The Gobi's sparse nomadic population lives as an integral part of this fragile ecosystem. People survive at subsistence level through agriculture and by breeding camels, horses, goats, sheep, cows and yaks for transport and meat. Nomads move their circular tents - gers - between seasons to grab the best of the weather and pasture.

Increasingly, local people are beginning to work with, and for, tourists as guides, running tented camps and producing souvenirs. As a result the park's population of 1,000 families is swelling as more want to sample the economic benefits.



Alan Saffery thinks this growing population poses a threat. 'There is over-grazing, poaching and a loss of biodiversity but the park has been greatly helped by international aid, including a technical project funded by Germany. It's aimed at developing a buffer zone around three of the protected areas and establishing self-help initiatives for the local people.'

For visitors to the park, along with the biological wonders and a chance to share an age-old culture, there are landscapes eroded to fantastic forms by wind and drought, gorges containing near permanent ice sheets, brilliantly coloured rocks, and dunes whose peculiar geology causes them to 'sing' as they move in the wind. The area produces major fossil finds including the first dinosaur eggs ever discovered.

Mongolia has a tiny GNP equivalent to around $100 per head. With few consumable resources or developed industry, tourism may provide the only chance for the country to escape poverty. The Gobi is one of nature's last unspoilt wildernesses and over half of all visitors to the country go there.

Alan Saffery says: 'A lot still remains to be done. There's a need for more information for tourists and environmental education for the locals. The park should develop specific regulations to govern tourist behaviour, and set up better management and administration, and it should raise entry fees to international levels. But I am optimistic - it will just take time. Things move much more slowly in the Gobi than in the west'.

The Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park now stands poised between a stable future and unrecoverable decline - pressure from commercial tourism could destroy the very resources it seeks to exploit. On the other hand, by its own efforts and with further international assistance the country could offer the world's first truly sustainable tourist wilderness.

Mongolia hopes to pull off this delicate balancing act, thereby setting a standard for emerging economies in the 21st century. It has made a promising start with the most meagre resources. We shall watch this large and fascinating space with optimism.