Great Work, Gana!

One of Denver Zoo's Very Own Awarded Prestigious Honor from Mongolian Government

Last week, the President of Mongolia, Khaltmaagiin Battulga, issued a decree awarding our very own Gana Wingard – Denver Zoo’s Mongolia Program Director – with the high state decoration of Mongolia, the Order of the Polar Star. This is the highest civilian award given to foreign citizens, and is being granted to Gana in recognition of her significant contribution to wildlife conservation, leadership, strengthening environmental bilateral cooperation and building capacity in the next generation of wildlife conservationists for Mongolia. As one of the newest recipients, Gana joins an esteemed list of awardees including internationally renowned historians, health care providers and climate scientists, as well as prominent U.S. political figures such as Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama.

With only five people per square mile, Mongolia – the country where Gana was born and raised – is the least densely populated on earth. For centuries, herding communities, native wildlife and domesticated livestock successfully shared resources in the vast, unfenced, undeveloped grasslands of the Gobi Steppe. In recent decades, however, Mongolia’s burgeoning democracy and free-market economy have paved the way for traditional nomadic herders to boost their livestock herd sizes. This increase has resulted in overgrazing as well as a higher risk of disease transmission between wildlife and domestic animals. Adding to these pressures, the arid steppe ecosystem has been experiencing severe drought for many years, and all of this together is leading to population declines for many of Mongolia’s wild species.