Mongolia - Desert Gobi
Elaboration of a World Heritage Nomination Desert Landscapes of the Mongolian Southern Gobi
The Mongolian Gobi Desert is outstanding at a global scale due to the combination of extent, diversity and pristiness. The Mongolian Great and Small Gobi protected areas host an extraordinary representation of critical populations of rare animal and plant species as well as an enormous range of intact desert landforms and geomorphologic features. The government of Mongolia submitted the “Desert Landscapes of the Mongolian Great Gobi” to the tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention already in 2014. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of Mongolia requested the support for the elaboration of a sophisticated nomination dossier to the UNESCO.
As a country rich in natural resources and surrounded by two great powers, it needs international diplomatic, political, and financial support to permanently protect this largely untouched desert landscape and its species.
With the completed and submitted nomination “Mongolian Gobi”, comprising a total of six component parts, Mongolia intends to close one of the few remaining major gaps in the World Heritage Convention. This will place unique natural areas under permanent international protection.
International recognition is also expected to improve access to international financing instruments.
The aim is to use successful recognition by the World Heritage Committee to oblige decision-makers to invest in the protection of these unique, outstanding landscapes and ecosystems. To protect them not only from inherent threats, like ninja mining, poaching and overgrazing but also from the covetousness of its resource-hungry neighbouring countries.
Therefore, we involved several renowned organisations into the project team, namely the International Takhi Group Mongolia (ITG), Mongolian Bird Conservation Center (MBCC) and the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management (INN).
To do so the project was funded by the German Federal Environment Ministry’s Advisory Assistance Programme (AAP) for environmental protection in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia and other countries neighboring the European Union. It was supervised by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the German Environment Agency (UBA).
The Deutsche Stiftung Welterbe supported the project through a co-financing share.
Desert Landscapes of the Mongolian Southern Gobi
Elaboration of a World Heritage Nomination Desert Landscapes of the Mongolian Southern Gobi
Location: Mongolia
Duration: May 2023 - April 2025
Jens Wunderlich
Expertise: World Heritage, Biosphere Reserves, cartography
Tel +493834 8354 224
