Identifying Riparian Areas of Free Flowing Rivers for Legal Protection: Model Region Mongolia

Purevdorj Surenkhorloo, Chimeddorj Buyanaa, Sanjmyatav Dolgorjav, Chimed-Ochir Bazarsad, Batjargal Zamba, Sainbuyan Bayarsaikhan and Michael Heiner
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Purevdorj Surenkhorloo: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Mongolia), Ulaanbaatar 14192, Mongolia
Chimeddorj Buyanaa: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Mongolia), Ulaanbaatar 14192, Mongolia
Sanjmyatav Dolgorjav: Oyu-Tolgoi LLC., Ulaanbaatar 14240, Mongolia
Chimed-Ochir Bazarsad: Khomyn Talyn Takhi NGO, Ulaanbaatar 14200, Mongolia
Batjargal Zamba: Environment and Climate Fund, Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar 14191, Mongolia
Sainbuyan Bayarsaikhan: Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar 15170, Mongolia
Michael Heiner: The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Fort Collins, CO 80524, USA

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: Mongolia has globally significant biodiversity and pastoral traditions, and scarce water resources on which wildlife and people depend. Rapid growth of the mining sector is a threat to water resources and specifically river riparian zones. Mongolia has passed progressive laws for water and habitat conservation, including establishment of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and river basin governance organizations, and laws protecting the river riparian zone, but implementation has been hindered by limited technical capacity and data-scarcity, specifically because consistent, accurate maps of the riparian zone did not exist. To address this gap, WWF-Mongolia and partners developed a national delineation of riparian areas based on a spatial model, then validated this with local river basin authorities and provincial governments to designate legal protection zones. As a result, 8.2 million hectares of water protection zones including riparian areas have been legally protected from mining and industrial development in the globally significant landscapes and riverscapes of the Amur, Yenisey, and Ob Rivers headwaters, the Altai Sayan ecoregion, and the Gobi-Steppe ecosystem. These findings demonstrate a pathway for implementing broad-scale, durable legal protection of riverine wetlands through a data-driven, participatory process.

Keywords: riparian areas; riverine wetlands; wetland delineation; legal protection; Mongolia; mitigation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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