Analysis of Factors for Herders Changing Jobs After Natural Disasters in Mongolia—Case Study of a Dzud in 2010, Dundgobi Pref., Mongolia—

Abstract

In Mongolia, the natural disaster Dzud occurs regularly. Dzuds have adverse effects on mobile pastoralism, which is a key industry in Mongolia. The objective of this study is to quantitatively analyze the factors and trends of herders changing their occupations after dzuds. Surveys were conducted in Dundgobi Prefecture, the most dzud-affected area of Mongolia in 2010. Data was collected from 148 herders’ households. After the dzud, 45 of the 148 households abandoned grazing and migrated to urban area. We analyzed the differences between 15 households that changed their jobs and 20 households that did not, excluding 10 that retired with a pension. The households that changed their jobs were younger and had lesser education, so they were willing to take up any kind of job available. On the other hand, households that did not change jobs were older, and had health problems. In 2012, there was a distribution of mining income from the country, so the head of the household did not have a strong motivation to change jobs. In future, it is necessary to improve the social security and job opportunity for stability of the life of socially vulnerable.