January 10, 2011

DENVER ZOO CONSERVATION EFFORTS EARN U.N. RECOGNITION "Model Program" Status Comes after 10 Successful Years in Mongolia

Ten years after Denver Zoo and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences established a research camp in Mongolia's Ikh Nart Nature Reserve to help conserve the wildlife of the park, they have been honored by the United Nations. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) designated the conservation work at the reserve as a "model program." The label means that the UNDP will use the program in Ikh Nart as an example to replicate and adapt to other parks and reserves in Mongolia.

"This is a huge honor and encourages us as we work toward our two main goals for this region," says Denver Zoo Conservation Biology Director Rich Reading. "We want to conserve Mongolia's wildlife and natural resources and train our Mongolian colleagues to eventually perform that work without our help. We're very proud and hope our model can assist others elsewhere in Mongolia and, eventually, the world."

Occupying about 160,000 acres in central Mongolia on the northeastern edge of the Gobi Desert, Ikh Nart existed as little more than lines on a map 10 years ago. Threatened wildlife that roamed the area, such as Argali sheep, ibex and cinereous vultures were susceptible to poaching and the effects of illegal mining. Reading and members of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences began a conservation project in the late 1990s in Ikh Nart and established a research camp in 2000. In addition to research, zoo staff began to work with partners from the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California, local universities and nonprofit organizations and the Earthwatch Institute to set up boundary markers for the reserve and hire rangers to stop poaching. Not long after, they began reaching out to the local human population and educating them about ways they could help protect their own natural resources and animals.

Ikh Nart achieved the designation of "model program" for a variety of reasons, including the creation and implementation of an actively used management plan based on sound science, working with local people to enhance conservation and improve livelihoods, employing staff and rangers to monitor and manage the park, demarcating boundaries and conducting active education and outreach activities.

Today the program has expanded greatly to incorporate wildlife management, training for rangers and government officials, ecotourism development, pasture management and environmental education. The reserve is a unique eco-tourism destination and it is one of the last places on earth with a sustainable Argali sheep population.

In the future Reading would like to expand management efforts, improve methods of collecting revenue, increase visitation to the reserve and expand wildlife training and research.