To gain credibility and experience at policy level and in knowledge management CODEP planned field level interventions in different sub-sectors related to desertification. The project will therefore engage in concrete actions such as community mobilization and transfer of appropriate technologies.

Component 2 supports local communities with the help of respective authorities to plan and implement soil and water conservation technologies and approaches for more sustainable use of farm and pastureland and fair distribution of available water resources in Khovd aimag;

Four major causes of desertification were identified in Khovd aimag:

-  pasture land degradation through overgrazing
-  forest degradation due to deforestation for timber and removal of shrubs(kharagana, saxaul) for fuelwood
-  unsustainable use of water resources
-  climate change

Therefore, Component 2 is divided into 5 sub-components: 
-  Herding  
-  Farming  
-  Integrated water management
-  Energy efficient technologies
-  Alternative livelihood options

1. Livestock production is the most important source of livelihood in rural Mongolia. However, increasing livestock population and overgrazing and inappropriate management of pasture land led to pasture degradation. Once pasture land degradation has reached a certain level, it is almost impossible to restore it and reverse the trend of desertification. Therefore, it is essential to introduce sustainable management practices of pasture land before the land is too much degraded.

The current, more or less free access to pasture land, does not motivate the herders to take care of the land and other natural resources. CODEP in collaboration with local authorities and with the help of the Mongolian Society for Range Management (MSRM) has started organising local herder communities into Pasture User Groups (PUGs), which manage joinlty thier respective pasture areas. This approach will help designing an appropriate policy approach to effectively introduce more sustainable herding practice/culture.       

Discussion with herders and authorities in Khovd confirmed the lessons learnt from external partner-supported programmes that common property use needs to be maintained. Further the crucial role of pastoral grassroots institutions and of local bodies for collaborative management of grassland and other resources is important. By scaling-up lessons learnt in community organization and co-management in pasture use the project can make an important contribution to formulate policies and regulations for sustainable pastureland in Khovd.

2. This sub-component focuses on water, soil and biomass cycles and their interactions and technologies. Khovd team is going to the field to train and advise farmers on soil and water conservation technologies and good practices.

In efforts to combat desertification, the project developed a Land use map of Buyant River Delta in Khovd aimag with an assistance of remote sensing specialist by using paper map from IKONOS high resolution satellite imageries. This map can provide comprehensive, relatively accurate and up-to date information on the status and trends of land utilization and it resources, including farm land, tenure, high risk area of degradation, current irrigation system. These are all important factors for further land planning.
The new land use map is an important tool for improvement of sustainable land use in favour of some 600-1000 farmers, who mainly produce vegetables, fruits and fodder crops along the Buyant River.
Most of the farmers identify increasing scarcity of irrigation and drinking water as the main problem in the region.

 The scale of changes in land use pattern is very intensive and accelerating through ever growing agricultural land use and inefficient management of water resource, which accelerates desertification process. 
In terms of community development already 9 Farmer groups are volonterely established and implementing concrete actions at the grassroot level to test and implement viable approaches and technologies for coping with desertification.

3. Current water management is characterized by inefficient water use coupled with reducing water levels and inequitable distribution of water in Buyant River valley. Farmers are digging channels into the river without considering negative consequences. In addition, irrigation practices are very basic without any technical know-how. Therefore, CODEP is supporting the local initiative to organize farmers in having equitable water use via an institutionalized approach. Several consultations were held to conclude that the process is bottom up and voluntary based.
In April a water forum is planned to brainstorm and discuss on how to improve water management, set up democratic institutions and what other activities and trainings the water users need.
The project supported a small scale irrigation scheme, which was developed locally. A water wheel floating on the river is bringing the water up to the riverbank and into channels to the adjunct fields. No external energy source is required to operate the wheel.

Interests between the farmers for water are conflicting with each other and coordination and cooperation is time consuming. Water management should be organised down to the lowest possible level where a common interest exists. Conflicting interests cannot be easily handled in the same group. Conceptually there is thus a need to organise farmers at the field canal level, that is all farmers irrigating from the same canal in one group, the Water User Group (WUG). Field canals taking water from the same branch are federated in Water User Associations (WUA). WUA are thus the negotiating platform for planning water to the different field canals. They in their turn are federated into Canal Management Organisations (CMO) where water allocation to the different branches is discussed. CMOs themselves would be represented in the River Water Council as the legitimate representatives from the irrigation sector. Setting up of Buyant River Basin Council and the institutional support will be supported by WWF through the mandate.  

4. About 72% of Mongolia's households live in traditional gers or wooden houses using trees and shrubs for heating and cooking. This demand is a huge pressure on the number of saxual and shrub species and a clear link to desertification. The gers and wooden houses are very inefficient in terms of thermal insulation as well as stoves. Harvest of saxuals and shrubs could be reduced with a focus on using fuel wood more efficiently, alternative energy sources. 

Therefore, CODEP successfully produced energy efficient stoves locally and tested them in 100 families living in gers in Khovd city. The preliminary results show 30-45% of savings of fuel costs, significant smoke and smog reduction while increasing living comfort in the gers. The technology was received very positive and the interest for these stoves is high. The project supported the production of stoves locally. With this a first step towards a commercial supply system is set up. The project will continue to work on ways to reduce the amount of bushes and plants used for fuel.
School dormitories consume 15-20 truck loads of bushes (kharagana and willows) each per year for cooking. Since a year five soums of Khovd were connected to high voltage power lines. The project made electric stoves available to these five schools for cooking meals for the students there. Thus, 100 truckloads of bushes will not be used anymore, leaving these to protect the fragile soils and stop the spread of desertification.