Communities in Action for Nature™

An innovative board activity that aims to empower herder communities to co-design conservation solutions through maps, discussion cards, educational activities and shared knowledge.

The mechanism and first stages of this activity have been finalized in October 2025.

This innovative and ethical participatory board activity empowers local communities to co-design conservation solutions rooted in their own knowledge and priorities. Through an interactive, map-based setup, participants visualize local landscapes, natural resources, wildlife presence, and environmental challenges.

Using figurines, cards, and prompt-based discussions, community members share and document Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), locate wildlife habitats and distribution, explore the ecosystem services provided by local species, identify and locate environmental challenges and collectively identify opportunities for sustainable coexistence between people, livestock, and wildlife.

Additional map layers allow participants to overlay information such as wildlife habitats, critical water sources, grazing areas, and potential conflict or restoration zones - helping visualize and discuss practical, place-based conservation strategies.

Educational activities and games as well as visuals and data-based presentations and discussions will be also introduced and linked to the maps and discussions to help bridge TEK and conservation science in some contexts.

Local community members become local conservation leaders and not only participants.

All activities are designed with an ethical approach to participation and knowledge sharing. Participants will have full access to the results of their discussions and will receive visual and written summaries - such as photos, printed materials, or a folder with updatable sheets (as we previously used with the communities we work in the southeastern Gobi) - capturing the co-designed solutions and ideas developed together.

The knowledge, insights, and materials created during each session belong to the community that produced them. These materials will be used only with that community and will not be shared with other groups or external stakeholders without their prior consent. This ensures that Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and locally generated solutions are respected, protected, and remain under the community’s control.

Communities in Action For Nature™ is a participatory conservation activity developed by Association GOVIIN KHULAN. © 2015. All rights reserved.

The visuals above represent some of the figurines that have been designed for the activity but not the totality of them.