Mission

The goal of the Mongolian River Resources website is to provide information on a wide spectrum of topics related to natural resource use and the environment in Mongolia. This includes issues within Mongolia, and relevant international information and experiences. The need for information pertinent to the environment, ecology, and resource use, available to a broad audience with diverse interests and needs, was identified during the initial year of The Asia Foundation’s Securing Our Future program. As a result, this site has been developed to help individuals and organizations access information and acquire knowledge, and to enable them to  locate groups, entities and projects of interest.  It should assist networking across a variety of projects and sectors, and link Mongolians across the country. Ultimately, it should provide all Mongolians with equal access to information to help inform decisions related to their communities’ development,  use their natural resources wisely, and maintain local environmental and human health.

The Asia Foundation’s Securing Our Future (SOF) program is a three-year initiative designed to promote the sustainable use of Mongolia’s natural resources that is focused on responsible mining and land-use practices. It is being jointly implemented by The Asia Foundation, the Royal Government of the Netherlands, and a coalition of non-governmental, public and private sector partners. The overall purpose of the program is to ensure that future mining activities in Mongolia generate long-term benefits for the people of Mongolia without compromising the nation’s ecological and social heritage.  SOF involves seven program areas that seek to ensure maximum community participation in the decision-making processes, and in the long-term collective management and use of the country’s vast natural resources. The seven areas are:

• The development of a Mongolian River Water Quality Monitoring Network, which enlists citizens and students to work in partnership with Mongolian and expatriate scientific experts in the collection and dissemination of data on the quality of river water across the nation, and lead to the compilation of a complete ecological inventory of Mongolian waterways;
• A Multi-Stakeholder Process for the Future of Mongolian Mining, which involves developing collaborative agreements on mining between the government, the private sector and civil society as part of a mutually endorsed Declaration of Responsible Mining;
• Strengthening the capacity of the Coalition of Movements for Mongolian Nature Protection to engage in and monitor government and business activities that impact on the environment, human health and people’s rights;
• The Land Use Integrity Program, which is designed to reduce corruption in the mine-licensing process by strengthening the capacity of civil-society organizations to raise public awareness and to advocate for policy and legal changes that increase transparency and accountability in this sector;
• The creation of Regional Environmental Learning Centers, which will see the introduction of Information and Communications technology in five Mongolian provinces that will promote environmental awareness and engagement among citizens and children and in turn increase broad-based community collaboration;
• The establishment of the Mongolia Environmental Exchange Mechanism, which will foster information sharing and learning exchanges between the government, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, civil society, science, academia and local citizenry in order to develop a common framework of knowledge and understanding that will promote responsible mining.
• The Mongolian “Green Gold” Branding Program, which is aimed at positioning Mongolia as the world’s leading source of responsibly mined gold.