Collaborators
Sandagsuren Undargaa (PhD)
Dr. Undargaa is a development researcher from Mongolia and founded DRIMEA in 2020. She is a visiting fellow with the Mongolia Institute, the Australian National University. More >>>
Agipar Bakyei (PhD, ScD & Academician)
Advisor - Professor Bakyei is the Director at the Center for Agricultural Economics and Innovation Development, Mongolian University of Life Science (MULS). More >>>
Carol Kerven (PhD)
Advisor - Dr. Kerven is Editor-in-Chief of the journal 'Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice' .
Jane Addision (PhD)
Advisor - Dr Addison is a social-ecological systems scientist, and lecturer. More >>>
Tungalagtuya Khuukhenduu
Advisor - Tungalagtuya Khuukhenduu (Tunga) is the program director at the Nomadic Nature Conservation, Mongolia and the country coordinator of the Land of Snow Leopard (LOSL), an International Network Organization based in the USA. More >>>
Ryan Maroney
Advisor - Ryan lives in Alaska and has worked there as a technical specialist and conservation planner for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service since 2004. More >>>
Khash-Erdene Badamlyankhua
Advisor - Badamlyankhua started her professional experience in 2009 in Mongolia working on numerous policy research and development projects in various public sectors including MULS and Ministries of Energy, Economic Development, and the state-owned telecommunication company. More >>>
Mark Murphy
Advisor - Mark is an agricultural specialist with the U.S. government. In 2000, Mark served in the US Peace Corps in Mongolia. More >>>
Partners
The Center for Agricultural Economics and Innovation Development, Mongolian University of Life Science, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia - https://en.muls.edu.mn
Mongolia Institute, College of Asia & the Pacific, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia - https://mongoliainstitute.anu.edu.au
People Centered Conservation, a non-governmental organization, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia - http://www.pcc.mn
Nomadic Nature Conservation, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia - https://nnc-mongolia.org
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Dr. Undargaa is a development researcher from Mongolia and founded DRIMEA in 2020. She is a visiting fellow with the Mongolia Institute, the Australian National University. Since 2000, Undargaa has been working on Mongolia related projects. She has 17 years of professional experience working throughout Mongolia on international development and research projects funded by international bilateral organizations and academic institutes. She completed her BA in Linguistics at University of the Humanities (Humuunlegiin Ih Surguuli), Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and her MA in Development Studies at the Development Studies Centre, Anthropology Department at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Undargaa obtained her PhD in Environmental Management and Development (2014) at the Crawford School of Public Policy, the Australian National University, Australia. In 2016, she published her PhD thesis on Herlen Bayan-Ulaan State Reserve Pasture Area as a book titled ‘Pastoralism and Common Pool Resources: Rangeland Comanagement, Property Rights and Access in Mongolia’ (Routledge), and as articles in peer-reviewed international journals (See Academia.edu & Researchgate). Undargaa has been working independently since 2014. Since 2020, Undargaa serves as an Associate Editor of ‘Pastoralism: Research Policy and Practice’.
Undargaa is interested in understanding historical and contemporary public governance, property and gender relations in the context of mobile pastoralism in Mongolia and Inner Asia. Her research areas are in political ecology, common pool resource management, historical and contemporary mobile pastoralism, property rights and resource access, gender, livestock production and market, labor movement and migration, indigenous pastoral production, land grab and forced re-settlement, state and community-based natural resource management, and herders’ application and use of information technology and social media tools in accessing resources.
Current research
- Pastoralism, property rights and access: Follow-up on Herlen Bayan-Ulaan case studies.
- Livestock marketing.
- Pastoralism, mobility and migration.
Agipar Bakyei (PhD, ScD & Acamedician)
Advisor - Professor Bakyei is the Director at the Center for Agricultural Economics and Innovation Development, Mongolian University of Life Science (MULS). Bakyei has an extensive professional experience of over 30 years teaching and researching Mongolian livestock, and agricultural sector as well as other public governance and State Legislature. He is an Academician (Member) of the Mongolian Academy of Science. Bakyei was also an Ex-Parliamentarian elected twice for the Ulsiin Ikh Khural (Parliament of Mongolia). Since 1984, Bakyei has been working for the Mongolian public sector as an economist, lecturer and has been leading the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, and served as Vice President for Administration, Academic Affairs, and Research Departments at MULS. Whilst serving as a Parliament Member, he served the Chairman of Standing Committee on Environment, Food and Agriculture (2005-2007) and as the Chairman of Standing Committee on State Structure (2012-2016). Since 1997, he has been working as a consultant and team leader on numerous national and international development projects and programs with the support of Asian Development Bank, Swiss Development Agency, World Bank, World Wildlife Fund, United Nations Development Program, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, and Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry.
Bakyei completed his Bachelor in Economics at the Mongolian State University of Agriculture (current MULS), PhD in Economics at National University of Mongolia, Science Doctor in Economics at the Mongolian Academy of Science, and the Honorary Doctor at the Siberian Federal Scientific Centre of Agro-Bio Technologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moreover, he completed various advanced professional training such as Workshop on Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands at the National Bureau to combat Forestry Administration, Huh Hot City, Inner Mongolia, China, Chinese language course at the National University of China, Beijing, Courses on Market Economy at People’s University of China, Beijing, and MBA Essentials at Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburg, USA.
Research areas
- Analysis of Development of Policy and Legislation
- Rural socio-economic Development and Environment
- Socio-economic issues of pastoral livestock husbandry, and
- Development of higher education program for the agricultural sector.
Advisor - Dr Addison is a social-ecological systems scientist, and lecturer. Her current research interests include environmental/social and economic trade-offs in development, development futures, resource institutions, the livelihood/conservation nexus, off-reserve conservation and strategies for managing variability and uncertainty. She has a particular place-based interest in dryland pastoral landscapes, and Indigenous land-uses. With colleagues, she is working on a number of projects across northern Australia that are examining the potential benefits and trade-offs of different development models, and is also involved in an international research for development project in Mongolia and China. Previously, Jane worked as a consultant plant ecologist in the private and NGO sector, where she advised on land management and environmental impact assessments to a range of clients across northern and central Australia, and internationally. Jane is a Fellow of The Cairns Institute, and Associate Editor of the journal Society and Natural Resources.
Advisor - Tungalagtuya Khuukhenduu (Tunga) is the program director at the Nomadic Nature Conservation, Mongolia, a non-profit organization, which she founded in 2010 with the support of her colleagues. She also serves as a member and the country coordinator of the Land of Snow Leopard (LOSL), an International Network Organization based in the USA.
Tunga is a well-known wildlife researcher and an expert in community-based sustainable conservation in rural Mongolia. She completed her Bachelor and Master of Science in Biology and Biotechnology School of the National University of Mongolia. Since 1994, she has worked on numerous wildlife research and environmental development projects concerning wolf, takhi (wild horse), wild ungulate population trends in Hustai National Park, Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park and other World Heritage sites in Mongolia. She has also worked on international donor supported community-based wildlife population monitoring, forest and pasture management projects, and community education programs in Gobi desert, Eastern steppe eco-region, mountain and forest ecosystems.
Tunga has an extensive professional background in science and conservation awareness. As the mission of Nomadic Nature Conservation, Tunga works to cultivate a culture of conservation-minded Mongolians and create a better place for future generations. She played a major role in creating Nomadic Nature Trunk Program, a high mountain-ecosystem conservation program. This program has produced and distributed mobile classrooms for more than one hundred rural schools, communities and national parks throughout Mongolia, funding provided by Denver Zoo, WCS, Snow Leopard Conservancy, UNDP, NZNI and other international organizations. In particular, she has developed Ecological Education curriculum based on participatory and game-based lessons, which were designed to match specific ecosystems and provided information about endangered species including irvis (snow leopard), saiga (Mongolian gazelle) and takhi (whild horse) and khulan (wild ass). She also provides capacity building training to environmental educators in rural Mongolia. Since 2019, the Nomadic Nature Trunk Program has also been implemented for stakeholders in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Buryatia and Altai Republic as well as Sevrei village, Umnogobi province in Mongolia for the purpose of conserving snow leopard, a sacred cat species. In 2015-2019, Tunga was honored with ‘Conservation Hero Award’ from Disney Conservation Fund for her outstanding contribution to environmental education and awareness through Nomadic Trunk and LOSL.
Advisor - Ryan lives in Alaska and has worked there as a technical specialist and conservation planner for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service since 2004. His work supports implementation of voluntary USDA conservation programs with Alaska Native Tribes and other private landowners and is built on a foundation of locally-led, collaborative partnerships. Ryan has a deep interest in understanding and addressing conflicts between working lands and wildlife and was recognized in 2008 for his role in a project mitigating All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) impacts to critical waterfowl and shorebird habitat in western Alaska. Additionally, Ryan is interested in exploring the biophysical and social dimensions of land and resource management in the context of economic development and social justice.
Ryan has degrees in environmental science and resource conservation and completed graduate research on wildlife management in Central Asia. While a student in the University of Montana’s International Conservation and Development Program, Ryan participated in the US Peace Corps’ Master’s International Program from 2000-2002. As a volunteer, he lived in western Mongolia and worked to support protected area wildlife research and participatory conservation initiatives.
Ryan’s research focused on management and conservation activities for argali (wild sheep) in Mongolia and his 2005 publication in the journal Biological Conservation 'Conservation of argali Ovis ammon in western Mongolia and the Altai-Sayan' has been citied over 30 times. He has also coauthored publications with Mongolian and Russian colleagues in the Mongolian Journal of Biological Sciences as well as the IUCN Species Survival Commission Caprinae specialist group’s newsletter - Caprinae News. When not working, Ryan enjoys spending time with family and friends exploring Alaska’s rivers, mountains and other wild places.
Advisor - Badamlyankhua started her professional experience in 2009 in Mongolia working on numerous policy research and development projects in various public sectors including Mongolian University of Life Sciences (MULS) and Ministries of Energy, Economic Development, and state-owned telecommunication company. Whilst working as the Research coordinator at the Centre for Agricultural Economy & Innovation Development, MULS, she also worked as a support staff in several research projects in sustainable agriculture development in Mongolia.
In 2008, Badamlyankhua obtained her Bachelor’s degree in economics from the School of Economics & Business (SEB), MULS. In 2012, Badamlyankhua completed her Master’s degree in Business Administration at the Graduate School of Management, Kookmin University, Seoul, Korea. Recently, she also completed a Master’s in Environmental Management at the University of New South Wales, Australia. She is interested in the area of environmental economics and pastureland management.
Advisor - Mark is an agricultural specialist with the U.S. government. In 2000, Mark served in the US Peace Corps in Mongolia. He worked on environmental education awareness in rural communities, as well as training of Mongolian biologists and park rangers in contemporary research methodologies and field observation techniques in conducting surveys for snow leopards and their prey species in mountainous regions of western Mongolia.
Additionally, Mark gained knowledge and experience in Nepal researching some of the impacts on the environment in addition to impacts on conservation organizations regarding their ability to work in conflict-affected regions, and in Kazakhstan, participating in environmental education awareness activities.
Mark obtained his BS in Environmental Science from Oregon State University in 1998 and an MA in International Development from Brandeis University in 2005. He has a keen interest in Inner and Central Asian history, culture and affairs and the region as a whole. Mark has a deep appreciation of rural communities and the issues they face and is ever intent on learning more.