Caravan rides into Mongolia in campaign for Nature
By Samuel Ogunsona
Ahead of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification COP17, a 6,000-kilometer journey across Eurasia rolled into Mongolia on Friday as the UNCCD Silk Road Caravan begins its final leg.
This comes days before world leaders meet in Ulaanbaatar.
The arrival puts Mongolia’s rangelands in the global spotlight.
Irohinodua gathered that the caravan, launched for the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026, has been connecting pastoralists, scientists and young people from Türkiye through Central Asia to share practical solutions for restoring degraded land.
For Mongolia, the timing is critical. About 70% of the country is rangeland supporting one third of the population, yet nearly 77% of Mongolian land is affected by degradation.
Droughts are more frequent, sand and dust storms have tripled since the 1960s, and the 2023–2024 dzud killed more than seven million livestock.
“Throughout the Silk Road Caravan journey, we have seen how countries and communities are managing and restoring rangelands that are inseparable from their identities, cultures, economies and ways of life,” said Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD.
“Every stop along the journey has reinforced one simple truth: people are at the heart of restoration.”
Tsagaankhuu Iderbat, Mongolia’s Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, said the country’s nomadic heritage is key to the solution.
“The knowledge and experience of pastoralists, developed over generations of living in harmony with nature, remain an essential part of the solutions we need today,” he said.
Avirmed Gan-Ochir, an Animal Breeding Specialist and caravan participant who grew up on Mongolia’s steppe, described the exchange. “As someone who grew up on Mongolia’s rangelands, it has been inspiring to travel through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and meet pastoralists whose lives are so different, yet so similar to my own,” she said.
The caravan will spend a week visiting the Gobi Desert, Hustai National Park, the Orkhon Valley and Ugii Lake before COP17 opens on 17 August.
COP17 is the first of this year’s three Rio Conventions and is expected to set the tone for global action on land.
