Information and education of the local population on biodiversity conservation

To permit the long term success of a project for the conservation of an endangered species it is needed to consider needs and difficulties of the local population that share the same habitat and to involve the population in the project. It is also needed to inform, sensitive and educate the population to biodiversity conservation and natural resources management.

Thus, the aim of the association GOVIIN KHULAN is to act for information and education of the mongolian population to nature and biodiversity conservation of Mongolia, and for an optimal management of their natural resources. Various actions will be conducted in parallel of the research and conservation actions that will be conducted in-situ for the Khulan conservation. These actions will be first conducted in the areas where will be conducting research, and after in all Mongolia. We will strongly cooperate with the mongolian government, related institutions and organisations, as well as with professionnals working for biodiversity conservation in Mongolia and in information and education.

These actions will be conducted in the south and south-east Gobi, area where our project will be conducted, as well as in Ulaanbaatar and other areas in Mongolia.

.In the south and south-east Gobi

As part of our research during our stay in the south Gobi, we will interview local people and families we will meet in order to increase knowledge on : the status of the Khulan in this area, its behaviour, nature of interaction between Khulans, livestock, other wildlife and human activities at water sources and the surroundings, needs and difficulties of the local population, etc.

At the end of each interview, we will discuss with them, to inform and sensitive them on the present status of the biodiversity in Mongolia, the need to protect it and methods that they could use to conserve this biodiversity and manage natural resources.

For this, various tools as well as information and education supports will be created and used, for adults and for kids :

-a picture and video player portative to show them pictures and films took in the

 field, and to discuss with them about this ; 

-board with pictures on various themes, on which we will discuss with them ;

-games for kids, coloured drawings for kids, books with stories and games about

 wildlife and biodiversity conservation, tales by using puppets, etc. ;

-educative supports for school of the south Gobi ;

-educationnal activities for children we will meet during our mission;

-creation of "conservationnists of the south Gobi club".

All discussions will be interactive to permit to the mongolian population to express itself freely, to express us its expectations, its knowledge on nature and its wildlife with which people are living everyday, its comments and suggestions, etc.

"We have to learn from each other, and to put in common our knowledge and experiences in the nature’s service, for a better cohabitation between nature, animals and humans".

These various tools and supports will be also used after by the rangers working in the south Gobi.

Through these various activities local people will be familiarized with english and french languages.

.In Ulaanbaatar and other areas in Mongolia

We will participate to:

- creation of posters ;

- organization of exhibitions ;

- publication of articles in local newspapers ;

- conception of documentaries ;

- conception of educationnal supports for kids and schools ;

- creation of games, writing of books, etc. ;

- and conception of other supports and informationnal and educationnal

  supports.

    These actions started in 2006 and were complemented during the summer 2008, but were limited because of the lack of funding obtained to implement such actions. These actions will conducted again and complemented during the next mission that will be conducted in august and september 2009.

Discover HERE the actions we conducted in 2006 and in 2008.

These pictures (but not the last one) were took during the mission conducted for one month during the summer 2006 by Anne-Camille Souris and a student from the National University of Mongolia  in the Umnugovi aimag (Zaya, the mongolian student can be seen  on some of these pictures, interviewing a herder), and also during the mission that was conducted during the summer 2008.

It has been possible during theses missions to test the interview we created in cooperation with mongolian researchers, specialists and the student Miss B. Oyuntuya that join our team last summer 2008. We will work again on this interview whithin the following weeks to remove some questions and do it shorter.  

Local people were very interested and enthusiastic  face to this interview. From these interviews, local population appears very interested by the Khulan conservation, which is an animal honored in the mongolian culture, and was strongly interested to cooperate with us as part of this project and to help us during our stay in the south Gobi (even some herders that did not like the Khulan because they consider this species as a competitor with their livestock to access to natural ressource). In 2006, only one of the 20 persons interviewed was not very enthusiastic to answer to this interview and told us that the Khulan population was highly increasing year after year (certainly a hunter…). Results from the interviews conducted during the summer 2008, are presently under analyse.