Ulaanbaatar
Marmot statue made of hunting traps erected against poaching
Environment
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A statue of marmots, made of hunting traps was erected in Bayan-Uul soum of Dornod aimag. Mongolia’s Network of Managed Resource Protected Areas with MON/13/303 project is being implemented by the UN Development Program and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. The project implementors jointly with the Department of Specially Protected Areas Administration initiated and financed to construct the monument with an aim to inspire people to conserve marmots and their habitat to raise the population and stop illegal hunting.
Design and construction of the monument was performed by teachers and students of the Vocational training center of Dornod aimag, using 213 marmot traps, which were confiscated during inspections by volunteer preservationists of Bayan-Uul soum.
Marmot population has been dramatically decreasing in recent years and their habitats are shrinking every year to year. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has taken measures including resettling a number of marmots from green zone area of Ulaanbaatar city in some places in the countryside. Marmots live under ground, digging hole in depth of 3 meter and they affect very positively to soil structure and create favorable conditions for some animals and plants, experts say.
The UN project will support the creation of a comprehensive set of regulations to morph Local Protected Areas into "community conservation areas" to provide a pathway to safeguard currently vulnerable habitat for a number of globally significant and threatened species outside of the existing protected area system. Efforts are being directed towards empowering rural communities to alleviate conservation threats, mitigating the negative impacts of wildlife harvest, grazing and agriculture, habitat conversion and infrastructure development, and climate change.
B.Ooluun
