Blending Local Finance and Community Stewardship to Restore Khovd’s Riparian Forests, Mongolia

Riparian forests woody vegetation along rivers and streams in Khovd Province have been degraded by grazing pressure, wood cutting, climate change and weak natural regeneration. From 2022 to 2025, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-supported ADAPT project and local governments restored about 700 hectares across 13 districts (soums) and planted more than 560,000 trees. The solution paired restoration and community participation with a sustainable financing model: 70% of the Mongolian tugrik (MNT) 7 billion investment came from ADAPT and 30% from local budgets. UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) helped local authorities improve the planning, collection and allocation of Natural Resource Use Fee revenues so restoration could continue beyond external project funding. The approach strengthens riverbanks, biodiversity, local governance and shared responsibility. Its blend of local revenue, international co-financing and multi-stakeholder delivery can be adapted by other Mongolian provinces.

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Testing Before Scaling: Mongolia's Living Laboratory for Dryland Restoration

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Regenerating Mongolia's Saxaul Forests through Livestock Exclosures and Locally Led Monitoring

Mongolia’s saxaul (Haloxylon ammodendron) forests stabilize Gobi soils, reduce sand movement, store carbon and support biodiversity, yet browsing and trampling can suppress seedlings. Since 2020, the GEF-funded ENSURE project, implemented by the Government of Mongolia with UNDP support, has combined site-targeted livestock exclosures with paired fenced-unfenced monitoring and practical training for local officers and rangers. The 2023 assessment covered eight fenced and eight comparison plots in four soums; it measured tree density, regeneration, vegetation, biomass, carbon and CO2 storage. Some protected sites showed substantially more young saxaul, while others showed limited differences, proving that fencing must be targeted and evaluated rather than counted as restoration by area alone. By 2024, community-driven regeneration measures covered more than 400 ha, including a 300-ha exclosure in Shinejinst. The approach links natural regeneration, local stewardship and evidence-based scaling for resilient dryland landscapes.

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Empowering Users for Clean Cooking – A community-driven approach to electric cooking in local government of Nepal.

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