This week we’re visiting Mongolia’s decade-long rangeland monitoring stations to begin validating our analyses against what’s actually happening on the ground.

At two monitoring stations so far, we compared the recorded degradation state with the State and Transition Models (STM) and identified the dominant plant species in the field. The observations aligned well with the expected degradation category for those ecological sites and were further corroborated through discussions with local soum officials who know these landscapes firsthand.

One early takeaway: green does not always mean healthy. From the road, these pastures looked lush, but field observations told a much more nuanced ecological story.

Next, we’ll be meeting directly with herders in the area to better understand how they assess rangeland condition, manage risk, and view changes in pasture over time.

We’re still early in the process, and this is just the beginning. Looking forward to sharing more findings as our fieldwork continues.