At the 1992 Rio conference, only a year after Mongolia's emerging post-communist democracy dropped the title People's Republic, the Government pledged to designate 30% of its land surface as protected areas. These include the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park. Its 2m hectares form the jewel in the Gobi region's ecological crown. Conservation of this enormous territory falls to a seven-person ecotourism development team that is charged with the task of maintaining ecological balance, and protecting natural, historical and cultural heritage while at the same time finding a way to use the natural resources to earn hard currency.

The development team has been assisted by Alan Saffery, a 27-year-old volunteer from the UK's Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). He has a BSc in Rural Resource Management and, working to the team director, has surveyed the development of tourism in the region. He reports that Mongolia is faced with growing tourist demands: between 1996 and 1997 numbers rose more than 14% - more than twice the expected increase.

But so far, in spite of 5,000 foreign visitors each year - all crammed into a five-month tourist season - the park has suffered little damage. He says: 'A great amount has been achieved by working in partnership. The only problem will be if they [the Mongolian authorities] are unable to keep up with the pace of tourist development'. Some tourism experts say the park could receive up to 57,000 visitors within 20 years.

Alan Saffery describes a landscape of plains, rocky gorges, saline marshes, springs and desert oases, set between mountains nearly 3,000m high. None of the park area is less than 1,000m above sea level; it's a difficult, extreme, hostile environment, the windiest region of a very windy country, with temperatures fluctuating seasonally from -25 to +25°C. It has its own unique collection of plants and animals; the park teems with highly specialised life forms and many of them are at risk. Alan Saffery says: 'In the mountains there are 290 vascular plant species - 46 are threatened or endangered. There are fascinating animals, such as the wild ass, snow leopard, ibex and gazelles, and 200 species of bird. The diversity is tremendous'.

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