Sustaining Livelihoods with Livestock on the Pastoral Commons of Mongolia

Abstract

"Mongolian pastoralism continually involves decision-making by the herder to mitigate risk and avert disaster of greater or lesser proportions. Risk imposed by environmental conditions is always a factor in meeting animal demand and livelihood needs in a pastoral system. The demands of the animal to survive and be productive must continually be balanced with the availability of feed, water and shelter over several different but consecutively occurring time frames. Environmental risk can be mitigated individually and collectively through adaptive planning and decision-making processes. The pastoral production system, either individually or collectively, is less effective in mitigating risk derived from economic and social influence external to the production system. In non-pastoral animal production systems, provision of external physical and technical inputs are used to reduce the environmental and economic risk associated with livestock production. However, using inputs to overcome environmental risk, while possible in Mongolia, is very costly, and often forces the herder to assume greater economic risk without eliminating all of the environmental risk. Dependence on inputs without the existence of a fully developed input infrastructure can not only increase risk but also can potentially decrease long- term viability of pastoral livestock production. Flexibility of decision-making in animal production activities, mobility of adapted animals, and access to a variety of spatially and temporally distributed resources are the surest method of reducing livestock production risk and ensuring sustainable livelihoods in a true pastoral system. New co- management institutions capable of responding to internally and externally generated changes to pastoral livestock production need to be developed and employed."