Background:
In Hovsgol National Park in northern Mongolia, about half of the people still live as traditional nomads and defy the increasing rural exodus and alienation of Mongolian traditions.
In Hovsgol National Park, tourism is the only way for the majority of the population, which is still traditionally nomadic, to generate additional income and stabilize income from nomadic livestock farming. The Mongolian government has been developing the transportation infrastructure in this remote part of the world for about ten years, which has increased tourism figures tenfold from 10,000 to 100,000 per year. A further tripling to 300,000 in the next 10 years is targeted - actually not a problem in an area of the size of Northern Ireland.
Ger-Camps (Ger is the Mongolian word for yurt) extend in the meantime however over 45 km only at the west bank in the national park of the Hovsgol Lake. There are no public structures for waste disposal, and wild waste deposits cause major environmental problems, especially for the drinking water quality of the lake, thus endangering the beauty and unspoiled nature of the park for tourists and locals. Our Mongolian partners have been organizing and financing a garbage collection service since 2002, when tourism figures were still at yearly 10,000. This is increasingly reaching capacity limits and makes it necessary to develop a sustainable and self-sustaining system, which we want to work on in the coming years.