Naranbek Ristan slings his binoculars and notebook around his neck and mounts his horse with graceful ease. He is setting off on a monthly patrol of 6,000 hectares of community land to check on wildlife.

The country he will cover is harsh, magnificent and daunting. But for Ristan, most importantly, it is home.

Ristan comes from the Kazakh ethnic group and lives in the community of Akhbastau (literally “White Springs”) in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia’s extreme west. People here are herders and horsemen living in gers (yurts) decorated with colourful floor and wall carpets.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL – BirdLife in Lebanon) recently received an international ‘best practice’ award for their work at the Qolieleh Hima site, southern Lebanon, where they are preserving the coast and improving living conditions for local people.

Dubai Muncipality presented the Dubai International Award for Best Practices (DIABP) to SPNL for community-based conservation at the coastal Hima site. This award focuses on projects that sustainably improve the living environment, under the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). This year, the ninth session of the award, they recognised SPNL’s work in reviving a traditional land-use practice, “Hima”, as a model for improving the quality of people’s lives in an environmentally-sustainable and culturally-sensitive way.