This map is based on monitoring data gathered at 1450 sites by the National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring (NAMEM) of Mongolia. Data are from 2014. In order to create a national assessment of rangeland health that incorporates variations in ecological potential across Mongolia, standardized “recovery classes” were developed. Recovery classes are based on information and assumptions about the reference condition or ecological potential of a pasture area (the plant communities expected to exist at a site in healthy condition) and the process of recovery with a change in management. The recovery classes are analogous to degradation classes already used in Mongolia, but are based on Ecological Site Descriptions (ESDs) and provide information about recovery rates based on quantitative measurements. Assigning a recovery class to a site requires measurements of plant cover and soil surface conditions that are compared with the information in the state-and-transition within the appropriate ESD (see below map for Classes).