GEF Mongolia Egin-Uur Watershed Conservation Initiative

completed

The Conservation of the Eg-Uur Watershed project aims to establish a partnership among the local communities, government institutions and bodies, and tourism companies to collaboratively and proactively establish a natural resource management regime for the Eg-Uur Watershed Area (EUWA) in the north-western region of Mongolia. The financial sustainability and biodiversity conservation vehicle for the project is high-end, low impact catch and release flyfishing ecotourism. The underlying rationale of the project is to treat wildlife as a locally managed concessionable natural resource, rather than as a simple public good, thereby enabling the local communities to maximize the economic returns from its use. Revenues from ecotourism concessions will be used to fund a collaborative management system for the Eg-Uur and alternative livelihood development for the local communities. The Collaborative Management System (CMS), which will provide the necessary funding and management capacity, is based on a Public-Private Partnership model: the GEF-led financing enables the implementing organization, a Mongolian NGO called the Taimen Conservation Fund (TCF), to sustainably manage the conservation activities of the EUWA as a trustee on behalf of the local communities. The TCF has already been initiated by the Sponsors, Sweetwater Travel and Hovsgol Travel.