Drones and Beavers: A Watershed Moment for Mongolia’s Park Rangers

We are standing on a mountaintop outside Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It’s part of the Khan Khentii mountain range and rests above an aquifer and watershed providing water to the city where about 1.4 million people – half the country’s population – live. 

Mr. Chingel prepares a drone using a handheld control unit. The drone rises straight up, hovers a moment above us, then speeds off over the trees. This is a conservation drone, used to monitor the area for illegal activity.

Chingel is head of the Ranger Protection Unit at the Ulaanbaatar Environment Department and leads a force of 33 rangers patrolling Ulaanbaatar’s green zone.

There are four of us – Chingel, a ranger named Tsogbaatar, a driver, a Mongolian journalist translating, and me. 

Drones, GPS Tracking, and Ranger Safety 

The area urban rangers patrol is about 470,000 hectares and nine districts in central and outer “UB,” as locals call Ulaanbaatar. This breaks down to 5,000 to 10,000 hectares each. While smaller than the areas national rangers patrol, the population they interact with is much greater. 

A week before, I had met Battulga Erkhembayar, director of the Ulaanbaatar Environment Department, who explained why rangers used drones. Given the importance of this ecosystem, increasing rural migration to the city, and concerns about ranger safety, new technology is being implemented. In the past 10 years, three rangers have died while performing their duties, most recently a ranger with young children.

“His name was Ganbayar. He was in his 30s with four or five children. The youngest child is 2 or 3 years old,” Battulga told The Diplomat. “People say he was killed by illegal loggers, but the official police report says it was a motorcycle crash.”

The department decided to introduce changes. Rangers are advised about what to do in risky situations, which includes not confronting people suspected of engaging in illegal activity when alone. Rangers travel in pairs and are encouraged to record incidents using drones, as video can be used as evidence according to Mongolia’s laws. The UB unit has two drones for patrols.

“There were some articles on local news after his death. Most people became aware of how hard the work of rangers is. The family is not interested in publicity about the case, but they are okay with information used to change the working situation for rangers,” added Battulga.

Rangers have a broad scope of work because of the greater population in the area. They must monitor burning coal, hunting, campfires, and illegal mining. Even foraging for wild berries and pine nuts must be regulated.

“A few people cannot harm nature, but 1 million people can cause harm, so we ask them to pay for the license fee – we get assistance from the police department for this,” says Battulga. Studies on the health of the Khan Khenti and Tuul river watershed confirm degradation from overuse.

Battulga says that he survived a serious accident while chasing illegal loggers, which left him with broken bones requiring surgery and metal pins. 

The department has now instituted a satellite GPS tracking system, which monitors rangers’ movements. They are able to signal for help using three codes through the tool.

“One code marker indicates that ‘everything is fine,’ another code marker signals ‘SOS,’ while the third code signals ‘fire,’” says Battulga.

Despite the close proximity to UB, the area the rangers work in can be remote. The day we joined them, we drove off-road across fields and up hills, getting stuck once briefly in the mud. There was no phone signal until we drove closer to Gachuurt, a suburb of UB.