Sustaining Livelihoods on Mongolia's Pastoral Commons: Insights from a Participatory Poverty Assessment

dc.contributor.authorMearns, Robinen_US
dc.coverage.countryMongoliaen_US
dc.coverage.regionEast Asiaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-07-31T15:01:06Z
dc.date.available2009-07-31T15:01:06Z
dc.date.issued2004en_US
dc.date.submitted2007-07-27en_US
dc.date.submitted2007-07-27en_US
dc.description.abstract"Under the socialist regime that prevailed until the start of the 1990s, Mongolia made great progress in improving human development indicators, and poverty was virtually unknown. Political and economic transition in the 1990s ushered in a rapid rise in asset and income inequality, and at least a third of the population has been living in poverty since 1995. Many workers made redundant from uneconomic state-owned enterprises were absorbed into the extensive livestock sector in rural areas and by the growing informal economy in urban areas. The livestock sector grew dramatically, with herders accounting for over a third of the total population and half of the active labour force by the late 1990s. Three consecutive years of drought and harsh winters in 1999-2002 then drastically reduced the national herd. These trends are viewed against a backdrop of relative neglect of the livestock sector in development priorities and a concomitant decline in agricultural productivity. Pressures on common pasture have mounted, and conflict over grazing is becoming endemic. In such a context, sustainable management of Mongolia's pastoral commons should be central to the country's economic development agenda in general, and to its poverty reduction strategy in particular. This article draws on the findings of a country-wide participatory poverty assessment conducted in 2000. Blending quantitative and qualitative data, these findings help to bring into sharper relief the broad outlines of an integrated approach to building secure and sustainable livelihoods both on and off the pastoral commons."en_US
dc.identifier.citationjournalDevelopment and Changeen_US
dc.identifier.citationmonthJanuaryen_US
dc.identifier.citationnumber1en_US
dc.identifier.citationvolume35en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10535/3437
dc.subjectpovertyen_US
dc.subjectgrazingen_US
dc.subjectcommon pool resourcesen_US
dc.subjecttransitional economicsen_US
dc.subjectsustainabilityen_US
dc.subjecteconomic developmenten_US
dc.subject.sectorSocial Organizationen_US
dc.subject.sectorGrazingen_US
dc.submitter.emailefcastle@indiana.eduen_US
dc.titleSustaining Livelihoods on Mongolia's Pastoral Commons: Insights from a Participatory Poverty Assessmenten_US
dc.typeJournal Articleen_US
dc.type.publishedpublisheden_US

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