Mongolia: Livestock and Wildlife in the Southern Gobi Region, with Special Attention to Wild Ass

This purpose of this report is to examine development trends in the Southern Gobi Region (SGR) as they affect livestock and wildlife. It provides an overview of the environment and natural resources of the region, discusses existing relationships and interactions among humans, livestock, large herbivore wildlife, and the natural resources on which they are dependent. It then explores the impact that economic development of the region is likely to have if that development does not consider the needs of the current users.
It is important to remember that there have been balanced interactions among these co-users of the SGR for millennia. During the socialist period, populations of large  herbivore wildlife remained at relatively high numbers even though livestock production was highly organized and vegetation resources were systematically and heavily utilized throughout the region. It is only since 1990, with the transition to free-market economics, that large wild herbivores have been over-hunted and that conflict between wildlife and livestock is perceived as normal.