Selection of Sustainable Land Management Best Practices from Mongolia

Approximately 77.8 percent of the Mongolia's territory is affected by desertification and land degradation to varying degrees, driven by interacting climatic variability, increasing aridity and land-use pressures rather than by any single cause. Responding to this requires SLM approaches adapted to Mongolia's ecological diversity and institutional context: maintaining pastoral mobility and seasonal grazing arrangements, reducing concentrated pressure on vulnerable pastures, protecting soil and water resources, improving livestock and forage management, restoring degraded land, managing forests sustainably and rehabilitating land affected by mining and infrastructure. For many years, however, the knowledge underpinning such practices has remained dispersed among herders, researchers, local practitioners and institutions.

Building on a long-standing partnership between WOCAT and Mongolian scientists and institutions – a collaboration that also produced the country's first national atlas on desertification in 2013 – "A Selection of Sustainable Land Management Best Practices from Mongolia" brings together a selection of sustainable land management technologies and approaches, documented using the standardized WOCAT methodology. This compilation is not exhaustive. Across Mongolia, many traditional practices, locally developed innovations, restoration experiences and project-supported technologies remain to be documented, reviewed and published. The publication is therefore intended as a living resource, to be updated as further practices are identified, assessed and validated. WOCAT's open and standardized system offers a strong foundation for expanding Mongolia's national knowledge base and sharing its experience internationally.

Citation:

Nyamtseren M, Tseren-Ochir T, Dagvasuren U, Davaanyam O, WOCAT Secretariat. 2026. A Selection of Sustainable Land Management Best Practices from Mongolia. Bern, Switzerland: WOCAT and Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern.