On June 9, Ambassador Piper Anne Wind Campbell will address the first interdisciplinary and international scientific conference on rangeland science ever to be organized in Mongolia. The two-day conference “Building Resilience of Mongolian Rangelands,” sponsored in part by the U.S. Embassy, unites researchers from the physical, biological and social sciences to discuss the complex issues facing Mongolia’s rangelands. These include the challenges of climate change and the effects of economic transitions. On June 12, in a follow-up workshop focusing on the application of scientific research to policymaking and management, select conference participants will meet representatives from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture; the Ministry of Environment, Green Development and Tourism; local government leaders from Tuv, Selenge and Dundgovi provinces; as well as staff members from various donor organizations and NGOs.
Conference participants will include scientists from Mongolia, the U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, Korea, China and India. The scientific disciplines represented will include rangeland ecology and management, biology, hydrology, anthropology and economics. The conference will feature oral presentations, poster presentations, and facilitated small-groupdiscussions. Research to be presented includes the results of a joint U.S.-Mongolian research project, the Mongolian Rangelands and Resilience (MOR2) Project, which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Students at the conference will also participate in essay, photography, and research poster contests.
Other sponsors of the conference include Utah State University’s Reed Funk Foundation Account, the Climate-Resilient Rural Livelihoods Project, The Nature Conservancy, the Sustainable Fiber Alliance, and Land Test LLC. Conference organizers include Colorado State University, the Mongolian Fund for Science and Technology, the Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, the Mongolian University of Life Sciences, the Research Institute for Animal Husbandry, the Institute of Geography and Geo-ecology, Nutag Action Research Institute, the Center for Nomadic Pastoralism Studies, and the American Center for Mongolian Studies.