Mongolia: Country Features, the Main Causes of Desertification and Remediation Efforts - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 215

A donor-funded land management project in the rangelands of Mongolia's Gobi
desert was designed to create both conservation and livelihood benefits. This GTZ
project ran from 1995 to 2006, Leisher et al. ( 2012 ) report increased household
income and increased rangeland productivity and attribute the success of the project
to the incorporation of community-based management into the design. The project
created community organizations (CBO) to improve pasture management, develop
alternative livelihoods, and strengthen cooperation among local communities, and
district governments. Improved pasture management included coordinating the
moves on and off pastures for all participating herders, improving water sources for
livestock, and developing specific winter grazing areas for CBO members. The de-
velopment of CBO was supported by locally hired community organizers who were
part of the project staff. There was one community organizer in each district, and
their role was to organize and encourage the communities and act as a liaison with
local government, resource agencies, and the rest of the project team. The project ran
for more than 8 years, comprised 12 districts across 3 provinces, and covered 13.5
Mha. When funding support to the project ended in 2006, 83 CBOs had emerged,
involving 1,175 households, or about 14 % of the households in the project area.
Other success stories have been reported. Mostly from bi-lateral co-operation
(principally with the Republic of Korea and with China). Both of these donor
countries are concerned about the dust problem which plagues the eastern seaboard
of China and the Korean peninsular and Japan (Squires 2007 ) but protection of
infrastructure such as the railway line from Ulaanbaatar to Zamyt-Ud on the border
with China is another priority and desertification control measures have been applied
to stabilize dunes and prevent entrainment of sand and dust using methods outlined
in Chaps. 2 and 3 (this volume).
Apart from measures designed to prevent land degradation there is also effort
directed at reducing the grazing pressure by improving the supply of forage. An
example of a successful approach is outlined in Box 11.1 .

Box 11.1: GL-CRSP GOBI Forage Project: A Success Story

GOBI Forage Project* has been operating from 2004 to 2008. The ability
of the project

to produce current and accurate maps showing forage
conditions 30 and 60 days into the future has proven exceptionally valuable
to herders and those with a stake in rangeland management. It has also had a
transformational impact on the thinking of Mongolian Government Ministries
and donors working in rural development sector It has been described, as a
cutting-edge project that has established a forage monitoring and forecasting
service that regularly delivers map information to pastoral communities,
policy makers and administrators responsible for agriculture and rural de-
velopment. Successes in the project were derived in part from the Project's
ability to successfully carry out four complementary activities: (i) adapting the

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