About Mongolica

Travel Differently

Our products and services will encourage you to step off the same path you have taken every year. Our great trips will bring you face to face with the world’s most fascinating nomadic cultures, customs and inspiring wildlife.

We Value Your Investment

Sustainable tourism should not have to be beneficial to a company. It has to be beneficial to everyone linked to the business. This reason drives us to offer you the most competitive priced tours in comparison with others.

Product Variety and Your Choice

Tour operators that deal with birding and wildlife watching and photographing in Mongolia have not offered the largest variety and inspiring products and destinations in the world yet. However, it is your choice to take it as action.

Sustainable Tourism Aspects

We encourage local people/nomads and new generations of wildlife conservationists to continually intensify their actions in this field in terms of experience and expertise and take this action in the near future. New generations of sustainable tourism developers and conservationists are always “behind” our service and products. Also we encourage all kinds of support to conservationists through sponsorship, donation and actions.

Let Me Stay in “My Own House” Option

In Mongolia, we will accommodate tourists in Mongolian traditional ger camps. They will share their accommodation with our group members. Some people prefer to have their own ger, which is why we offer single travelers a “My Own House” option—a single ger all to yourself at a reasonable price.

Experienced Guides

Our guides are experienced, professional, enthusiastic, friendly and funny.

Ideal for everyone

We respect our guests and elderly people, since it is an important part of our Asian tradition. This is our advantage to give a good service to customers. We will deliver the perfect service to every client with as much as help and individual attention you need.

Detail Planned Itineraries

Given that the Mongolian situation, somethings are unpredictable, including weather and transport. However, we carefully planned our itinerary based on these challenges. We will serve you with “good local food and great birding”.

Mongolian Specialties

We are the only team that knows the locations where a number of Mongolian specialties can be presented to our customers.

Photography

Mongolia is considered to be a perfect destination for photographers because it has many sunny bright days. We will try at our best to finding the birds, animals and scenery.

Resources

We will supply all of our clients with the latest annotated checklists of birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and fishes. We work together with experts in our country.

Transportation

Our customers will never use public transport unless in the case of emergency. But due to your request we can use Trans-Siberian Railway and Air planes for special tours. We will travel with 4WD vehicles, and also on horses, camels. We like to implement various solutions.

Easy and Safe Payment

We signed the contract with the one of the best banks in Mongolia, Trade and Development Bank, for getting the safety and secure service.

At Mongolica Travel, we are aware of the adverse impacts on the environment, culture, and economy from tourism if not properly operated, so that we make every decision and take every action considering principles of sustainable tourism. At all the times, we make efforts to organize our tours and trips with the least adverse effects on wildlife and their habitats and local culture and people. As an environment-friendly organization, Mongolica Travel has supported dozens of wildlife conservation and research actions in Mongolia until today. In this Sustainability Policy, we have included everything related to sustainability within/outside of the company. Within the company, everyone has a major in biology and they obtained an enthusiasm for conservation through love and passion for birds. Mongolica travel works in tight relationship with the local NGOs and supports the promotion activities of conservation, research, and education on wildlife. We choose locally owned hotels and tourist ger lodges and hire local guides and drivers. We are participating in CBI’s Export Coaching Programme in order to improve service quality and management. Mongolica travel is working hard to join Travelife as a certified stage by complying all the criteria, which is the highest stage Travelife grants the tour operators based their sustainability. Please read the articles about our sustainable or responsible actions and activities or kindly contact our sustainability coordinator if you have any questions regarding our sustainability policy and actions and activities.

Munkhzaya B.

• Sustainability Coordinator
• munkhzaya@mongolica.org

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

• We put wildlife first. For example, in order to avoid direct disturbance to the breeding, we always keep a certain distance to the nests and leave as fast as possible after viewing or photographing them.
• We do not litter. We always bring trash bags ready in the vehicles and dispose of the trashes properly in the villages/towns we visit. We separate the waste into different categories non-recyclable and recyclable (plastic bags, bottles, and paper).
• We grab only photographs with us from the wildlife destinations we visit. Our clients and guides never take natural and cultural sources such as stones, plants, feathers, insects etc. We think these things should belong to their own Mother Nature.
• When camping, we do not have proper flush toilets, but we use a simple field toilet in which we dig up a hole and put two timbers on the two sides of the opening. When we leave, we cover it by soil and put back the outer layer, which is the part with green plants.
• Only clean burning fuel (butane gas) used for cooking in the field. We do not make campfires in areas considered a fire risk zone.
• The tour participants provided with certificated water bottles in which they can re-fill so that we can reduce the use of plastic bottles during the trip.
• We use environmentally friendly shampoos, detergents, etc., and avoid putting them in rivers, lakes, and/or water wells.
In our office:
• We always ensure that we are not printing files unless indispensable and always use the unprinted side of a paper. We reduce the need for paper in our office with the use of computer technology. The purchased papers have been produced in an eco-friendly factory, which produces papers from sustainably managed forests, recycled and controlled sources.
• Reservations details, invoices, and other documents sent or received emails instead of printings.
• In our office, we are equipped with electricity efficient LED lights, which switched off whenever not required.
• We try to purchase local products including hand soaps, toilet rolls, tea bags, coffee, and other office furniture such as desks, chairs, and bookshelf.
• We prefer online conference through Skype in order to reduce the travel by vehicles.

• Our most important policy is to make sure that everyone working with us should benefit from the tourism business. The main priority is to support local communities by renting their horses/camels, purchasing their handicrafts, and tipping when visiting their family. Further, we work to raise the income into our workers including office staff, guides, and drivers. Local restaurants, hotels, ger lodges, and suppliers are also gaining profits from our business. The company pays official income tax to the state, which is currently 10 percent of all costs per tour.
• The company is a wildlife-oriented small business in Mongolia, which has 4 permanent staff and more than 20 contemporary workers including guides, drivers, and wildlife experts.
• All equipment and food products, local produce if possible, supplied from the local markets. We choose locally owned restaurants, hotels, and ger lodges.
• We pay entrance fees in order to penetrate into specially protected areas in Mongolia, which varies between 3,000 MNT and 18,000 MNT per person depending on the area’s management policy. Road tolls and monastery or cultural performances are also paid.
• We support conservation and/or promotion of conservation activities since our establishment. For instance, the company has fully covered the expenses for the local celebration of World Migratory Bird Day for the last 3 years. In addition, it has partly supported the bird-ringing project at Tsagaan Lake for the last 4 years.
• We support students on their tuition fees fully or partially. Last year, in 2016, the company has supported four bachelors’ and two masters’ students with the fees for the autumn semester.

• Our top priority is to provide the best possible stay for our clients. Giving the best service to our clients is the guarantee to run the business successfully in the long term. We get feedback from our clients at the end of our tours and we work towards filling the gaps in operating upcoming tours successfully.
• We respect the tradition and lifestyle of the local people. When visiting the local community, we advise our clients to accept food or drink from the host/hostess and try a little bit if he/she is not interested or has health reasons.
• According to Mongolian law, 11% out of 31% of a staff’s salary quoted for the social and health insurance fees covered by the company for our permanent staff. The wage is a way higher than minimum salary quoted from the government. The company has a written contract with the staff to regulate all aspects of health and safety as well as working condition etc. Paid sick leaves and a fixed yearly paid holiday are available for the staff. Mongolica travel does not limit the staff’s freedom to join the trade associations/unions and quit work with their freedom of will.
• We give guidance and organize training on health and safety issues to both our temporary and permanent staffs annually regarding their roles and rights.
• We share the ideas of sustainability to our clients and suppliers and encourage them to follow. Moreover, Mongolica travel prefers to contract with standard and clean hotels and ger lodges, which implemented the principles of sustainability as possible.
• We have been cooperating with local bird-conservation NGO Mongolian Ornithological Society in a close relationship and supporting fully or partly its conservation actions and field researchers. We help local authors publish books, guidebooks, journals, monographs etc.
• Every year we operate an internship program to train students from the National University of Mongolia. The program enables students to develop their ability to identifying birds and knowledge on birds and other wildlife as well as improving their languages skills communicating our foreign clients in English. The students assist the guide by taking a part of the tour.

Our team comprises some of the most experienced experts in the field. We aim to give great satisfaction to our clients and staff through our inspiring products and services whilst ensuring that the Mongolian nomadic lifestyle which balances human and wildlife co-existence, is maintained in its undisturbed state.

What will not change is our passion for making sure you get behind the scenes to experience the real world in an authentic and sustainable manner. Preserving cultural heritage and conserving the natural environment, whilst improving the lives of local people, is the essence of our way of traveling with you and is integrated into every decision and action we take at Mongolia Co. Ltd.

Mongolica Consultancy always cooperates with experts, rangers, managers, and directors from specially protected area’s administrations when we conduct the field surveys.

Mongolica team consists of top experts experienced in the research on invertebrate, fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, mammal and plants of Mongolia. They have more than a 20-year work experience in the field of tourism and wildlife research and conservation.

We will have the best expertise in taxonomy, distribution, density, abundant, breeding ecology, threat, and conservation of each taxon. Our team is also experienced in the consultancy of biodiversity richness, ecosystem service, and environmental impact assessment. Mongolica team is able to run field works on the determination of species composition, status, distribution, and abundance and to make a threat assessment in your study or selected sites in Mongolia. They all speak English and have traveled all around Mongolia.

Most experts have been extensively working on the special interest tourism and community-based tourism as coordinators and guides for many years in Mongolia. Experts have own best references and materials on the above-mentioned aspects.

We use internationally accepted field equipment and survey methods. Eej Khad, September 2013.

General issues:

• In order to get our consultancy, you will need to do the following:
• Arrange a personal meeting with the expert of Mongolica
• The meeting will be focused on your own request, framework and volume of your works - components required for the expertise
• Clearly identify your idea or comment on your request
• Clearly mention written documents
• Inform about the duration and expected date of your requested work
• Present your own contract draft of your work if you have drafted it before
• After identifying your clear request, volume and feasibility of your work, and your expected results, we will make a draft and officially sign it.
• Our consultancy will seriously begin on the basis of the contract
• Every single step and stage will be regulated and controlled by signed contract. So both parties should focus on the contract, including the cost of the service.

Mongolica Consultancy has been conducting bird-risk assessments from high power lines and wind farms in Mongolia since 2009.

Wildlife consultancy aspects:

• Wildlife species composition
• Wildlife status
• Wildlife distribution
• Wildlife abundance
• Wildlife threat assessment
• Wildlife conservation issues
• Wildlife habitat and site selection and protection issues
• Wildlife guidebooks and brochures
• Wildlife photographs and videos

Tourism consultancy aspects:

• Wildlife-based tourism aspects
• Wildlife and tourist lodge aspect issue
• New destination issues
• New niche product issues
• Wildlife watching and filming tours

If you want to start your own business and require information concerning a particular site or field, our team will be happy to offer you the best consultancy services.

Tel: 98092223

E-mail: info@mongolica.org, consultancymongolica@gmail.com

Web: www.mongolica.org

Every year we organize training in order to provide opportunities for our staff to develop their knowledge and skills both in the field and office.

Assessments and research on conservation and environment:

2016. The first extensive field baseline survey on target species in some protected areas in Mongolia. Funded by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, KfW and Climate Change and Adaptation Fund.

2015. Manual field guides to the Ulz and Uvs Lake Valleys. Funded by UNDP and Adaptation Fund.

2015. The extensive field surveys on the birds of Munkhkhairkhan protected area. Funded by Munkhkhairkhan PA.

2015. Assessment and Special Interest Tourism Development in Alagtsar, Khuvsgul province. Funded by Alagtsar Tourism board.

2014-2017. Biological Monitoring and Environmental Assessment at the Tsetsii Wind Farm. Funded by Clean Energy Asia.

2014. Monitoring study on birds and big mammals in Khan-Khentii SPA in collaboration with Globus Co.LTD. Funded by MEGDT.

2013-2014. Wetlands and migratory birds’ monitoring funded by Asian waterbird conservation fund, WWF - Hong Kong.

2013-2014. The first national biodiversity photograph contest “Mongolica 2013” funded by Ministry of Environment and Green Development, Mongolia.

2013. World Migratory Bird Day financed by Mongolica Co. Ltd.

2013. Conservation and sustainable management of migratory waterbird habitat at Dashinchilen Tsagaan Wetlands, Mongolia. Funded by Asia Waterbird Conservation Fund.

2012-2013. Powerlines and Electrocution of Raptors in Mongolia project. Funded by the Ministry of Nature, Environment, and Tourism, Mongolia.

2008-2009. Risk assessments of high power electric lines in Mongolia. Funded by the Asia Research Centre, Korean Foundation for Advanced Studies, South Korea.

2007-2008. Mitigating raptor electrocutions in Mongolia. Funded by IBRC, Eilat, Israel, Lynette International Foundation, UK and EDM International, Inc USA.

Our Clients: