Introducing Our Heroes Of Nature Eco Club
Connecting Urban Kids to Mongolia’s Wild Side: The Heroes of Nature Eco Club
Although Mongolia is celebrated for its vast open spaces, nearly half of its population now lives in Ulaanbaatar, the capital. According to a survey by the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) in July 2022, around 33% of Ulaanbaatar’s residents are under the age of 17. The same survey shed light on a shortage of youth clubs and a significant lack of green spaces, leaving many city-based kids with limited opportunities to connect with nature.
These statistics, coupled with our commitment to a Nature Positive Policy, inspired us to create the Heroes of Nature Eco Club in collaboration with our ongoing partner, the Association Goviin Khulan. Designed for urban Mongolian kids, especially those in Ulaanbaatar, our informal club provides young members with engaging activities that allow them to explore and appreciate nature within their city environment. By nurturing an early love and respect for nature, we hope to lay the foundation for responsible environmental stewardship and inspire these young people to become future advocates for the environment.
Why Ulaanbaatar Needs a Nature Club for Kids
Mongolia does offer other wildlife and environmental clubs for kids, such as the Youth Sustainability Corps and the Junior Ranger program by the Mongol Ecology Centre. However, these programmes focus on rural regions, leaving urban children with few options. Our club aims to bridge this gap by offering tailored projects that are accessible and relevant to children in Mongolia’s urban spaces.
How Our Club Works
Every two months, we introduce a new theme that immerses children in nature-based learning, from understanding the water cycle and protecting local water resources to creating nature journals. Each project offers a range of fun, interactive tasks that kids can complete at their own pace, with incentives like badges and awards to keep them motivated. The activities are designed to suit their urban lifestyle and inspire curiosity about the environment around them.
We’re also integrating our club activities with Ulaanbaatar-based projects we support through long-term partnerships, such as Gerhub, which runs a community space in the Songinokhairkhan ger district. Looking ahead, we aim to link our projects with schools across the city, allowing our activities to serve as part of both classroom learning and extra-curricular engagement.
Launching the Club on Earth Day
We officially launched the Heroes of Nature Eco Club on Earth Day, April 22—a day to celebrate Earth and encourage positive action. For our inaugural event, we invited younger children to create posters encouraging Mongolians to take environmental action, while older members wrote letters to the Mongolian government expressing why protecting nature is so vital. You can check out our Earth Day projects here.
Highlighting Birds of Ulaanbaatar
Our next club project focused on Birds of Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia is home to 70 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) as designated by BirdLife International, but none are in the capital. Still, Ulaanbaatar’s urban landscape provides a habitat for various bird species that are vital for maintaining a healthy ecosystem. This project allowed kids to connect with urban wildlife and understand how we coexist with these creatures in our daily lives.
Looking Ahead: Future Projects for Young Eco Champions
Our upcoming projects will dive into topics like:
- Keeping a Nature Journal
- Celebrating World Wildlife Day
- Understanding the Water Cycle
- Reducing Plastic Use
- Learning about Trees and Flowers of Ulaanbaatar
- Participating in Litter Clean-Up Events
- Exploring the 6 R’s of Sustainability: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle
- Discussing Environmental Improvements for Ulaanbaatar
- Soil Conservation Awareness
- Addressing Air Pollution
However, after launching our first two projects, we’ve temporarily paused to focus on finding the ideal community location for our nature club. If you’re reading this and have any suggestions or connections that could help, please reach out—we’d love to hear from you!
Our work with the Heroes of Nature Eco Club is an ongoing journey, and we’re eager to see it grow and evolve. After completing our first two projects, we’ve taken a pause to focus on finding the ideal community location for the club. If you have suggestions or connections that could help us in this search, please reach out—we’d love to hear from you! And if you’d like to learn more or explore ways to get involved, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Jess @ Eternal Landscapes
Simultaneously, Jess co-founded a local wildlife group in her hometown. Since the pandemic, she has been supporting her mother full-time, which has meant spending more time in Devon, UK. Wanting to give back to her community, Jess teamed up with a local parish councillor and conservationist to create Wild Oke—Okehampton’s Wildlife Group.
