Tengis Shishged National Park
Tengis Shishged is not a UNESCO World Heritage site.
No public information is available.
The Totem Peoples Preservation Project of Siberia and Mongolia.
The Mongol Ecology Center, Youth Sustainability Corps, and Junior Ranger Program are conducting anti-poaching training on the rangers to prevent hunting by the Dukha, which is impeding the Dukha’s traditional ways of life.[1]
Tumursukh Jal – Director of the Ulaan Taiga Strictly Protected Areas Administration
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tumursukh.jal/
Twitter: @TumursukhJal
Ulaan Taiga Protected Areas Administration.1
Ministry of Environment and Tourism.2
1 https://www.roundriver.org/student-programs/mongolia/
2 https://www.protectedplanet.net/555576543
U.S. Embassy in Mongolia: In July 2015, America’s Yosemite National Park and the Mongolian Ministry of Environment, Green Development, and Tourism (MEGDT) signed a sister parks agreement.
Rally For Rangers is a project of the Mongol Ecology Center (MEC), a 501(c)3 non-governmental organization based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and Tucson, Arizona. Through this charity initiative, US donors have been raising funds to buy motorbikes for Tengis Shishged park rangers, making it easier for them to cover the region more efficiently.[1] Exactly how many motorbikes have been distributed to the Tengis Shishged Park is unclear.[2]
The U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Geological Survey have collaborated on research and monitoring of the Tengis Shishged National Park, as seen in the report 'Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring for Ulaan Taiga Specially Protected Areas—An Assessment of Needs and Opportunities in Northern Mongolia.’ It is unclear what funding has contributed to this research.
Mongolia Adventure Outfitters run fishing tours through the Tengis/Shishged National Park and have set up a local fund towards the park’s conservation, starting with donating 500 USD to conservation NGOs from each angler coming to Tengis/Shishged river watershed to fish with us.[3]
European Commission, eConservation Initiative allocated 11,543,222.00 Euros towards ‘Community-based Conservation of Biological Diversity in the Mountain Landscapes of Mongolia's Altai Sayan Ecoregion’ in 2006. The project involves five national parks, including Tengis-Shishged. This was implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of Mongolia and financed through the Global Environment Facility Fund.[4]
The Dukha are a mobile group of Indigenous people with a long history of migration and trade relations throughout the Mongolian/Russian region, previously unrestricted due to the absence of state borders. During the period of Mongolia’s incorporation into the Soviet Union, the Dukha people were employed in state-owned farms and fisheries, receiving a steady income. All domestic animals, however, including reindeer were under state ownership as the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union had decimated food supplies. Reindeer herding and nomadic lifestyles as well as Indigenous spiritual practices were repressed. Following the year 1990, this stable income disappeared, prompting numerous Dukha individuals to venture back into the taiga for hunting. Some were compelled to cull their own reindeer for sustenance and trade their antlers, and a significant number of reindeer succumbed to diseases.[1]
Following the dissolution of the USSR and the 1992 collapse of Mongolia's communist government, regions reliant on government subsidies struggled to adapt to a market-driven economy. The Dukha, no longer needed for their hunting skills and constrained by nomadic land restrictions, found themselves disconnected from an unwelcoming world. Some Dukha adapted through military service, commercial livestock herding, or sending their children to neighboring schools. However, those desiring to preserve their reindeer herds and nomadic roots became more isolated.
As Mongolia transitioned to a democratic government, taiga hunting increased, partly due to external exploitation of the country's resources. With the revelation of jade and gold deposits in the area, environmental concerns intensified. Corporations and individual miners alike eagerly ventured into the taiga in pursuit of wealth. The Dukha community was not exempt from this trend, as they offered their services as guides to independent "ninja miners" (dubbed for their surreptitious entry into restricted areas). Some even resorted to using a pail and digging themselves. This unrestrained exploitation, occasionally leading to violent confrontations, eventually compelled government intervention.
For over two centuries, the Dukha people have structured their existence based on the well-being of their reindeer, traversing northern Mongolia’s snow forest (the taiga) year-round in pursuit of conditions that ensure the animals' good health. Problems only grew when Tengis Shishged National Park was established in 2011 with little informed consent from the Dukha reindeer herders whose lands were concerned, further restricting Indigenous lifeways and agricultural systems.[2]There are currently about 250 Dukha people in total, making them one of the smallest ethnic groups in the world.[3]
In 2011, the Dukha were first told by Mongolian government officials that they could no longer hunt in the area because it had become a national preserve - against their informed consent. Additionally, they were informed they could only herd reindeer in three specific spots and could not take them past the Tengis River and Gugned Valley. To ensure the Dukha couldn’t hunt, the government forbade them from bringing their dogs to guard the reindeer.[1]
In or around mid-2016, five Dukha hunters were arrested for poaching while in search of food. They have since returned to the Dukha settlement but face up to five years in prison and a hefty fine for breaking the hunting laws.[2]
It’s unclear whether mining is actually happening within Tengis Shishged, but the mining industry is the cause of Mongolia’s recent economic boom and poses a variety of threats to both the environment and other industrial economic sectors.[1]
Mongolia Law on Protected Areas, Article 12, Section 1(3) went into effect on April 1, 1995[1]
Mongolia Law on Hunting, passed on May 5, 2000[2]
Mongolia Law Creating Protected Cultural Areas, 2014. The law would place management of these areas in the hands of local communities. However, as of 2016, the law had yet to be implemented and the Dukha were unaware of its existence.[3]