ABSTRACT
This review portrays the contribution of the Botanical Garden of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in Ulaanbaatar to research and collections of native Mongolian plants, biodiversity conservation, and related educational and social programs in botany, ecology, and nature management. The history of the development of the “botanical garden concept” is considered as a new phenomenon for Mongolia due to the demography dynamics and quick transformation of the lifestyle of the local populations (rural and urban, i.e., nomadic and sedentary). A distinctive feature of new botanical gardens in Mongolia is their establishment in the format of a zoo-botanical garden. The outstripping development of the “idea of the zoo” relative to the later “idea of a botanical garden” is mainly due to the dominance of animal husbandry in the traditional nomadic way of life. Currently, the development of Mongolian botanical gardens is taking place in the commercial and industrial cities of Ulaanbaatar, Erdene, and Khovd, which coincides with the acceleration of urbanization, the predominance of the urban population, and the growth of the human development index. The modern role of the Mongolian botanical gardens is associated with their new positioning in the “pyramid of the nature management system” and division of labor as socio-cultural and interdisciplinary innovative resources linking fundamental and applied science with education and eco-botanical entrepreneurship. The mission of botanical gardens should include a contribution to the conservation of biodiversity, maintaining a healthy environment balance, and improving the human well-being for the sustainable development of Mongolia.
