MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT

AND TOURISM OF MONGOLIA

SIXTH NATIONAL REPORT TO THE

CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
(2015-2018)
 In June 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and

30% Development (the Rio “Earth Summit”) Mongolia had called the member
states for protecting our mother earth and unilaterally wowed to pro-
tect 30 percent of its territory.

96% Reaffirming its commitment, on 30 September 1993 Mongolia became

a party to the CBD and has prepared and implemented the first “Bio-
diversity Conservation Action Plan for Mongolia” to ensure that this
action plan is mainstreamed into the planning and activities of all those
sectors whose activities can have an impact on biodiversity. The final
evaluation of the first “Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan” carried
out in 2010 showed that the implementation of interventions set under
the Action plan had achieved 96 percent.

During 2013-2014 Mongolia had developed the Second National

Biodiversity Program1 for the period of 2015-2025 taking into account
the fact that a) at the COP 10 the Parties have adopted a revised and
updated global Strategic Plan for Biodiversity for 2011-2020, which
include the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and; b) the country has gone
through drastic social, economic and policy changes during the past two
decades.

4 The Program consists of 14 goals, 29 objectives, and 74 outputs within

the frame of 4 strategies to ensure the conservation and sustainable
use of Mongolia’s biological diversity and has been approved by the
Resolution No.325 of the Government of Mongolia on August 4, 2015.
The second National Biodiversity Program has been aligned with
the Aichi biodiversity target to ensure the national contribution to
the global conventions and aimed to strengthen existing policies on
biodiversity conservation and sustainable management through direct
interventions and sound inter-linkages with productive sectors’ policies
and programs. The “Medium term plan for the implementation of the
National Biodiversity Program” was formulated and approved in 2018
to ensure sound implementation of the Program.

1 English: https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/mn/mn-nbsap-v2-en.pdf
Mongolian: https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/mn/mn-nbsap-v2-mn.pdf

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 The Sixth National Report to the Convention of Biological Diversity
is the first national report that assesses Mongolia’s performance on
implementation of the National Biodiversity Program and progress
towards achieving the Aichi Targets.

In overall, the progress during the reporting period has mixed – while
Mongolia has been successful in promoting SDG and especially ESD
and direct conservation and sustainable management of natural
resources on the ground with strong involvement and empowerment
of local communities, the country was slow in addressing drivers for
biodiversity loss that come from certain productive sector and fiscal
policies. In this respect, decisive interventions for reversing pasture
degradation is seen critical for Mongolia to fulfill its commitment to CBD
and its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution for climate change
mitigation and adaptation.

2020 Such intervention will directly contribute to the proposed

Post -2020 Global Biodiversity Framework that highlighted the need
for addressing drivers impacting biodiversity through mainstreaming
in economic sectors and fiscal policies as one of the three major areas
of intervention along with resolute interventions for biodiversity and
ecosystem conservation and sustainable use and benefit sharing.

Taking into consideration that the Government has developed and

approved a Medium-term plan, more targeted interventions are
expected in the coming years to fully achieve the Goals set in the
National Biodiversity Program.

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ASSESSMENT OF PROGRESS TOWARDS REACHING
NBP GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The independent national experts involved in the preparation of the Sixth National
Report assessed that Mongolia was successful in achieving goals under the Strategy
1- Increase awareness and knowledge on biodiversity and sustainable use among
both decision makers and the general public, while had challenges under Strategy
2 - Develop and implement science based policy on conservation and sustainable
use of biological resources, Strategy 3 - Sustainable use of biodiversity and Strategy
4- Improve policies and legal environment for conservation and use of biological
diversity and ecological services.

12

10

Effective
8
Partially effective
6 Ineffective

0
Strategy 1

Goal 1

Goal 2

Strategy 2

Goal 3

Goal 4

Goal 5

Goal 6

Goal 7

Strategy 3

Goal 8

Goal 9

Strategy 4

Goal 11

Goal 12

Goal 13

Goal 14

Cross sector issues such as Goal 6- Protect soil and water resources from chemical
and nutrient pollution, Goal 9 - Taking into account grazing capacity and livestock
population size, utilize legislative and economic leverages to reduce pasture
degradation by up to 70% and increase quality of existing pastures, and Goal 10
- Modernize industrial farming techniques and activities to meet requirements
for food safety and conservation of biodiversity in the environment’s agricultural
ecosystem were not effectively addressed and requires special attention in coming
years.

Similarly, the progress achieving Goals under Strategy 4- Improve policies and legal
environment for conservation and use of biological diversity and ecological services
that aims to address economic and fiscal drivers that impact biodiversity has been
slow.

5
 WHERE MONGOLIA WAS SUCCESSFUL

SDG incorporation in education system in Mongolia

As of 2017, 96.3% of primary 80.0% 1.57

school children and 94% of 70.0%

1.19
60.0%
secondary school children 0.95 0.98
50.0%
are enrolled in school, with
40.0%
increased girl to boy ratio
30.0%
along the education ladder.
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
25.0% 38.3% 36.7% 75.0%
Primary Secondary Upper Secondary *Accredited
classes classes classes universities and
colleges

SDG incorpation in Education system

Gender balance

* Incorporation of SDG principles is a requirement for

accreditation of Universities and Colleges

Protected Areas’ future

Mongolia’s Land Management Master Plan for 2030 included 131 new biodiversity hotspots to
reach the National target of 30% of the territory. Sound management of existing 30.27 mln. ha
state protected areas, which is 20.1% of territory (plus 24 mln. ha locally designed protected
areas) and future protected areas needs support from all.

50,000,000.0
30.0
45,000,000.0
area by ha
40,000,000.0 % of territory
35,000,000.0
20.1
area by ha

30,000,000.0 17.9
17.4
25,000,000.0 14.6
13.4 13.7
20,000,000.0 12.4
11.6

15,000,000.0 8.5

10,000,000.0 5.8
3.7 3.8
5,000,000.0
0.0 0.0 0.2

1778 1957 1965 1976 1977 1992 1993 1996 1998 2000 2005 2010 2014 2017 2019.09 2025

year

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Local Community and Ownership of Natural Resources
Since 2012, Mongolia begun shift its environmental policy to “the user is the steward”
concept and a number of laws including Law on Fauna were amended to bring the
local communities and private sector into the arena.

Today Mongolia has established total of 171 hunting area and 74.4% of Management
bodies that have formal agreement with the Government are Local Communities and
Local NGOs.

Private Companies
11
MANAGERS OF

171
Local
NGOs
7 HUNTING AREA

CBOs
25

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THE AREAS NEEDING URGENT ATTENTION
Land degradation
As of 2015, 76.8% of Mongolia’s territory is degraded in various degrees. The main drivers of
the degradation are:
Increased livestock number that almost tripled over the past 30 years
Chronic overgrazing that creates favorable condition for rodent and locust outbreaks
Desertification process caused by climate change

Commitments for conservation Share of biodiversity expenditure in State Budget and GDP
0.90%
During 2008-2018, the funding 0.79%
0.80%
for biodiversity conservation
0.69% 0.69%
accounted 0.35% -0.79% of total 0.70%
0.68%
0.63%
0.67%
State Budget or 0.15% -0.25% of 0.60% 0.58%

GDP. 0.50%
0.52%
0.48%
0.46%
0.40%
However, 44.4% of the total 0.35%
expenditure came from the 0.30%
0.24% 0.25%
0.22% 0.23%
state budget and 55.6% came 0.20%
0.18% 0.19% 0.19%
0.22%
0.20%
0.18%
from donor and international 0.15%
0.10%
organizations showing Mongolia’s
0.00%
heavy external reliance in 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2012 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

conserving its own environment. Share in State budget (%) Share in GDP (%)

8
CONTRIBUTION TO THE ACHIEVEMENT OF AICHI TARGETS
Mongolia is assessed itself strongly in increasing
The participatory
people’s knowledge on value and benefits of
assessment showed that
biodiversity thanks to strong move towards education
the National Biodiversity
for Sustainable development and thus scored itself
Program’s aim to support
strongly contributing to Aichi Target 1. Mongolia also
global conservation goal
assessed itself strongly contributing in conservation of
has been well woven into
Forest habitats hence scored high Aichi Target 5. It also
the national action plan
scored high in Aichi Target 11 because, Country had
and implementation of
set a goal to dedicate 30% of its territory to Protected
the National Biodiversity
Area Network since the Rio Conference and had already
Program enabled the
established State Protected Area network covering
country to support 18 of
20.1% of its territory, which equal to entire territory
the 20 Aichi targets. Two
of Poland. Thanks to conservation paradigm shift
targets, namely, Target 6
towards “users are the stewards” Mongolia is moving
and Target 10 that deal with
towards enabling the local communities to take over
fishery and coral reefs were
conservation and sustainable management of wildlife
left because Mongolia’s
and other natural resources in their area. This also has
impact on those targets are
enabled the country to self-assess highly to contributing
negligent.
Aichi Targets 12, 16 and 19.

Mongolia’s contribution to Aichi Targets

5

0
Target 1

Target 2

Target 3

Target 4

Target 5

Target 6

Target 7

Target 8

Target 9

Target 10

Target 11

Target 12

Target 13

Target 14

Target 15

Target 16

Target 17

Target 18

Target 19

Target 20

(5 – On track to exceed target; 4 – On track to achieve target; 3 – Progress towards target but at an insufficient
rate; 2 – No signification change; 1 – Implementation not started yet; 0 – Irrelevant)

The analyses show that Mongolia’s National Biodiversity Program is contributing to the
achievements of 129 indicators out of 225 global Aichi indicators and 48 of these 129
indicators are generic indicators and 81 are specific indicators. The average performance was
assessed between 4 – On track to achieve target and 3- Progressing towards target but at an
insufficient rate because Mongolia’s action towards managing invasive species (Target 9) and
addressing pastureland degradation (Target 15) were negligent and thus lowered average
scoring.

9
CONTRIBUTION TO THE ACHIEVEMENT OF
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

In parallel to National Biodivesrity Programme contribution to SDGs

contributing to the 4

Aichi targets, the

Mongolia’s Biodiversity
Programme directly 2

contribute 25 targets of
the six SDGs.
0

Goal 1. No Poverty Goal 2. Zero Hunger

Goal 5. Gender Equality Goal 6. Clean Water & Sanitation

Goal 12. Responsible Consumption & Production Goal 15. Life on land

(5 – On track to exceed target; 4 – On track to achieve target; 3 – Progress

towards target but at an insufficient rate; 2 – No signification change; 1 –
Implementation not started yet; 0 – Irrelevant)

The assessment show that 10 of the 14 Goals

The assessment on
of National Biodiversity Program, namely Goals
performance showed that
4-7 and 10-14 are contributing meaningfully to
National Biodiversity Program
the Global Sustainable Development Goal 1 - by
contribution to SDG
addressing land equal and fair access to land;
6 &15 are rated as “On
Goal 2 – by addressing unsustainable subsidies
track” and contribution to
to the agricultural sector, sustainable agriculture
SDGs 2, 5 & 12 are rated as
and management of plant and animal genetic
“Progress towards target but
resources; Goal 5 – by addressing local community
at an insufficient rate” and
empowerment for rangeland management; Goal
contribution to SDG 1 is rated
6 – by addressing water quality, Integrated River
as “No signification change”
Basin Management & protection of headwaters;
due to the fact that Mongolia is
Goal 12 – by addressing harmful subsidies and
failing to create enabling legal
financial assistances to the productive sector and
environment for sustainable
promoting PES principles; and Goal 15 – addressing
pastureland management for
Protected Area network, sustainable natural
the past decades.
resource management and genetic resources,
land degradation and targeted conservation of
threatened species.

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MONGOLIA’S BIODIVERSITY AND ITS STATUS
Flora CR
LC
Over the past 30 years flora species and
their numbers in Mongolia has increased
1.6% 1.5%
drastically as 232 species of higher
fungus, 1,366 species of algae, 81 species NT EN
VASCULAR 4.7%
3.2%
of lichen, 176 species of moss, and 684
species of vascular plants were newly
recorded.
PLANTS
(3163 SPECIES)
Sadly, during this time, of 3163 recorded
vascular plant in Mongolia, 16.2%
were assessed as “Threatened” largely
due to anthropogenic factors such as VU
overgrazing, overharvesting and arson
fire.
6.9%

Lower plants

2,5%
2.2%
2,0%
1.8%
1,5% 1.3%
0.7% 0.8%
1,0% 1.3%
0.8%
0,5% 0.5% VU

0.2% 0.2%
0,0% EN
0.3%
Moss (species) 0.4%
Algae (2200 species) CR
Fungus (631species)
Lichen (1067 species)

Inventory and research on climate change and anthropogenic impacts and potential use of
Lower plants including Fungus have increased exponentially since early 2000:
Records on moss species in Mongolia were increased by 10 species in 1996-2000, by 58
species in 2001-2005, by 11 species in 2006-2010, and by 61 species in 2011-2016.
Records on algae species were increased by 114 species in 1996- 2000, by 409 species
in 2001-2005, by 66 species in 2006-2010, and by 363 species in 2011-2016.
Records on mushrooms were increased by 23 species in 1996- 2000, by 53 species in
2001-2005, by 46 species in 2006-2010, and by 102 species in 2011-2016.
Records of lichen were added by 13 species in 1990-1995, by one species in 1996- 2000,
by 13 species in 2001-2005, by 43 species in 2006-2010, and by 11 species in 2011-
2016.

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Fauna
NT CR
23 percent of mammals, 7 percent of
birds and 14 percent of fish species in 6.3% 2.3%
Mongolia and threatened due to habitat
loss, unsustainable harvesting, poaching
and climate change. This situation likely MAMMAL
to deteriorate unless land degradation
and habitat encroachment – the VU (128 SPECIES)
most widespread pressure caused by 3.1% EN
overgrazing by livestock is addressed
determinedly in coming years. 10.9%

CR CR
0.4% 1.3%
EN LC
1.2% 3.8%
NT BIRD FISH EN
3.1% 7.7%
(513 SPECIES) (78 SPECIES)
VU
2.3% VU
5.1%

66.7%
70.0%

60.0%

50.0%

17.4% As shown in the graph the Insect

40.0%
fauna of Mongolia was not
assessed using IUCN classification
30.0%
0.0%
0.0% 0.0%
although Mongolia’s Red Book
0.0%
LC
20.0%
included 19 insect species.
0.0% 0.0% NT

10.0%
0.0% 0.0% VU
Similarly, of 23 reptile species of
0.0% Mongolia, 6 species are included
0.0%
0.0%
EN
0.0% in the Red book.
*Insects (5898 species) CR
Amphibian (6 species)
*Reptile (23 species)

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Ecosystem coverage under State Protected area Network
Mongolia’s goal of protecting 30 percent of its territory through the Protected Area Network is
one of the 20 core indicators closely monitored through Mongolia’s Sustainable Development
Vision for 2030.

Below graphic shows only 8.5% of step ecosystem is under protection. In this concern, tripling
the protected area coverage of Mongolia’s steppe ecosystem by 2025 needs commitment and
dedication from all players, if indeed the world should preserve its most exploited terrestrial
ecosystem throughout the globe.

45.0

40.0

35.0

30.0

25.0 30.0%

20.0

15.0

10.0

5.0
5.5% 36.5% 38.4% 22.1% 28.3% 29.0% 2.0% 7.3% 8.5% 31.1% 31.3% 35.3% 29.0% 30.7%
0
High Mountain Forest Steppe Gobi, desert Aquatic

1998 2004 Sep-19 Planned result (2025)

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 © Gantulga B./WWF-Mongolia

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Cover Photos:

Snow leopard – Pantera uncia © Munkhtogtokh O. / WWF Mongolia

Mongolian gazelle – Procapra guttorosa © Gantulga B. / WWF Mongolia
Mongolian toad – Strauchbufo raddei Strauch © Batkhuyag B.
Blue scabiosa – Scabiosa comosa Fisch. (National flower of Mongolia) © Gombobaatar S.
Fungi - Lepista caespitosa © Kherlenchimeg N. / Mongolian Academia of Science
Gobi’s toad grasshopper - Mongolotmethis gobiensis B-Bien. © Batsaikhan N.
Siberian taimen – Hucho taimen © Zeb Hogan
Falcon – Falco cherrug Gray © Gombobaatar S.
Petite cavalière – © Batkhuyag B.

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