A signpost provides information about two hiking routes to the left and right. Together with the protected area administration, hiking routes are being developed in the Khan Khentii protected area to promote environmental education for visitors. © GIZ/Markus Pesch

Preserving the capacities of nature in protected areas

Supporting Protected Areas for the Conservation of Ecosystem Services, Phase II (SPACES II)

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  • Client

    German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

  • Country
  • Political sponsors

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  • Runtime

    2024 to 2028

  • Products and expertise

    Climate, environment, natural resource management

Context

Mongolia’s biodiversity forms the economic and cultural basis of the country. In order to preserve it, large areas have been placed under protection. Despite these efforts, biodiversity remains under threat from climate change and the overexploitation of natural resources.

A large part of the rural population lives in buffer zones surrounding the protected areas. Poverty results in degradation of protected areas through intensive grazing activities. This in turn jeopardises the local population’s livelihoods as their animals can only find food in healthy ecosystems with a high level of biodiversity in the long term.

Objective

Reformed, environmentally friendly and gender-sensitive management concepts have been implemented in the landscapes of selected protected areas with the support of the local population.

A herd of wild Przewalsk’si horses stands in the vast hilly landscape of the Khomyn Tal National Park. This is managed by a non-governmental organisation and is therefore supported by SPACES II for co-management.© GIZ/Greta Schmidt

Approach

The project advises the Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Tourism on the legal basis for nature reserves. The previous project supported the reform of the national protected areas act. Now, the amendments to the act have to be specified in more detail through implementation regulations. To enable more efficient protected area management, it promotes efforts towards co-management, self-financing of protected areas and the development of protected area regulations set out in law and applied in practice.

Selected protected areas receive support in implementing specific reform approaches on topics such as forest, waste, tourism and co-management. It provides technical advice to the protected area administrations and at the same time works with civil society and private stakeholders on relevant value chains.

With its work on environmental education and communication, the project supports the implementation of the new law on protected areas, promotes the acceptance of protected areas among the population and thus reduces the pressure on protected areas. Together with the protected area administrations, it is testing approaches to environmental education and communication in selected protected areas in order to subsequently disseminate the information at national level. The project is also developing training courses for rangers and environmental education programmes for children and young people.

Last update: April 2024

Additional information