Cross-boundary and cross-level dynamics increase vulnerability to severe winter disasters (dzud) in Mongolia

Fernández‐Giménez, María E.; Baival, Batkhishig; Batbuyan, B.

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.07.001

Cited by 167 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Both density-independent (e.g., weather) and density- dependent (e.g., stocking rate or numbers of animals per unit area) factors can contribute to herd crashes. The number of years between consecutive herd crashes typically varies from 10 (Mexico; Garza-Merodio 2002) to 6 [southern Ethiopia (Desta and Coppock 2002) or Mongolia (Fernández-Giménez et al 2012)]. Extreme cold events have contributed to a herd crash interval of less than 3 years in the Peruvian Altiplano (Moya and Torres 2008).…”

Section: Livestock Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some newly organized formal community-based rangeland management groups have creatively circumvented these challenges by working closely with their local government to obtain use rights over defined pasture areas, create their own management plans, and then lobby local government to pass an ordinance or decree that gives certain elements of their plan the force of law (Fernández-Giménez et al 2012;Upton 2008Upton , 2009). For example, if a group of herders wants to rest a certain pasture area for a season, they ask the local government to issue an edict forbidding grazing in that area for the rest of the season, with violations punishable by a fine.…”

Section: DL Coppock Et Almentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rangeland Systems in Developing Nations: Conceptual Advances and Societal Implications

Coppock

Fernández‐Giménez

Hiernaux

et al. 2017

Springer Series on Environmental Management

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Developing-country rangelands are vast and diverse. They are home to millions who are often poor, politically marginalized, and dependent on livestock for survival. Here we summarize our experiences from six case-study sites in subSaharan Africa, central Asia, and Latin America generally covering the past 25 years. We examine issues pertaining to population, natural resource management, climate, land use, livestock marketing, social conflict, and pastoral livelihoods. The six study sites differ with respect to human and livestock population dynamics and This chapter is dedicated to the memory of an exemplary international rangeland scientist, Thomas L. Thurow (1955Thurow ( -2016. the resulting pressures on natural resources. Environmental degradation, however, has been commonly observed. Climate change is also having diverse systemic effects often related to increasing aridity. As rangelands become more economically developed pastoral livelihoods may diversify, food security can improve, and commercial livestock production expands, but wealth stratification widens. Some significant upgrades in rural infrastructure and public service delivery have occurred; telecommunications are markedly improved overall due to widespread adoption of mobile phones. Pressures from grazing, farming, mining, and other land usescombined with drought-can ignite local conflicts over resources, although the intensity and scope of conflicts markedly varies across our case-study sites. Pastoralists and their herds have become more sedentary overall due to many factors, and this can undermine traditional risk-management tactics based on mobility. Remote rangelands still offer safe havens for insurgents, warlords, and criminals especially in countries where policing remains weak; the resulting civil strife can undermine commerce and public safety. There has been tremendous growth in knowledge concerning developing-country rangelands since 1990, but this has not often translated into improved environmental stewardship or an enhanced wellbeing for rangeland dwellers. Some examples of demonstrable impact are described, and these typically have involved longer-term investments in capacity building for pastoralists, local professionals, and other stakeholders. Research is shifting from ecologically centered to more human-centered issues; traditional academic approaches are often being augmented with participatory, community-based engagement. Building human or social capital in ways that are integrated with improved natural resource stewardship offers the greatest returns on research investment. Our future research and outreach priorities include work that fortifies pastoral governance, enhances livelihoods for a diverse array of rangeland residents, and improves land and livestock management in a comprehensive social-ecological systems approach. Keywords IntroductionIn this chapter we focus on rangelands of the developing world. By rangelands we refer to landscapes-largely unsuitable for sustained cultivation-providing forage, water, ...

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Section: Livestock Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: DL Coppock Et Almentioning

confidence: 99%

Rangeland Systems in Developing Nations: Conceptual Advances and Societal Implications

Coppock

Fernández‐Giménez

Hiernaux

et al. 2017

Springer Series on Environmental Management

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“…Within this context, Fernandez-Gimenez et al (2012) acknowledge the varied preparation and response to the 2009-2010 dzud by soum governments in Arkhangai and Bayankhongor provinces. In these cases, successful local government actions included negotiations to facilitate pasture access across soum boundaries and active mitigation of 'hoofed dzud ' Fernandez-Gimenez et al (2012) which involves the migration of households and their livestock into the grazing areas of neighbouring soums. For example, "In Bayantsagan, the soum government actively encouraged herders to prepare well for winter, facilitated fall sale of livestock, negotiated otor agreements in advance of winter to send 77 Bayantsagaan households and 40,000 head of stock to other soum in 3 aimags, and effectively coordinated emergency aid during the dzud (p. 843)".…”

Section: Soum and Bag Level Administrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dzud is categorized into six types (Fernandez-Gimenez et al 2012;Middleton et al 2015), and some of the more fatal dzuds have been slow onset and preceded by drought conditions (Tachiiri et al 2008). Shinoda (2017) further refines scholarship on dzud using a climate memory model based on four disasters common in Eurasia: drought, dzud, dust storms and desertification (the 4Ds).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herders and hazards: covariate dzud risk and the cost of risk management strategies in a Mongolian subdistrict

Ahearn

2017

Nat Hazards

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Studies of mobile pastoralist livelihoods have shown that a variety of sociotechnical practices have been developed to achieve reliable outputs from livestock in variable arid and semi-arid environments. This paper builds upon the concept of pastoralists as high-reliability seekers rather than risk-averse and makes a case for understanding Mongolian herders as well adapted to livestock production in highly variable climatic conditions within a certain threshold of risk and uncertainty. This system fails, however, during instances of high uncertainty and covariate risk such as in cases of the natural hazard dzud, which requires individual households to make significant cash investments in risk management. It forwards the idea that investing in local government-soum and bag leveladministrative capacity and infrastructure is needed to build system resilience to covariate risk. Based on ethnographic research in rural Bayankhongor, this paper interrogates how dzud interfaces with socio-economic factors amongst pastoralists in central west Mongolia.

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“…Because precipitation and snowfall increase and temperature decreases from south to north (Morinaga et al 2003;Nandintsetseg and Shinoda 2011), vegetation correspondingly changes from desert to drylands and forest steppe ecosystems. Droughts and severe winters are a cause of high mortality among livestock (Fernandez-Gimenez et al 2012Tachiiri and Shinoda 2012) and wild animals (Kaczensky et al 2011a). …”

Section: Environments Of Mongolia's Gobi-steppe Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat Fragmentation by Railways as a Barrier to Great Migrations of Ungulates in Mongolia

et al. 2017

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Mongolia's Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem is the largest grassland in the world and the habitat of long-distance movement ungulates, such as the Mongolian gazelle (Procapra gutturosa) and the Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus). The international railway between Russia and China bisects this habitat, and there has been concern that it may impede the movements of wild ungulates. We tracked ungulate movements on both sides of the Ulaanbaatar-Beijing Railway, and found that most of the tracked animals never crossed the railway. The construction of additional railways to permit mining projects in the area is therefore a further threat to maintaining the great migrations of ungulates across Mongolia.

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Cross-boundary and cross-level dynamics increase vulnerability to severe winter disasters (dzud) in Mongolia

Cited by 167 publications

References 54 publications

Rangeland Systems in Developing Nations: Conceptual Advances and Societal Implications

Rangeland Systems in Developing Nations: Conceptual Advances and Societal Implications

Herders and hazards: covariate dzud risk and the cost of risk management strategies in a Mongolian subdistrict

Habitat Fragmentation by Railways as a Barrier to Great Migrations of Ungulates in Mongolia

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