Tolbo Lake is a high-altitude freshwater lake located in the Mongolian Altai in Bayan Ölgii aimag, covering approximately 15,900 hectares. Situated at elevations above 2,000 m, the lake and its surrounding alpine steppe form an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area supporting significant populations of migratory waterbirds within the Central Asian Flyway. The site regularly hosts six species exceeding 1 percent of their flyway populations, including Northern Lapwing, and supports globally threatened species such as Steppe Eagle and Pallas’s Fish Eagle. 

The lake provides critical provisioning and cultural ecosystem services, including freshwater, fisheries, and tourism, supporting local communities and livelihoods. However, increasing pressures from overgrazing, unregulated tourism, expanding informal road networks, and climate change-driven declines in water levels are degrading habitats and water quality. Priority actions include establishing formal protection status, strengthening site management and zonation, restoring degraded alpine grasslands, regulating tourism, and improving fisheries and grazing management to ensure ecological integrity and sustainable use. 

RFI Site Snapshot