The Gobi Desert is the fifth largest desert in the world, stretching over much of southern Mongolia and northern China. The Gobi supports many important species, several of which are listed as rare or endangered such as the khulan (Asiatic wild ass) and the goitered gazelle. The importance of the area for these species can be emphasized by considering that Mongolia’s Steppe and Gobi regions support the world’s largest remaining populations of Asiatic Wild Ass or khulan, Goitered gazelle and Mongolian gazelle.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is involved in several mining projects in this region and funded this capacity building project to help ensure the long range sustainability of wildlife populations despite the continued mining and transportation infrastructure development in the Gobi.  Other efforts of the capacity building project include development of GIS tools to support compliance with biodiversity offset regulation, development of GIS database to support habitat connectivity modeling and training in soil analysis. WTI’s role through this project focuses on the traffic and transportation infrastructure as it relates to wildlife. Activities will include: providing a summary of the current and expected wildlife impacts of the transportation system in the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia (primarily focusing on the area of increased mine development and a focus on the target species), summarizing the existing transportation system and current and expected traffic levels, identifying potential mitigation methods for transportation and traffic impacts on wildlife, and addressing the management of road dust for unpaved roadways.