The project for Sustainable Eagle Population has seen great progress in the past few months! On October 21, 2021, the Kazakh Falconry Association was founded by the Environment and Tourism Agency in Bayan-Ulgii province, WSCC and Nomadic Expeditions.

Thirteen individuals were chosen to be board members of the KFA, including Atai Ph.d, director of the Golden Eagle Society; Marat, head of Environment And Tourism Agency in Bayan-Ulgii province; Ayashgul, head of the local museum; Tseveenmyadag, board member of Golden Eagle Society and the leading ornithologist in Mongolia;  Kanat, director of Blue Wolf Travel; Bekbolat, director of Altai Expeditions; Nyambayar, Director of WSCC; Nurgulan, head of Food and Agriculture agency in Bayan-Ulgii province; Rom, director of Association of Kazakh National Games and sport; Umerbek, head of Mongolian-Altai petroglyphs conservation and protection agency; Buyandelger, conservation manager of Nomadic Expeditions; and Otgonsaikhan, president of the Asian Falconry Association.

The board members determined KFA’s main goals to be to protect golden eagles, the millennium-old tradition of Kazakh falconry, and to create awareness of the tradition among Mongolian youths.

To fulfill these goals, they established a mission of 14 objectives.

1. To participate within the boundaries of government policies on falconry, policy implementation, and to help draft legislation
2. To unite and support all participants whose goals align with sustainable falconry
3. To operate strategic policies to conserve Kazakh falconry
4. To create a database of falconers and their eagles
5. To engage in the support of nomadic culture and heritage, and falconry-based sustainable tourism
6. To have a designated hall for Kazakh falconry at provincial museum and soums in Bayan-Ulgii and the National Museum of Mongolia
7. To implement strategic management policy on population monitoring of golden eagle and prey animals
8. To arrange Falconry training for youth
9. To improve the living environment and wellbeing up to modern standards for golden eagles in captivity
10. To promote Kazakh falconry
11. To promote Kazakh falconry at an international level
12. To actively participate in solving the ongoing issues of falconers
13. To send falconers to international seminars and trainings on falconry
14. To organize international and domestic forums, symposiums and other official meetings to protect and conserve Kazakh falconry

You can find a full update on what has been happening in Mongolia, here on the website of Nomadic Expeditions.

The Jimmy Nelson Foundation has reserved € 2500 to support the Kazakh Falconry Association in reaching its goals.