University's Warner College of Natural Resources and the Center for
Collaborative Conservation convened a group of more than 100 Mongolian
scientists, herders, policy makers, nongovernmental organization
representatives and donors in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for a week-long
workshop. The group crafted a joint research agenda on the role of
community-based natural resource management and how it can improve
herders' livelihoods and support sustainable use of Mongolia's vast
grasslands.
Scientists expect that Mongolia will be significantly affected by
global climate change. The country is home to an impressive area of
intact temperate grasslands - one of the most modified and at-risk
terrestrial habitats on the globe. The relatively unfragmented expanse
of Mongolia's steppe ecosystems makes it one of the premier examples
of this threatened habitat in the world.
The CSU-led forum provided a place where local participants could
discuss how to build the resilience of Mongolia's pastoralist people
and grassland landscapes to climate change.
"Mongolia has seen significant change since it became a democratic
nation in 1990. The rapid shift from communism to democracy and a free-
market economy resulted in economic challenges and social problems,"
said Maria Fernandez-Gimenez, associate professor in CSU's Department
of Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship. "This CSU-led meeting
resulted from the Mongolian people struggling to address an increase
in poverty, land degradation, and conflict over natural resources, all
problems related to natural resources - many of which stem from
climate change."
Mongolia's semi-nomadic pastoralists comprise more than a third of the
population and collectively graze more than 40 million sheep, goats,
cattle, horses and camels across the country's sparsely inhabited
land. Livestock grazing is the dominant land use activity and an
important sector of the economy following Mongolia's 1992 transition
from a centrally-planned communist economy to a free market under a
democratic government.
Throughout the workshop participants voiced mounting concerns about
accelerating land degradation, vanishing water sources, increased
mining, growing poverty, and changes in land use, climate, and
herders' knowledge and attitudes.
Community-based natural resource management is one potential solution
to these challenges. Since 1999, more than 2,000 community-based
herder groups have formed in Mongolia with the assistance of many
international donors and nongovernmental organizations.
The growth of this type of natural resource management in Mongolia
offers an unprecedented opportunity to study the role of community-
based management in building the resilience of pastoral communities,
and learning about the environmental and socio-economic outcomes of
this management approach. It also offers the potential for
pastoralists to participate as co-researchers in scientific studies
that could help them sustain their nomadic culture while adapting to
environmental and socio-economic change.
CSU is a global leader in sustainability science, collaborative
conservation and the ecology of pastoral systems. Mongolia offers an
opportunity for CSU researchers to draw on these strengths to create a
unique cross-sectoral, transdisciplinary and cross-cultural research
and capacity building initiative.
During the workshop, participants created a collaborative research
plan, developed institutional relationships and commitments, and
created a database of community-based natural resource management
projects and groups in Mongolia. Future plans include learning
exchanges between Mongolian universities and CSU, and research
opportunities for students and faculty focused on improved
understanding of the management's role in building rural communities'
resilience to climate and socioeconomic change.
A mini-grant from CSU's Warner College of Natural Resources provided
initial support for the meeting, and was leveraged with additional
funds provided by The World Bank, the United Nations Development
Program, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the
Mongolian Society for Range Management.
