Posted on December, 28 2017

December 7-8, 2017, children had a packed, productive, and energetic two days where representatives from 16 children’s eco clubs came together in Gobi-Altay province for the Mini Parliament Forum, supported by WWF-Mongolia. The purpose of the forum was to discuss and bring specific problems and barriers of the wildlife and its conservation to decision makers.           
The event was attended by 43 school children and 8 representatives from the local Governmental Organizations such as Child, Family and Youth Development Department of Gobi-Altay province, Environment and Tourism Department, and Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring Department, as well as the Aimag’s Citizen’s Representative Khural.      
Participants were welcomed by Batmagnai D., Director of Environment and Tourism Department, who stressed that "Every single conservation initiatives is valuable for us. And we always appreciate our young generations’ commitment to wildlife conservation. I strongly believe that your strong voice from the forum will be spread out at nationwide like an echo."
Eco club children moderated and facilitated the forum. The discussed topics were climate change, desertification, and wildlife food and forage reserves and shortages. The forum participants exchanged their views on potential solution ways. Moreover, the school children participating in the forum asked questions and received responses on the specific topics including wildlife water access and supply and illegal hunting, among others, from the respective officials and officers attending the forum at invitation.
 At the end of the forum, the participants have reached at the following recommendations and agreed on forwarding them to decision makers:  
-To release water bodies and their vicinities in the steppe and Gobi desert from inhabitance of households and livestock for certain periods of time in springs and summers; not to allow local households, who seasonally inhabit the high mountain zone, to inhabit or stay above mid zone, namely on mountain tops and alpine zone for their wintering; and to take necessary actions for water supply in the pastureland that has been out of use by local herders due to lack of water access;  
-To ban hunting of the red fox, wolf, and corsac fox, which are often hunted for mitigation and elimination of livestock and wildlife disease outbreaks, at the provincial level;
-To protect sources of at least two natural springs or other water bodies a year by fencing them around and taking necessary measures to increase their water levels and discharges and put cameras for monitoring and estimating effectiveness of the measures taken;     
-To ensure effective cooperation and performances of the law enforcement agencies at local level in order to reduce illegal wildlife hunting;
In such, the eco-club members-school children have successfully organized their first MINI PARLAIMENT and decided to annually organize the event for the coming years.