The National Rangeland Forum is held annually andaims to provide a platform for discussion and exchange of experiences on sustainable rangeland and livestock management in Mongolia for all stakeholders, and facilitate reaching agreements on policy measures and follow-up actions.
The highlight of the National Rangeland Forum II held in October was to present the key findings of the Mongolian National Rangeland Health Report 2017. Mongolia has been carrying out national rangeland health assessments since 2014. At the initiative of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s Green Gold Project, the National Agency of Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, the first nationwide rangeland health assessment was conducted in 2014 at 1516 monitoring spots in each of Mongolia’s 1576 baghs. The National Rangeland Health Report released in 2015 provided the baseline data against which the new report is compared, and shows the changes in rangeland health and observable trends.
National report on the rangeland health of Mongolia
МОНГОЛ ОРНЫ БЭЛЧЭЭРИЙН ТӨЛӨВ БАЙДЛЫН ҮНДЭСНИЙ ТАЙЛАН
At present, there are opportunities for changes in management and policy that can improve rangeland health, enable adaptation to climate and land use changes, and that secure the future of pastoral production and food security in Mongolia. But it is important to act decisively and promptly before those opportunities are lost. Notably, the percentage of degraded rangelands has declined from 65 percent in 2014 to to 57 percent in 2017, which researchers have attributed to the high recovery capacity of Mongolia’s rangelands, reduced grazing pressure, and a demonstrable commitment by herders to improve grazing management practices. Of that 57 percent of degraded rangeland, 13.5 percent is slightly degraded, 21.1 percent in moderately degraded, 12.8 percent is heavily degraded, and 10.3 percent is completely degraded.
However, compared with the conditions in 2014, the degree of degradation has increased in the past two years : the proportion of sites that were “not degraded” moving to “slightly degraded” rose by up to 10 percent, while sites classified as “heavily” or “completely degraded” rose from 4.3 to 5.9 percent. A large number of the sites that have become more degraded are located in Arkhangai, Tuv, Selenge and Dundgobi Aimags, while Sukhbaatar and Dornogobi Aimags have the highest number of highly degraded sites.
One of the important statements from the previous national report was that the vast majority of the monitoring sites, representing more than half of Mongolian rangelands, suggest that changes to grazing management could result in recovery, or progress toward recovery, within ten years. In 2017, we found that there is still a great opportunity for recovery through improved grazing management. However, rangelands that need more than 10 years for recovery and close to the biological threshold of natural recovery, have increased by 5 percent.
The National Forum was attended by 400 participants representing the Aimag Departments of Land Affairs, Geodesy, Cartography, Food and Agriculture, Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, Aimag and Soum Associations of Pasture-User Groups of Herders, land managers, and rangeland specialists from 20 soums where sustainable rangeland management practices have been adopted. The main discussions centred around five priority topics : 1) The current state of Mongolia’s rangeland health; 2) Implementation of resilience-based responsible rangeland management - achievements, lessons learned; 3) The grazing impact monitoring system as a tool for responsible and sustainable livestock management; 4) Aspirations and strategies for the sustainability of global rangelands; and 5) The “Responsible Nomads” standard for improved marketing of livestock products: Sustainable, Ethical, High Quality. Recommendations for urgent policy actions from local and central governments were formulated and will be presented to the responsible bodies.
