing products from the side timber/forest materials. While learning on how to protect our nature and the forest, we are also improving our livelihoods by using other forest resources”.

The project contributed to achievements in improving policy environment, such as supporting FUGs in forest care, increasing the forest care normative cost level, supporting in including the classification criteria based on FUGs activities, including biodiversity conservation in the Forest Management Plan and effectively promoting sustainable forest management beyond project targets. The project team together with the Forest Research and Development centre developed successfully sustainable forest management plan integrating biodiversity conservation by improving communities’ livelihood in the local context. The plan was endorsed by the province Environment and Tourism Department and a 10-year management plan is developed and implemented by 54 FUGs.

During the project closing ceremony, Mr. Tapan Mishra, The UN Resident Coordinator, expressed that “Forests, their sustainable management and use of resources, including in fragile ecosystems, are key to combating climate change, and to contributing to the prosperity and well-being of current and future generations. Forests also play a crucial role in poverty alleviation and in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The United Nations specialized agencies in Mongolia, will certainly stand together to continue the support for this important sector”.

Ms. D.Sarangerel, Minister of Environment and Tourism highlighted that “Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation, Sustainable Forest Management and Carbon Sink Enhancement into Mongolia’s Productive Forest Landscapes” project of UN FAO is a crucial project that is implementing coherent policy on environment protection in way it is ensuring citizen-centered ecosystems protection.

I am grateful for strengthening capacity of forestry and its management. The right to use natural resources should be accessible to those who devote their time and energy to maintaining ecological balance, and who have the knowledge to use them in an environmentally friendly manner.”

The project enabled establishment of a participatory forest management system through building forest information centers at 11 inter-soum forest unit (ISFU) and strengthening capacity of six cooperative associations in total.

During the project-closing workshop, Mr. Pierre-Yves Lucas, European Union cooperation team leader in Mongolia highlighted that “European Union is expanding its programming in Mongolia and is pleased to announce a joint forest project will be implemented in cooperation with FAO and GIZ. The project aims to increase employment for young people by supporting the value chain of wood and wood products. I wish to Khentii aimag would be selected as one of project target aimags.”

Closing the project, Mr. Vinod Ahuja, FAO Representative in Mongolia highlighted that Mongolia joined to UN FAO in 1973 and since then on FAO has been implementing many interventions and projects on agriculture and forest sector. However, we started supporting forest cooperatives since 2007.

When we implement a project, we always try to learn from our previous experience. Moreover, even though we bring in technical skills and knowledge, we always learn from our beneficiaries.

FAO is always open and ready to work with all parties, including the government, local governments, communities and citizens. At this point, I am pleased to announce that FAO will start implementing a new project funded by the GEF in Khentii, Dornod and Sukhbaatar. Total funding is 6 million US dollars. We look forward to continue to work with you.”.

Project outputs:

-       54 FUGs with over 460 thousand of forest are implementing 10-year management plans which has incorporated biodiversity conservation and carbon calculation

-       14 FUGs are conducting wildlife monitoring in their forest and sharing the data by BioSan

-       Three policy documents namely 1) Regulation of assessing FUG performance, 2) Structure and content of Forest management plan and 3) Methodology for developing Forest Management Plan have been developed and submitted to the Ministry for Final approval.

-       Forest carbon calculation methodology has been developed based on IPCCC methodology and officially endorsed by the Scientific committee of Academy of Sciences.

-       The actual unit cost for precommercial thinning has been established and endorsed by the Ministry, expecting final joint decree of Ministry of Environment and Tourism and Ministry of Finance.      

-       More than 3800 FUG members have been trained, where 189 received the official skills certificates 

-       A number of promotional materials (14 books, set of posters, videos) have been developed by the project and distributed to the local stakeholders

-        Handed over forest fire and pest control equipment to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism;

-       11 extension units under Forest unit have been established in the target area

-       6 small scale wood processing units have been established in each aimag.