Identifying Riparian Areas of Free Flowing Rivers for Legal Protection: Model Region Mongolia

Mongolia has globally significant biodiversity and pastoral traditions, scarce water resources on which wildlife people depend. Rapid growth of the mining sector is a threat to specifically river riparian zones. passed progressive laws for habitat conservation, including establishment Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) basin governance organizations, protecting zone, but implementation been hindered by limited technical capacity data-scarcity, because consistent, accurate maps zone did not exist. To address this gap, WWF-Mongolia partners developed national delineation areas based spatial model, then validated with local authorities provincial governments designate legal protection As result, 8.2 million hectares zones have legally protected from industrial development in landscapes riverscapes Amur, Yenisey, Ob Rivers headwaters, Altai Sayan ecoregion, Gobi-Steppe ecosystem. These findings demonstrate pathway implementing broad-scale, durable riverine wetlands through data-driven, participatory process.