Grasslands of the World.pdf - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

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Grasslands of the world
arable , intensive livestock, residential and mining land the situation is different);
some form of group registration of grazing rights is considered adequate and
more desirable. The reasons quoted by Mearns and Swift (1996) and the Policy
Alternatives for Livestock Development (PALD) team (Mearns, 1993), are:
“There are strong arguments in favour of increasing security of tenure over pasture land in
Mongolia ’s extensive livestock sector in order to promote sustainable land management and
reduce conflicts over pasture. It is more likely that individualized, private ownership of pasture
land, under Mongolian conditions, would actually increase conflict and jeopardise environmental
stability, particularly given the lack of administrative capacity to enforce such rights .
“While ownership often increases investment and creates a demand for and a supply of credit,
since the land would be managed as a capital good in which investments must be made to
promote sustainability and prevent land degradation . This assumption does not hold for most
pasture land in Mongolia ’s extensive livestock sector in which few if any external inputs are
required to maintain productivity . Sustainable pasture management in such an environment
depends primarily on mobility and flexibility rather on capital investment. There are certain
exceptions: investment may be made in winter /spring camps and shelters and in wells and other
water resources and there may be a demand for credit to overcome transport constraints in seeking
to maintain mobility. But it is not clear in the Mongolian case that lack of secure title is the
principle obstacle to supply of such credit, nor that it could not be satisfied by means of certified
possession rights at the level of a group such as the khot ail, which is the appropriate level at which
most such investments are likely to be made.
“In addition there are strong ecological reasons why the development of a market in pasture
land would be undesirable. Sustainable land use under an extensive grazing system requires
mobility of livestock between pastures suitable for use in each season. Such seasonal pastures must
be shared between neighbouring households since their patterns of movement overlap and vary
between years according to forage availability. The spatial arrangement of Mongolian landscapes
vary considerably between ecological zones ; larger areas are required to encompass land suitable
for all seasons in desert -steppe zones, while smaller areas are required in the steppe and mountain
-forest -steppe zones. In most cases the risk of drought and/or zud , among other natural hazards,
requires that herders have access to traditional areas of pasture for emergency use. Taken
together these factors account for the indivisibility of pasture land in Mongolia below a certain
spatial scale varying by ecological zone. On no account should transfers of land be permitted that
would fragment in any way these minimum sustainable pasture resource areas.”
Herders can obtain title to their winter camp-sites, but not to the winter
grazing land . Winter migration from drier areas (Plate 7.17) to better watered
sums is a serious problem. The incomers can graze all winter, by right, putting
great pressure on already heavily used winter pasture . They then graze the
early spring growth before returning to their home areas (Plate 7.18).
Improving pasture management and production
The constraints to sustainable grazing management in Mongolia have been
discussed above. The harsh climatic conditions are not a constraint; they are
the reason for the extensive , mobile , animal production, based exclusively