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1. WCS ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity.

With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding, and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities.

Working with local communities and organizations, that knowledge is applied to address species, habitat, and ecosystem management issues critical to improving the quality of life of vulnerable rural people whose livelihoods depend on the direct use of natural resources.

2. WCS MONGOLIA PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Established in Ulaanbaatar in 2003, WCS Mongolia has dedicated over two decades to the conservation of Mongolia’s rich wildlife and expansive landscapes. The organization focuses on science-driven, landscape-level conservation, with key efforts in the Southern Gobi and Eastern Steppe, alongside initiatives in Central Mongolia.

At the national level, WCS Mongolia collaborates with government, community groups, civil society organizations, and the private sector to promote biodiversity preservation, landscape connectivity, and sustainable natural resource management. In 2024, WCS Mongolia launched a five-year strategy focused on three key pillars: enhancing ecological function, strengthening landscape connectivity, and building resilience to climate change. These pillars guide the organization’s work, with the overarching vision of ensuring Mongolia’s ecological integrity for future generations.

3. PROJECT BACKGROUND

Project title: Rehabilitating and conserving the mountain landscapes in the Khangai region of Mongolia for improved ecosystem services and community livelihoods

Implementation Agency: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 

Execution Agency: WCS Mongolia/Operational Partner

Government partner: the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MECC)

The GEF-funded project "Rehabilitating and conserving the mountain landscapes in the Khangai region of Mongolia for improved ecosystem services and community livelihoods" is implemented by the UN-Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and executed by WCS Mongolia as the Operational Partner, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MECC) and other relevant government agencies. WCS Mongolia is responsible for the day-to-day management and technical implementation of the project, ensuring compliance with GEF and FAO fiduciary, technical, environmental, and social standards, as well as WCS’s internal operational procedures and policies.

The project aims to restore the ecological integrity of the Khangai mountain landscapes, enhance ecosystem services such as water and soil health, and strengthen community resilience through sustainable land management and climate adaptation. It also seeks to improve rural livelihoods while conserving biodiversity. More information can be found here. 

In its role as the project’s Operational Partner, WCS Mongolia commissions consultancies and service providers to deliver specialized expertise, support technical implementation, and ensure that project outputs meet GEF, FAO, and WCS quality standards.

4. JUSTIFICATION

Effective integrated land management, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation require coordinated and reliable spatial and environmental data across the land, water and forest sectors. However, existing information systems and data managed by the General Authority for Land Administration, Geodesy and Cartography, Water Agency and Forest Agency are not harmonized, use different data boundaries and have limited interoperability. While the Water agency has established the national water information system through www.ewater.mn, data coordination and consistency challenges remain, and the Forest agency currently lacks a comprehensive digital information system.

These gaps limit cross-sectoral planning, restoration monitoring and evidence-based decision-making at national, aimag and soum levels. Therefore, the assignment aims to strengthen data access, sharing, harmonization and coordination among the land, water and forest sectors through improved interoperability, common geospatial standards and integrated environmental information management.

5. OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The overall objective under Component 1 of the project is to strengthen data access, sharing, coordination, and interoperability among the land, water, and forest sectors in support of integrated land management planning,ecosystem restoration monitoring, and evidence-based decision-making.

The Specific Objectives are:

1. To establish an interoperable data exchange mechanism between the State Integrated Water Information System (ewater) and the Integrated Digital Land Administration System (egazar), enabling real-time and periodic sharing and synchronization of water and land-related datasets.
2. To establish and operationalize a shared database within the Geoportal platform for the Forest Agency, enabling storage, management, visualization, and access to forest-related information and datasets.
3. To strengthen coordination and information sharing among the General Authority for Land Administration, Geodesy and Cartography, the Water Agency, and the Forest Agency through integration of relevant datasets and public access mechanisms via the Geoportal platform, ensuring that forest areas and water protection zones are protected, and excluded from future land allocation, thereby supporting biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management.

6. SCOPE OF THE WORK

Task 1. System Assessment and Integration Design

The consultancy firm/team shall conduct an assessment of the existing land, water, and forest information systems and prepare a detailed integration and implementation design.

The consultancy shall:

• Review the existing architecture, databases, data standards, governance, data privacy and information management processes of the Water Agency, Forest Agency, and General Authority for Land Administration, Geodesy and Cartography.

• Assess interoperability requirements and existing system capabilities;

• Identify technical constraints, risks, and opportunities for integration;

• Consult with relevant agencies to confirm functional and technical requirements;

• Prepare a system architecture and implementation design document, including data flows, synchronization mechanisms, database requirements, user access considerations, and proposed technical solutions.
• Prepare an inception report summarizing findings, confirmed requirements, proposed system architecture, implementation approach, and workplan for approval by the relevant agencies.

Task 2. Water System Integration

Develop and implement mechanisms for real-time and periodic data exchange between the State Integrated Water Information System (ewater) and the Integrated Digital Land Administration System (egazar), including integration with the Geoportal platform. The consultancy shall:

• Design and implement data exchange and synchronization mechanisms;

• Integrate agreed water-related datasets;

• Ensure data consistency and avoidance of duplication across systems;

• Support visualization and access to datasets through connected platforms;

• Test and validate system functionality.

Task 3. Forest Data Management and Integration

Develop and operationalize a shared database environment within the Geoportal platform to enable the Forest Agency to store, manage, visualize, and share forest-related information.

The consultancy shall:

• Design and establish database structures for forest information management;

• Integrate forest datasets with the Geoportal and egazar systems;

• Develop required functionalities for data registration, management, visualization, and reporting;

• Enable synchronization with relevant land information systems;

• Support public and institutional access to agreed datasets.

Task 4. Cross-System Integration and Interoperability

Ensure interoperability among land, water, and forest information systems through secure and efficient integration mechanisms.

The consultancy shall:

• Develop system-to-system synchronization mechanisms;

• Ensure updates are reflected across connected systems where appropriate;

• Implement logging and audit trail functionality;

• Maintain data quality, consistency, and security;

• Support integration with the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Geoportal.

Task 5. Testing, Training, and Handover

The consultancy shall:

• Conduct system testing and validation;

• Address technical issues identified during testing;

• Prepare technical and user documentation;

• Deliver training to relevant agency staff;
• Support deployment and handover of the final solution.

7. FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Water Information Integration

The solution shall support the integration, synchronization, management, and visualization of the following datasets:

• Special protection zones of water sources;
• Ordinary protection zones of water sources;
• Hygienic prohibited zones of water supply sources;
• Hygienic restricted zones of water supply sources;
• Groundwater recharge areas and related spatial datasets;
• Other water resource management datasets identified during system assessment and approved by the Water Agency and General Authority for Land Administration, Geodesy and Cartography.
• Cadastral information relevant to water management;
• Unified land territory information relevant to water management;
• Water land management plan, implementation, climate, ecosystem restoration monitoring, and evidence-based decision-making solution.

The solution shall enable:

• Real-time and periodic data exchange between ewater and egazar;
• Automatic synchronization of agreed datasets;
• Visualization of water-related information through egazar and Geoportal;
• Public and institutional access to approved datasets where applicable.

Forest Information Management and Integration

The solution shall support the storage, management, synchronization, and visualization of the following information and datasets:

• Forest fund datasets;
• Forest protection zone information;
• Land management plan information related to forest management;
• Degraded forest area registration and restoration information;
• Afforestation, reforestation and restoration monitoring information;
• Forest land management plan, implementation, climate, ecosystem restoration monitoring, and evidence-based decision-making solution;
• Forest inventory and management information, including associated approval workflows where required.

The solution shall provide functionality for:

• Registration, updating, and management of forest datasets;
• Visualization of forest-related information through Geoportal and related platforms;
• Reporting and data export functions;
• Synchronization of forest information with relevant land administration datasets;
• Public and institutional access to approved datasets where applicable.

Cross-System Data Sharing and Coordination

The solution shall support:

• Synchronization of land, water, and forest information across connected systems;
• Detection of overlaps and inconsistencies among datasets;
• Logging and audit trails for system activities and data updates;
• Data quality control and validation mechanisms;
• Consistent visualization of approved datasets through Geoportal and related platforms.
• Automatic updating of connected datasets where appropriate and approved by participating agencies;
• Prevention of duplicate records across connected systems.

8. DELIVERABLES/ PAYMENT SCHEDULE

 

The consultancy firm/team shall deliver the following outputs in English and Mongolian:

Deliverables	Content	Payment	Target due date	Review & approvals
Inception report	Methodology Work plan System design approach System architecture and implementation design document Confirmed functional and technical requirements	20%	August 17, 2026	Reviewed by the Working Group and approved by WCS Mongolia, FAO, GALAGaC, the Water Agency, and the Forest Agency.
Pilot System Implementation	Initial operational data exchange mechanism established between land, water, forest, Geoportal, and egazar platforms Pilot integration completed for agreed priority datasets Operational Forest Agency database established within the Geoportal environment Prototype system modules developed and deployed Initial synchronization of datasets across all systems completed Initial Geoportal integration completed Pilot public access and visualization functionalities demonstrated and enabled on egazar.gov.mn	30%	October 30, 2026	Acceptance following successful demonstration and testing of pilot functionality by participating agencies and written approval by WCS Mongolia and FAO.
Full System Deployment, Documentation and Training	Fully operational data exchange and synchronization systems Finalized system modules for land, forest, and water data management Finalized and validated synchronized datasets NSDI Geoportal integration fully operational Public access and visualization fully operational on egazar.gov.mn Technical documentation (architecture, APIs, workflows) User and administrator manuals Training materials Training completion report User Acceptance Testing (UAT) completed and approved by participating agencies	30%	November 30, 2026	Acceptance following successful completion of UAT, delivery of documentation and training, and written approval by WCS Mongolia, FAO and participating agencies.
Final report (Handover Package)	Final implementation and performance report Full source code, configuration files, and deployment package System handover documentation Maintenance and support plan for post project operation (Forest agency for forest data, Water agency for water data, GALAGaC for land related data.) Final validation of system integration and interoperability Inter-agency data-sharing mechanism and governance framework established, with clearly defined dataset stewardship arrangements specifying data ownership, update responsibilities, maintenance procedures, and accountability for each data layer.	20%	March 15, 2027	Final acceptance by WCS Mongolia, FAO, GALAGaC, the Water Agency and the Forest Agency following successful handover and confirmation that all contractual deliverables have been completed.

 

Payments will be made upon submission, review, and written acceptance of each deliverable by WCS Mongolia, in consultation with FAO and the participating government agencies.

9. REPORTING AND SUPERVISION

The consultant/firm will report to the Working Group, in coordination with GALAGaC, the Forest Agency, the Water Agency, the WCS Mongolia Lead Technical Advisor, and will work closely with the Land Management and Policy Expert of WCS's Khangai team (PMU). Regular progress meetings will be held as required.

10. DURATION OF THE WORK

The assignment will be implemented from August 2026 to March 2027, including system development, integration, testing, training, and handover.

11. THE CONSULTANCY FIRM/TEAM SHOULD MEET FOLLOWING CRITERIA

The consultancy firm/team is expected to have a mix of skills relevant to the assignment. The required background and experience for the consultancy team is as follows:

• at least 2 years of experience in web-based system development;
• strong experience in system integration and GIS platforms;
• familiarity with egazar or similar e-government systems (preferred);
• experience working with government institutions;
• qualified software engineers and GIS specialists;
• experience in similar assignments within the last 2 years.

12. SUBMISSION DETAILS

Interested consultants or firms are invited to submit a single PDF document containing:

1. Technical Proposal – outlining your understanding of the assignment, proposed methodology, and CVs of key experts (Evaluation weight is 30%).
2. Financial Proposal – providing an itemized budget, inclusive of all applicable taxes and fees (Evaluation weight is 20%)
3. Profile/Legal Documents – including company registration (for firms) or proof of legal status (for individuals).
4. Examples of similar work conducted (Evaluation weight is 30%)
5. References – at least two references from similar assignments, including contact details (Evaluation weight is 20%).

All proposal must be submitted electronically to WCS Mongolia by 31 July 2026 via email at procurementmongolia@wcs.org and please include the subject line:“Consultancy for System development”

Only complete applications submitted by the deadline will be considered. Shortlisted candidates may be invited for an interview or follow-up discussion.