1st Workshop on National Biodiversity Strategies & Action Plans in Northeast and East Central Asia
Experiences and Lessons
26 -28 April, 2000, Beijing, China

Developing and Implementing National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP): Lessons from Mongolia

 

  1. INTRODUCTION

The legitimatisation of the transition to a democratic system of government initiated a market economy in 1990 by adoption of the new Constitution of Mongolia. The initial implementation of some of its ideas into practice resulted in a historically important event which in turn, started a new chapter in the development of the country. At the same time, Mongolia has intensively undertaken measures to restructure its economy and to establish its legal basis, to develop and complete the country’s infrastructure and its macro-level management systems, as stated in the New Constitution.

Although the pristine natural environment of Mongolia has been comparatively well preserved, some changes can be seen in the socio-economical and environmental balance of the country due to destructive human activities and climate change.

The supreme legislative organ in Mongolia is the State Great Khural (Parliament) which is elected for a term of four years and consists of 76 members. It has a Standing Committee on Rural Policy and Environment, which is in charge of matters pertaining to the environmental conservation. The state supreme executive power is vested in the Mongolian Government. The Ministry for Nature and Environment is the Government’s central administrative body responsible for environment.

Mongolia is administratively divided into units known as aimags (provinces), soums (counties or divisions of an aimag) and bags (the smallest administrative unit).

The capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, is divided into duuregs (districts), khoroos (sub-districts, which are further divisions of districts).

Each administrative unit is led by a Governor who is authorised to take measures to organise the implementation of laws and regulations passed by the State Great Khural, or decisions made by the Government and to provide instructions on practical implementation of Government decisions.

The package of Mongolian environmental laws from 1995 is playing an important role in the re-structuring of the centralised administrative system, which was established for intensive use of natural resources, furthermore, these laws promoted the strengthening of local self-governance system in the conservation and proper use of natural resources. Since 1996, environmental laws have been complemented by the Law on Government, and the Law on Territorial Administrative Units and Their Guiding Principles along with their relevant Amendments. These laws state clear and detailed divisions of responsibilities and rights of the State Great Khural, Central Government, Ministry for Nature and Environment, as well as other Ministries, all-level Khurals, executive governing bodies of the capital city, aimags, soums, duuregs, bags, khoroos as well as professional agencies, institutions and individuals in relation to the conservation, sustainable use, and restoration of Biodiversity. (Chart 1)

Mongolian people have a close association with the natural world and a deep reverence for the environment. Therefore, the Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan for Mongolia is of special interest to the nation. The proposed actions are also important for biodiversity conservation in Central Asia, and will have a positive impact on global biodiversity conservation. Since its flora and fauna are less exposed to the artificial ecological systems that exist in other areas of the world, Mongolia could serve as an ideal example of the existence and evolution of various natural ecosystems under extreme conditions. In this way Mongolia can contribute to the activities of the world community in regard to the protection of biological diversity. In this connection, at Rio, Mongolia took a bold step of proposing that the whole country of Mongolia be designated as a biosphere reserve. This proposal demonstrates Mongolia’s commitment to conservation. The Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan for Mongolia is a further statement of that commitment.

Two. Origin and Background of Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan for Mongolia

Worldwide concern for the loss of biodiversity was expressed by Mongolia and the 167 other nations that signed the Convention of Biological Diversity at the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and subsequently. Mongolia is implementing the Convention’s promise in its National Strategies and Plans through the Environmental Action Plan, the Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan, MAP 21, and through such functional plans as the Protected Area Plan, Desertification Plan, and Climate Change Plan. Mongolia was the thirtieth country to sign the Biodiversity Convention and has since made considerable efforts to carry out its duties. The Action Plan was funded under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNDP. Development of the Action Plan was an important component of the UNDP/UNOPS Mongolia Biodiversity Project initiated in June 1993. Detailed plan, including preparation of the action plan outline and schedule was undertaken in mid-August, 1995. Linkages with the MAP-21 (Agenda 21) project, which is assisting in coordination and skill building, were made throughout the planning stages. When the Mongolian Government approved the Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan, certain activities were included in its annual Action Plan every year to implement the plan sequentially. The Ministry for Nature and Environment (MNE) is the lead agency for the Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan.

The Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan thoroughly examines the status of biodiversity in Mongolia, the threats to the country’s biodiversity, and the status of conservation efforts. Based on these analyses, the plan set forth a detailed action program. In addition, the plan evaluates legal, financial, and institutional measures necessary to ensure implementation of the specific actions.

MAP 21 project to implement Agenda 21 presented its Mongolian Action Program for the 21st Century in 1999, which is the action plan to implement the principles and agreements of the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This program is a document that can serve as a national guideline that embraces and defines the whole complexity of the requirements, policy goals, working directions and methods for developing all the spheres of our country’s life while maintaining environmental check and balance. (N. Bagabandi, President of Mongolia). The Government of Mongolia is starting implementation of this program without any delay ensuring the previous progress in the coordinating of social and economic development with a sustainable development strategy (from foreword by Prime Minister R. Amarjargal to the MAP-21).

Three. Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan development

The Ministry for Nature and Environment is the lead agency for the Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan (BAP) in Mongolia. The development of Action Plan was funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Development of the Action Plan was an important component of the UNDP/UNOPS Mongolia Biodiversity Project led by D. Batbold, MNE, and Project manager Dr Andrew Laurie. The project was initiated in June, 1993. Subsequently, a workshop was held to collect scientific data about Mongolia’s natural resources and a partial draft report was prepared in 1994. Dr Laurie, who assumed the Project Manager position in April 1995, and Dr B. Flamm and short-term consultants assisted in the development of the final BAP. An important early step was planning the information needs for the BAP from the Biodiversity Information management System. BIMS staff and consultant Dr B. Baker were active participants throughout the preparation of BAP. Detailed planning, including preparation of the action plan outline and schedule were undertaken in August 1995. The BAP preparation was completed and the Minister for Nature and Environment took it to the Second Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Indonesia in November 1995.

Bearing in mind that the building of a successful plan must involve experts with most knowledge of the country and those who are involved in implementing actions, a diverse group was invited to participate in the BAP preparation from the Parliament, local Governments, National Development Board, National Academy of Sciences, and Ministries for Nature and Environment and Infrastructure Development, Labour and Population Policy, Food and Agriculture, Education and Science, Energy, Geology and Mining, Universities, NGOs, private businesses and overseas consultants. In order to avoid the distractions of daily responsibilities, a workshop was held at Gorkhi-Terelj National Park in September 1995. The sixty plus participants were divided into fifteen working groups, according to their field of expertise and contribution to a subject area. The working groups were asked to describe current conditions in Mongolia, the threats to biodiversity and their causes, the status of conservation in Mongolia, and to recommend specific objectives and actions. Dr Ts Shiirevdamba, then- Deputy Minister for Nature and Environment, chaired the steering committee, which directed the efforts of the workshop participants. The workshop papers and corollary discussions were the primary basis of the October 1995 draft plan which was reviewed by Dr Z. Batjargal, then-Minister for Nature and Environment, by workshop participants and other key officials. Based on comments received, the draft was revised for presentation at the Indonesia meeting. During the time of the Indonesia meeting, further public, government and scientific reviews were sought. These reviews plus experiences of Indonesia were subsequently incorporated into the February 1996 draft which was again reviewed by the Minister and Deputy Minister, and other key officials, before completion of the Final Plan. The recommended actions and the process leading to the Actions were a vital part of the effort to conserve biodiversity. The BAP however has been a live document responding to changing conditions. The implementation of actions is carried out across government and private programs and requires cooperative efforts of many. At present, the MAP 21 (Agenda 21) funded by UNDP is assisting in coordination and skill building.

Mongolia’s hope is that the proposed actions will ensure for future generations the heritage of its magnificent biodiversity and culture. The guiding principles on which this vision is based include the following:

The conservation of biological diversity in Mognolia requires the expansion of the Protected Area System, improving the conservation and management of Protected Areas, improving management of plant and wildlife species, enforcing environmental laws. These measures are important but respond to only part of the existing problem. Fundamental problems lie beyond protected areas, inspectors such as mining, agriculturem forestry, pollution, land use, and transportation systems, energy development, and population growth and distribution.

Mongolia’s proposed MAP 21 Project has been important for the achievement of the objectives and accomplishment of the activities outlined in the Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan. The project is proposed to be placed at the highest levels of government and should therefore, have influence and the ability to address cross-sectoral problems.

Since 1990, Mongolia has been in the process of learning to govern itself democratically and develop a free-market economy after more than six decades as a socialist state with a centrally planned economy, which was 100 dependant on aid and assistance from former USSR and CMEA countries. During the present period of economic difficulties of Mongolia, development and implementation of any development program have faced severe difficulties with and lack of funding sources. Recognising the continued problem of providing adequate funds for needed conservation work, the Plan examined means of financing programs. However, most importantly, if biodiversity is to be conserved, environmental protection must be integrated in to the country’s development projects and resource use.

Four. RELATIONSHIP WITH DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

Since 1990, Mongolia has utilised more than US$1,000,000,000 in loans and grants from international financial agencies and donor countries. During its exciting but difficult period of transition, foreign aid resources in Mongolia necessarily will continue to constitute a significant part of funding for investment needs. They are expected to do so in the near future because the pool of savings by citizens and business entities are very limited and unable to sustain the private sector investment and infrastructure development that is required. In funding the Mongolian Action Program for the 21st Centure, the preferential use of government investment, foreign loans and grants will be given to developing the industrial and social infrastructure. Other important needs for financial resources involve measures that increase soft loans from multilateral banks, promoting direct foreign investments, strengthening the investment capabilities of citizens and business entities as well as developing credit mechanisms.

The national development and security concepts of Mongolia constitute the basis for the formualtion of the Mognolian Action Plan for the 21st Century. Primary objectives and actions for economic and social development for each year are accounted in the annual directions of social and economic development and the state bu\dget approved by the State Great Khural. However, the objectives and measures of environmental conservation, proper use of natural resources have not been fully refl;ected in the development visions, plans and guidelines as well as integration of social, economic, and environmental aspects, with accent to their interrelation, into national development concepts, plans, and strategy have not been made sufficiently, yet. Therefore, MAP21 has an important objective to review and integrate objectives and actions of national and sectoral programs accroding to the framework of the MAP-21, including such activities as building up a system of integration of MAP21 strategies into national, aimag, city annual plans, and carrying out ecological impact assessments for each priority projects implemented in the national medium-term investment program, and implementing the environemntal protection objectives set out in the medium=term programs and directions, intensifying efforts toward the implementation of activities directed by international agreements.

In the past few years, like other ministries and agencies, Mongolia’s Ministry for Nature and Environment has established specific funds to use them for financing particular projects and activities. Funding resources mostly consist of resources from the state budget, loans and grants from international donors, and income from government activities . Funds are established on the basis of relevant laws, that include government resolutions, bilateral agreements, minister’s decsions and in some cases agreements between relevant ministries and foreign Embassies in Mongolia.

The Biodiversity Action Plan developed by the UNDP funded Biodiversity Project in 1996 addresses biodiversity as a crosscutting theme across different sectors such as aagriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism, and water resource management. Later in 1999, when the Mongolian Action Program for 21st Century, which is not only a Mongolian Action Program, but also an integral part of the Earth Agenda 21, was presented, biodiversity conservation is considerd in this document as one of most important issue closely co-related with other sectors of sustainable development of Mongolia.

Five. Biodiversity Action Plan Scope and objectives

The Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan of Mongolia has four chapters, including the Status of Mongolian Biodiversity, status of Conservation in Mongolia, Action Programs and Legal and Institutional Measures necessary to Ensure Implementation of Specific Actions.

The main biodiversity hotspots have been considered as Threatened status of biodiversity in the Chapter 1 the Status of Mongolian Biodiversity. Human activities have led to changes in ecosystems and number and distribution of species. Some of these activities are in side Mongolia ; other threats originate in neighbouring countries or even further afield, as the BAP identifies. The threats are considered as to ecosystems, wildlife species, genetic varieties while causes of threats are studied by each economic and industrial sectors. The BAP identifies the biodiversity of Mongolia is being damaged and faces increasing threats. The overall objective of the Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan was to set in place measures to protect biodiversity and to restore damaged areas. Rapid increases in Mongolia’s population and industrialisation have occurred and further increases are proposed. It is, therefore, critical to the ensuring of sustainable development that consciousness of biodiversity be integrated into economic and social programs.

A fundamental principle of Mongolian state policy is that economic development must be in harmony with the environment, that every measure will be taken to check possible negative environmental consequences linked with the extraction and utilisation of natural resources, and that air, water, and soil pollution will be combated. Development projects will undergo ecological analysis (Environmental Impact Assessment), and if such projects are implemented, development will occur under strict control so that ecological consequences will be minimal.

Additionally Mongolia intends to conserve at least thirty percent of its land and water area in the protected area system as an important strategy to conserve biodiversity.

Within the overall objectives, BAP set the following specific objectives to reach their implementation.

Chapter 4 of the BAP provides to seek finances from all possible sources in order to implement the Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan for Mongolia. Possible funding sources are classified as Government, non-government and external funds.

A Government funds

Government has an obligation and a practical need to allocate sufficient funds for biodiversity conservation.

Articl 33 of the Law on Environmental Protection requires that environmental and biodiversity conservation be adequately budgeted for by central and local governments. However, only a very small percentage of the government budget is at present allocated for biodiversity conservation. Additional funds for conservation are raised by earmarking at least a percentage of fees, taxes and fines such as from:

Non-government funds

Donations from individuals, companies, and organisations can be an important sources of funds, labor, goods or property.

External sources

Mongolia urgently needs long-term secure funding for various key conservation activities. Funds from individual donors and multinational donors have to be applied for with well-reasoned proposals.

Six. IMPLEMENTATION

Mongolia is gradually developing favourable conditions to stop the further decrease in biological resources and to use them within the limits of their potential to restore themselves naturally. While doing so, Mongolia adheres to the principles of the global environmental policy and to the efforts of universal sustainable development towards achieving a proper balance between socio-economic development and the environmental resources’ carrying capacity of the country.

The basic guidelines for the protection of environment and its natural resources are clearly formulated in such directives as the “Mongolia’s National Security Policy Orientation”of 1995, the “National Development Strategy” of 1996 and the “Ecological Policy Orientation of the Mongolian State” 1997. The ideas of these documents are expressed in detail in the package of environmental laws, the national program on the preservation of biodiversity, the program on combating desertification and the program on protected areas. Implementation of these programs is in the progress. At the same time, environmental conservation has become an important item in the "“ Mongolian Government Action Plan” and in the annual guidelines of the country’s socio-economic development.

Mongolia has signed and ratified globally important documents in the field of Biodiversity conservation including the “Convention on Biological Diversity” (1993) the “Convention to Combat Desertification (1994), the “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora” (1996), “Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer” (1996), the “Montreal Protocol on the Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1996), the “UN Convention on Combating Drought and Desertification” (1996), the “Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal” (1997), and the “Convention on Migratory Species” (1997).

Lessons Learned and Recommendations

In Mongolia, there is an urgent need to make large scale investments with regard to the protection of natural resources. On average, fees, equalling approximately MNT one billion are charged for the annual use of forests, wildlife and plant species. 30 percent of these fees are returned for forests and species restoration. The Mongolian Science and Technology Fund provides over MNT300 million for implementation of some 40 projects, and the Government uses the national budget to fund the higher education institutions for conducting environmental training. In addition, the Environmental Protection Fund allocates 7 to 10 million tugrugs, annually, for breeding and rearing of endangered species and restoring other natural resources. International funding sources are showing a growing interest in increasing their support. For instance, with the assistance of international organisations such as the UNDP, UNEP, ADB, World Bank, and the governments of the Netherlands, Germany and Japan, several projects on environmental conservation are now under implementation. The Christian Oswald Foundation in Germany and the Baumann Foundation in the Netherlands and their representatives have played an important role in implementation of two projects on re-introduction of the Przewalkii horse in the Gobi B National Park and the Hustain Nuruu Natural Reserve. As a result, the total number of wild horses has now reached more than 100 heads.

The Government of Mongolia has paid special attention to the recommendations made by IUCN for securing the maintenance of the ecological balance in a country (such as Mongolia) which experiences a continental climate and has fragile ecosystems. There is a real necessity to establish more protected areas in order to implement the international conventions which Mongolia has already joined.

Approved by the Government in 1995 and 1996, the long term national policies on protected areas were identified in the Concept on the National Safety and Development and National Policy on Ecology. The National Action Plan on Protected Areas was developed and approved by the Government in 1998. At the same time objectives on the establishment of more protected areas, which will cover 30 percent of all the territory of Mongolia and which is indicated in the Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan, are under implementation at several stages. Currently Mongolia has altogether 38 protected areas which cover 17.4 mullion hectares of land or 11.1 per cent of the territory of Mongolia. Preparation and justification for the establishment of new protected areas in Menen Steppe, Lag Lake, Onon and Balj Basins and Degee River which cover a total of 5 million hectares of land have been carried out and developed.

With rapid growth in the industrial and service sectors, the natural environment of Mongolia, especially its biodiversity, is starting to degrade. Over 450 projects have already gone through the process of environmental assessment over the last few years. Within the framework of such an assessment, the government has been vigilant in terms of issuing permits to companies that have the potential to pollute the environment or when mining companies, in particular, employ new technology which may add to this.

There has been a rapid increase in the exploitation of biological resources because of Mongolia’s transition to a market economy. Although causes for this are commonly related to the growing economic crisis and declining living standards, lack of long term environmental policies, planning, legislation and stable economic leverage to enforce the existing legislation are also responsible. The status of environmental protection and nature conservation highly depend on public awareness, conservation knowledge, education, capacities of managers, trained staff, financial capacity and strong cooperation between central and local institutions. Based on today’s environmental status, the Government of Mongolia is taking actions to strengthen the enforcement of environmental laws and their implementation, by providing legal, economic and institutional background for such activities. Close understanding and cooperation between various institutions and experts such as border troops, custom’s officers, veterinarians and plant quarantine experts, mining inspectors are essential for a fruitful implementation of conservation actions.

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