Academic Botanic Garden as an Ecological Resource for the Socio- Economic and Sustainable Development of Mongolia

On the example of the Academic Botanical Garden of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in Ulaanbaatar, the current status of plant collections, scientific research and related educational programs in fields of botany, ecology, and rational nature management are shown. The review article examines the history of the "botanic garden concept" development as a new phenomenon for Mongolia in connection with the population dynamics and the transformation of lifestyles (urban; rural, i.e. nomadic and sedentary) in the second half of the 20th - early 21st century. It is shown that a distinctive feature of the creation of new botanical gardens at the beginning of the 21st century is the almost parallel creation of urban zoos and their convergence in the format of a zoo-botanical garden as part of the system of science-based natural museums in Mongolia. The advanced development of the "zoological park idea" at the beginning of the 20th century relative to the later "botanical garden idea" is predominantly associated with the dominance of animal husbandry and livestock maintenance in the traditional nomadic way of life in. In spite of the thousand-year experience in the use of wild healing plants for medicine, gardening and horticulture as an independent socio-economic business has emerged only since the mid-20th century. Currently, the development of Mongolian botanic gardens is taking place in the commercial and industrial cities - Ulaanbaatar, Erdene and Khovd - which coincides with the acceleration of urbanization, the dominance of the urban population and the human development index growth. The modern role of the botanic garden for the socio-economic development of the country should be associated with its new positioning as a socio-cultural and interdisciplinary innovative resource linking fundamental and applied science and education with eco-botanical entrepreneurship. The prospect of modernization and reconstruction of the academic botanic garden as a coordinating center and ecological resource is substantiated. Its mission in the country transition to the "sixth technological formation" should include contribution to the enhancement of the environment, the improvement of the people well-being and increase of the human development index for the sustainable socio-economic development of Mongolia.