Course in Mongolia on communicating knowledge for sustainable rangeland management under climate change
Mongolia has an unparalleled monitoring programme on rangeland health. A wealth of data is collected every year in a systematic way, at many sites throughout this vast country. The high-quality data collected provides opportunities to communicate and synthesize this knowledge, so that it can be translated into effective policy making for sustainable rangeland use.
A short course on “Communicating Knowledge for Sustainable Rangeland Management under Climate Change – Improving Analytic and Reporting Skills” was held in Mongolia from 29 June to 5 July. The seven-day course was jointly developed by UNU-LRT and four of its partner institutions in Mongolia, the Mongolian University of Life Sciences (MULS), the National Federation of Pasture User Groups of Herders (NFPUG), and the Information and Research Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment (IRIMHE).
The course was held at the Secret History Camp in the Tuv province, north-west of the capital city Ulaanbaatar. Twenty-four professionals, including researchers, lecturers, land managers and monitoring officers, participated in and successfully finished the course. Five former UNU-LRT fellows from the six-month training programme in Iceland were involved in various parts of the course. One of the former fellows was actively involved in the course development team and taught in the course, while others contributed to field demonstrations and training on the field day, and assisted with running the course.
The course started with two days of interactive lectures, followed by a field trip where participants explored grazing and climate change impacts in two steppe sites, a pine forest and a riparian area. During the field visit, participants reflected on the concepts and topics covered during the lectures. In the latter part of the course the focus was on the basic project framework, where the rangeland health monitoring system in Mongolia was used as a case study to explain the different elements of the framework. In this part of the course the participants were assigned to working groups, where they explored the different components of the basic project framework.
According to a thorough evaluation by participants, instructors and course assistants, this first UNU-LRT short course in Mongolia was a highly successful one. The on-site course team included three instructors from Iceland, five from Mongolia, and two additional support staff. UNU-LRT thanks all those for their commitment and hard work which helped make this course a success!