Nomadic pastoralism worldwide
Extensive livestock husbandry on rangelands is important for the livelihoods and food security of millions of people (Lund, 2007), with nomadic pastoralism practiced by around 20 million herder households worldwide (FAO, 2001). Nomadic pastoralism has been practiced over millennia, especially in arid regions unsuitable for other agricultural production (Godde et al., 2020). However, changes in socio-economic conditions result in shifts from nomadic to sessile forms of livestock grazing and increased rural-urban migration, trends which can be observed in many rangeland systems globally (Dyer et al., 2022; Wafula et al., 2022). In addition, climatic extremes are challenging this traditional lifestyle particularly in the most arid rangelands (Fernández-Giménez et al., 2017). While rangelands are studied widely (Addison et al., 2012; Godde et al., 2020), herders livelihood trends are poorly understood resulting in inadequate policy decisions (Johnsen et al., 2021). We looked at the socio-economic position of herder households in a remote and arid region where nomadic pastoralism is the main livelihood strategy.
Socio-economic changes of pastoral livelihoods
In Mongolia, one-third of the population practice pastoral livelihoods (Mongolian Statistical Information Service, 2023) but the livestock sector in Mongolia has been under change multiple times in the last century. Over more than 60 years, all herder households were part of livestock collectives and herded state-owned animals for a salary (Fernández-Giménez, 1999). With the end of the soviet-collective era many people returned to herding at the family level (Dyer et al., 2022; Fernández-Giménez et al., 2017; Meurs et al., 2017). Privatization and the development of an export market for cashmere wool has led to a shift from a subsistence to a market economy (Meurs et al., 2017), where herders have increased their livestock, especially the number of cashmere goats (Berger et al., 2013; Wei & Zhen, 2020). Fluctuating cashmere prices and the unpredictable and harsh climate are challenging for the economy of herder households (Sternberg, 2008) and have increased livelihood vulnerability (Marin, 2019), while the rising livestock numbers put increasing pressure on the fragile rangelands threatening pasture health and the long-term viability of the pastoral economy (Addison & Brown, 2014).
Living in a modern market economy is expensive as public services are no longer free and many herder households in remote, rural areas have limited access to healthcare (WHO, 2021) and education (Ahearn & Bumochir, 2016; Steiner-Khamsi & Gerelmaa, 2008); around 30% of the rural Mongolian population live below the poverty line (World Bank, 2019). To understand the rural situation regarding livestock numbers and herder household economics we investigated to what extent herder households in a remote and arid region of south-western Mongolia, the Dzungarian Gobi, depend on livestock and livestock products in comparison with national and regional trends.
Along with the shift from subsistence to a market economy, labour previously shared within the extended family is increasingly outsourced to contracted herders (Murphy, 2015). However, especially in remote areas the importance of kinship relations and social networks for herder household livelihoods remains high even today (Conte, 2022; Fernández-Giménez et al., 2017; Ichinkhorloo, 2018). To better understand the importance of social relations and shared labour in the Dzungarian Gobi, we identified daily and seasonal routines and how tasks were shared within the herder households.
The increased rural-urban migration of especially younger Mongolians to seek labour or higher education (Park et al., 2017), has resulted in declining herder household numbers, a trend that could potentially reduce overall grazing pressure, but may also alter the livestock grazing sector from a nomadic family centred to a large-scale ranching style grazing system (Fernández-Giménez et al., 2017). Socio-economic constrains already force many herder households to abandon the nomadic family centred lifestyle during winter, when women live with school children in district or provincial centres where the schools are located, and men stay in the countryside to herd the livestock (Ahearn, 2018). These social changes result in increased livelihood costs, which in turn result in rising livestock numbers, absentee herders, and increasing social inequality (Fernández-Giménez et al., 2017). We interviewed herder households in the Dzungarian Gobi to understand current ongoing social changes.
Pastoralism practiced within protected areas
Livestock numbers are on the rise globally (FAO, 2022), and land-use conflicts in or close to protected areas are increasing (DeFries et al., 2007). In Mongolia, livestock grazing is also practiced within most protected areas, posing challenges for biodiversity conservation, wildlife management (Kaczensky et al., 2020; Salvatori et al., 2021) and rangeland health (Fernández-Giménez et al., 2018). The currently high livestock numbers (Mongolian Statistical Information Service, 2023) are not only threatening pasture productivity and biodiversity, but also, the nomadic herding culture depending on these very rangelands (Sainnemekh et al., 2022) and make herding communities more vulnerable to climate extremes (Sternberg, 2008). Protected areas are increasingly perceived and used as emergency pastures during droughts and harsh winter conditions (Bedunah & Schmidt, 2004; Hess et al., 2010), putting additional pressures on sensitive ecosystems during times when resources are already scarce and creating social conflicts (Bedunah & Angerer, 2012; Bedunah & Schmidt, 2004). However, both local herding communities and protected areas aim for healthy and diverse pastures and local communities can be powerful allies for the protection of pasturelands (Bedunah & Angerer, 2012; Hess et al., 2010). Involvement of local communities in biodiversity monitoring and protected area decision making can mitigate conflict by focussing on common goals and finding a common knowledge base (Xu et al., 2006). Nevertheless, the involvement of natural resource users in protected area (PA) management can be challenging for both sides (Namsrai et al., 2019) and we asked local herders about how they perceive using pastures in Great Gobi B SPA and to what extent they are informed about or involved in the PA management decisions.
Pastoral livelihoods in the Dzungarian Gobi
In the Dzungarian Gobi, around 280 families have seasonal access to the Great Gobi B SPA (Altansukh Nanjid, director of the Great Gobi B SPA, personal comm. 2023), which is also an important refuge for several rare and endangered wildlife and plants species, several of which are endemic (Sundev et al., 2018). The herder households are allowed to use the pastures in the limited use zone in winter, based on contracts with the protected area (Altansukh Nanjid, director of the Great Gobi B SPA, pers. comm. 2023). So far, there is little evidence for pasture degradation, which is likely due to the combined effect of the non-equilibrium nature of the pastures (von Wehrden et al., 2012) and the high mobility of the nomadic herders (Michler et al., 2022). However, with rising livestock numbers in combination with fodder provision, there is concern over pasture degradation, as high grazing intensity is known to lower plant species diversity, biomass and vegetation cover (Menezes et al., 2020; Munkhzul et al., 2021), alter soil parameters (Abdalla et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2022), and lead to soil erosion (Dong et al., 2022).
In addition, rising livestock numbers could potentially increase competition with wild ungulates for resources (Niamir-Fuller et al., 2012), reduce wildlife numbers (Prins, 2000), raise the risk for disease transmission between wild and domestic ungulates (Dayaram et al., 2021), and lead to displacement of wildlife by herders, their livestock and their guarding dogs (Kaczensky et al., 2007). On the other hand, herders are also allies in the protection of pasture lands from other uses such as mining and have strongly supported the extension of Great Gobi B SPA to twice its original size in 2019 (Sansarbayar, 2019). Local herders are therefore important partners for the Great Gobi B SPA, but sustainable use and biodiversity conservation require that livestock numbers and distribution are controlled. Understanding the socio-economic constraints and needs of local herders is an important first step for developing recommendations for natural resource use by herders and their livestock in the protected area.
In this study, we use semi-structured interviews to describe the socio-economic situation of the herders who use the Great Gobi B SPA on their annual migration routes. Within the context of the regional and country-wide socio-economic trends over the last 20 years, we ask the following questions:
How many domestic animals and which animal species do local herder households in the Great Gobi B herd and what herd sizes do herders need to maintain their livelihoods?
What is the current economic situation of herder households in comparison to regional and country-wide trends?
How are different labour tasks divided within herder households and how important are social networks under the ongoing socio-economic changes?
What is the perception of herders on using pasture resources in Great Gobi B SPA and their involvement in Great Gobi B SPA’s management decisions?
Based on the above questions, we discuss recommendations for pastoral livelihoods in the Great Gobi B SPA under reduced livestock numbers to sustainably manage the pasture resources for wildlife and pastoral livelihoods in the future.