Seminar on policy approaches, practical interventions and lessons on poverty-environment : links in IUCN and Swiss institutions

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.

Cameroon, home to nearly 20 million hectares of forest, is increasingly affected by forest and land degradation driven by bushfires, uncontrolled grazing, and unsustainable agricultural practices. To address these challenges, the global project Forests4Future, implemented by GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit) in partnership with local councils and MINEPDED (Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development), introduced Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) in the Yoko and Nanga-Eboko landscapes. ANR is a low-cost, nature-based restoration approach that supports the natural recovery of degraded ecosystems through targeted human interventions rather than tree planting. The approach combines community sensitization, participatory site identification and mapping, site protection, and collaborative management agreements with local communities. 

Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, a globally important fishery and carbon store, is rapidly losing flooded forests to deforestation, wildfire, and invasive species. Since 2010, Conservation International has worked with Community Fisheries to restore these habitats through nursery planting, direct seeding, and assisted natural regeneration. The work has revived 10 gallery forest species, including six globally threatened species, while supporting biodiversity such as the endangered hairy-nosed otter and the return of the fishing cat after more than a decade without confirmed records in the area. The program also strengthens community stewardship, stores carbon, and creates income opportunities for marginalized communities.

Continued support is needed because communities face limited experience, resources, and large-scale degradation. CI works with them to improve restoration techniques, study tree ecology, and identify effective ways to recover this unique ecosystem before degraded areas are overtaken by invasive shrubs and weeds.

As the World Heritage Convention celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022, over 1100 sites around the world are recognized as World Heritage – places  that are so valuable to humanity that there conservation has been deemed our collective responsibility. Yet many of these exceptional places face  increasing pressure from diverse types of development projects within and around the sites. Assessing the impacts of such projects is essential to both prevent damage to World Heritage and identify sustainable options. This Guidance and toolkit explains the process for achieving these goals. Offering practical tips and tools including checklists and a glossary, it provides a framework for conducting impact assessments for cultural and natural heritage sites.

The Elsentasarkhai living laboratory is a permanent platform for testing dryland restoration solutions before wider investment and replication. Established in 2011 on 45 hectares at Mongolia’s dry steppe-desert steppe transition, it combines field research, multi-year monitoring, demonstration, training and knowledge exchange. Trials address drought, strong winds, shifting sand and limited water through 1 x 1 m straw checkerboards, revegetation, windbreak forest belts and cultivation of 21 rare and endangered native tree and shrub species. A 10-hectare moving-sand trial stabilized sand for three to four years when barriers were combined with revegetation. Managed by the Institute of Geography and Geoecology, the station has continued beyond the original UNDP-supported project, hosted 40+ research activities, including five international collaborations, and provided learning for researchers, students, herders and officials. Its lesson is simple: test locally, monitor over time, learn openly and scale only what works.

Yaghnob National Nature Park was established in a remote mountainous region home to the Yaghnobi people, a community with ancestral ties to the area. The park creation shifted local land governance. Previously, pasture use was shaped by traditional ownership rights, long-term arrangements, and locally negotiated community practices.

Subsequently, park authorities control and allocate grazing areas through rentals, upending access for local, outside, and transiting herders. These changes fuel friction over access, trust, and decision-making. Community members are concerned grazing allocations lack environmental assessments or equitable access, while park staff must implement ambitious management plans in difficult terrain with limited experience.

In response, TNF supports a community-led advisory board. This voluntary, collaborative body connects locals, pastoralists, park staff, government authorities, and scientists to improve communication, strengthen coordination, resolve conflicts, and share conservation responsibilities.