The Altai Mountains Biodiversity Conservation Strategy Safeguarding the biological diversity and natural ecological processes of the Altai Mountains landscape alongside local livelihoods and economic development Adopted by the Aimag Governments of Uvs, Khovd, Bayan Olgii and Govi Altai To be followed and championed by government, developers, non-governmental organizations and local residents 1 List of Contents 1. Overview...............................................................................................................................4 2. The place and the people.....................................................................................................13 3. Biodiversity and Ecology....................................................................................................22 4. Human impacts and threats to biodiversity.........................................................................29 5. Biodiversity conservation-related policies and programmes..............................................34 6. Objectives and Actions ........................................................................................................53 List of References ....................................................................................................................79 List of some relevant websites.................................................................................................87 Annex 1 Population, Infrastructure and Economy..................................................................89 Annex 2 How the strategy was prepared ...............................................................................94 Annex 2a Lists of participants in working meetings .............................................................96 Annex 3 Habitats and vegetation types..................................................................................102 Annex 4 Ecosystem fragility.................................................................................................105 Annex 5 Major threats to Biodiversity in the Mongolian Altai............................................109 Annex 6 Vertebrates of the Altai mountain landscape, with threat assessments and protection status .....................................................................................................................123 Annex 7 Aimag environmental inspectors’ reports of a) hunting impacts and b) livestock grazing impacts on wild species ............................................................................................182 Annex 8 Local protected areas in Mongolian Altai.............................................................184 Annex 9 Proposed protected areas.......................................................................................186 Annex 10 Sums entirely or partially included in the Mongol Altai landscape ....................187 Annex 11 Selected Agencies Active in areas relevant to biodiversity conservation in the Mongolian Altai.....................................................................................................................188 Annex 12 Legal protection for biodiversity in Mongolia ....................................................190 Annex 13 Ramsar Sites downstream from the Mongol Altai landscape ..............................193 Annex 14 Important Bird Areas in and near the Mongolian Altai landscape.......................194 Annex 15 Assessment of Protected Area Management and Effectiveness...........................196 Annex 16 Local people’s attitudes towards biodiversity conservation ...............................200 Annex 17 Biodiversity conservation planning at the landscape scale: an introduction to the concept ...................................................................................................................................210 Annex 18 List of candidate “Landscape Species” with their assessment scores and associated conservation target.................................................................................................................214 Annex 19 Additional Research and Monitoring Requirements ...........................................215 Annex 20 Very Rare and Rare Plants as defined under Mongolian Law ..............................223 Annex 21 Action programmes according to type of action, and objectives .......................226 ACRONYMS.........................................................................................................................251 2 Figure 1 Map of the Altai Mountains ........................................................................................5 Figure 2 The Mongolian Altai landscape and major watersheds...............................................8 Figure 3 Mean annual precipitation for six Bayan Olgii sums 1979-2008..............................14 Figure 4 Precipitation map of the Altai....................................................................................15 Figure 5 Mines and mineral exploration..................................................................................18 Figure 6 Artisanal mining ........................................................................................................19 Figure 7 Road network and Asian Highway 4.........................................................................21 Figure 8 Major vegetation types of the Mongolian Altai ........................................................23 Figure 9 Rivers and Lakes of the Mongolian Altai..................................................................25 Figure 10 Livestock numbers in each sum ..............................................................................30 Figure 11 Livestock numbers in Khovd, Uvs and Bayan Olgii 2002 and 2007 .....................31 Figure 12 Causes of biodiversity degradation in the Altai ........................................................1 Figure 13 Protected areas in and around the Mongolian Altai ................................................36 Figure 14 Breakdown of whole Mongolian Altai (above) and Protected Areas (below) according to vegetation types...................................................................................................41 Figure 15 Protected area "core zones" by vegetation type.......................................................42 Figure 16 Proposed protected areas .........................................................................................43 Figure 17 Important Bird Areas and Ramsar Sites ..................................................................45 Figure 18 Mining in relation to protected areas.......................................................................49 Figure 19 Overlap of mines and exploration with Important Bird Areas and Ramsar Sites ...50 Figure 20 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)................................................107 Figure 21 Percentage of herd as breeding females 1986 to 2007 ..........................................111 Figure 22 Mongolia mean annual temperature anomaly 1940-2002.....................................121 Table 1 Conservation Targets, Human Activities, Threats, “Drivers”, Objectives and Types of Action under the Strategy....................................................................................................11 Table 2 Mines and mining licences in the Altai Landscape ....................................................20 Table 3 Artisanal mining within the Altai Landscape, 2009 ...................................................22 Table 4 Main vegetation types with areas and percentage coverage of the Mongolian Altai landscape..................................................................................................................................24 Table 5 Numbers of vertebrate species of the Mongolian Altai according to class and protection status .......................................................................................................................27 Table 6 Globally threatened species of the Altai (IUCN)........................................................27 Table 7 Threats to biodiversity from various human activities ...............................................33 Table 8 Protected areas in the Mongolian Altai.......................................................................37 Table 9 How the vegetation types are represented in the protected area system.....................40 Table 10 The nine conservation targets ...................................................................................57 Table 11 Direct threats to the conservation targets..................................................................60 Table 12 Indirect threats, or "drivers"......................................................................................61 Table 13 Action programme according to objectives..............................................................65 Table 14 Number of livestock in four aimags in 2002 and 2007 ..........................................110 Table 15 Herd composition and birth rates (calculated from data in NSO, 2007) ...............111 Table 16 List of current mining licences with operational status ..........................................115 Table 17 Numbers of State Inspectors and Rangers.............................................................192 Table 18 Examples of mining within 20km of protected areas .............................................199 3 VISION AND PURPOSE Rising majestically above low-lying steppe and river