There was the field visit to the Toson-Khulstai biosphere reserve in the framework of the 16th EABRN Meeting on 05-07 October 2022.
Besides cultural information such as the spoken dialects in the visited region, there was a discussion about the problem of overgrazing. The representatives of Mongolia highlighted the challenge of controlling and managing livestock numbers, which reached over ninety million in Mongolia (the human population of Mongolia is only three million). Therefore, the number of livestock have exceeded the carrying capacity of the land and pastures, which has a negative impact on the number of wildlife, such as red deer, marmots, squirrels, and gazelles, which has been decreasing since several decades. There are several initiatives for controlling and managing the livestock numbers, such as organisations for environment friendly local communities or government policies supporting livestock products and markets. There is also a tax system, which regulates the stalling of livestock in a place, which has been enacted as law two years ago. The Mongolian government is concerned with the quality of livestock products (the livestock must be healthy), and it is working to increase meat exports to other countries. In addition, the related authorities are attempting to renew the Protected Areas Law, which includes specific regulations with special consideration on controlling livestock numbers, which require detailed information on livestock numbers. The representatives of the member countries suggested developing and implementing specific regulations and instruments, which limit and control the number of livestock such as certain incentives or government subsidies for reducing the number of livestock, which stimulate and encourage the reduction of livestock numbers.
