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GENDER ROLES IN GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT IN MONGOLIA
Kh. Ykhanbai, Ts. Odgerel,
B. Naranchimeg, E. Bulgan and
Sustainable Management Common Natural Resource team
1. Background
Mongolia is a country, which has continental, extremely different climate and is located in
the Central Asia, bordered by the Russia in the North, China in the East. It has a land area
of approximately 1.56 million square kilometers (km
2
) and population of 2.4 million that
makes it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world (0.6 km
2
). Grasslands
make up approximately 82 percent of the land area are currently home to 23.9 million head
of livestock (82,7 percent - goat and sheep, 17,3 percent - horse, cattle and camel) and
175,900 herding families (NSO, 2002). Grasslands are the principal renewable natural
resource in Mongolia, which are fragile, highly susceptible to degradation, and slow to
recover from degradation.
In history and in our traditions private ownership of pastureland has never existed and
grasslands have always been state property and been used commonly by herders or
customary groups according to their livelihood needs. During the soviet-era (1921-1990)
citizens had no rights to possess livestock. They used state pasturelands to herd state
animals for a salary in accordance with seasonal grazing movement schemes and pasture
use regulations adopted by the administration of collectives and state entities. Mongolia
began its transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy in the early
1990’s, promoting democracy, decentralization and privatization. As a result of the
privatization process since 1992, all livestock are now privately owned; grasslands,
however, remain under state property and are used commonly. Between 1992 and 2000
herder households increased 2.5 times and livestock numbers increased by 17.5 percent and
pasture management authority and responsibility was also devolved to the local level
governments and herders.
Currently some estimates show that more than 76 percent of the country’s pasturelands are
subject to overgrazing and desertification. Apart from the climate change due to global
warming, the increase in animal numbers after privatization until 1999 and uncontrolled
concentration of animals around water sources, settlement areas, hay lands, and seasonal
camps may be some parts of the reason of this. Herders desire to increase their herd size
and livestock numbers as means of survival in competitive market condition, because
pastures and grasslands are common resource and it has low entry costs compared to other
opportunities. Therefore it needs to establish a co-management system of grasslands and
From the findings it was clear that unpaid and unvalued work for women have
increased after the herd privatization took place; on average, more than 70 percent of
the work in herders’ families is carried out by women, although women have fewer
rights and opportunities to participate in the collective decision-making most of them
support the idea of co-management of natural resources. By establishing women
groups in the communities, decision-making role of women have increased in natural
resources management
.
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