Comparison of pastoralists’ pastoral strategies in the Mongolian Plateau

Abstract

This presentation will compare pastoralists’ pastoral strategies in the Mongolian plateau, which is divided into Northern and Southern Mongolia politically.

The Mongolian Plateau is one of the central places of pastoralism in inner Asia. Because of its dry and cold climate, mobile pastoralism was traditionally prominent.

However, global capital investment started to involve pastoralists into cash economy more and more deeply, by way of paved roads and availability of mobile phones after 2000s. The characteristic of today’s situation is coexistence of two pastoralists’ pastoral strategies according to the place they live; that is, suburban pasture and remote pasture.

In Northern Mongolia, the trigger which made change of pastoralists’ pastoral strategies happen was a nationwide cold and snow disaster from 1999 winter to 2002 spring.

It drastically reduced number of livestock, which rapidly increased during 1990s after the collapse of socialistic economic system. However, the lowest number by which they could keep sustainable life as pastoralists varied depending on the place pastoralists live. At suburban pasture where is close to cities or major roads, a smaller number of livestock is required. There are two major reasons for it; they can sell dairy products in addition to livestock and cashmere which are traditional commodity for sale, and costs for transportation are cheaper, comparing to remote pasture where mobile phone, which is necessary for selling dairy products, is generally out of service.

As a result, pastoralists who migrated into suburban pasture increased, where density of pastoralists had not been dense at socialistic era. On the other hand, not a little number of pastoralists decide to remain in remote pasture for some reason; large number of livestock is more suitable for sparse remote pasture, for instance.

This dichotomy is not only true to Northern Mongolia, but also to Southern Mongolia. Because the number of livestock which pastoralists can keep is controlled rather strictly according to carrying capacity set by local government, pastoralists in remote area who generally own wider pasture keep larger number. On the other hand, pastoralists in suburban area often started to get cash income by new way; tourist camps or fermented mare’s milk for instance. This phenomenon in Southern Mongolia also emerged after 2000s, when the central government recognized environmental problem in pastoral area and attributed it to overgrazing of pastoralists which was caused by privatization of livestock and pasture after 1980s.