Home Institution

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Publication Date

Spring 2009

Program Name

Mongolia: Culture and Development

Abstract

Community-based conservation is a newer type of conservation that includes people in the ecosystem and attempts to simultaneously promote development and conservation. One organization in Mongolia that is facilitating the implementation of community-based conservation is the Wildlife Conservation Society. Their goal is:

My research questions concerning this NGO’s project are: what are the perceived benefits and problems with CBC? What makes it successful and how can it be improved? My location of study was the easternmost aimags of Mongolia, Dornod and Sukhbaatar. I spent 1 week travelling to 9 of the WCS’s 13 active herder communities asking their opinions about the success of CBWC via interviews.

From my data I gathered that there are a few main difficulties. The trend was that community members criticized their leaders for lack of transparency and not sharing information. Moreover, few community members had noticed tangible benefits from the community work, while a higher percentage of leaders indicated that they had seen benefits. The most common benefit mentioned by both members and leaders was education, and the most common issue (bar leadership) was insufficient equipment. A majority (90%) thought there was the possibility for the program to be successful in the future. In conclusion I offer suggestions for NGOs initiating and continuing CBC based on this research.

Disciplines

Natural Resources and Conservation | Natural Resources Management and Policy

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