Conserving Mongolia's Grasslands, with Challenges
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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Great Plains Studies, Center for Social Sciences Spring 2010 CONSERVING MONGOLIA’S GRASSLANDS, WITH CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND LESSONS FOR NORTH AMERICA’S GREAT PLAINS Richard P. Reading Denver Zoological Foundation, [email protected] Don Bedunah University of Montana, [email protected] Sukh Amgalanbaatar Mongolian Academy of Sciences, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsresearch Part of the American Studies Commons Reading, Richard P.; Bedunah, Don; and Amgalanbaatar, Sukh, "CONSERVING MONGOLIA’S GRASSLANDS, WITH CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND LESSONS FOR NORTH AMERICA’S GREAT PLAINS" (2010). Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences. 1080. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsresearch/1080 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Great Plains Research 20 (Spring 2010): 85-107 © 2010 Copyright by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln CONSERVING MONGOLIA’S GRASSLANDS, WITH CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND LESSONS FOR NORTH AMERICA’S GREAT PLAINS Richard P. Reading Denver Zoological Foundation 2300 Steele Street Denver, CO 80205 [email protected] Don Bedunah University of Montana Missoula, MT 59812 [email protected] and Sukh Amgalanbaatar Mongolian Academy of Sciences Ulaanbaatar—11 Mongolia [email protected] ABSTRACT—Mongolia and North America contain expansive grassland ecosystems that remain sparsely populated, dominated by agriculture, and support relatively isolated human communities dependent on natural resources. Until recently Mongolians raised livestock using extensive pastoralism without seriously threatening most of the region’s biodiversity. Yet that changed rapidly following the recent transition from a communist, command-control economy to a democratic, free-market economy. The main challenges to protecting biodiver- sity on grasslands in Mongolia include overgrazing, poaching, mining, and inadequate management, training, and resources. Mongolia and the Great Plains both retain great opportunities for biodiversity conservation that could also benefit local people. Mongolia has begun embracing nature-based tourism as a means of providing additional jobs and enhanced livelihoods to local communities on its steppe grasslands. Nature-based tourism development in Mongolia may provide a model for conserving biodiversity in the Great Plains. Similar devel- opments are beginning in the Great Plains but have focused primarily on big game hunting and dude ranches. Expanding the model in the Great Plains to include Native American cultures and wildlife viewing may offer alternatives that help restore biodiversity and enhance livelihoods. Key Words: conservation, Mongolia, nature-based tourism, pastoralism, rangelands, wildlife INTRODUCTION Mongolia and the Great Plains of the United States continental climates, fire, and historic grazing by wild are dominated by expansive grassland ecosystems that ungulates and contain many landscape and ecosystem remain sparsely populated, dominated by agriculture, similarities, but they also differ in some significant ways. and support isolated human communities dependent on For example, in Mongolia, a country of 156 million ha natural resources. These grasslands developed under (slightly larger than Alaska), domestic livestock have grazed the grasslands for millennia compared to about Manuscript received for review, April 2009; accepted for publication, 150 years for most of the Great Plains. November 2009. 85 86 Great Plains Research Vol. 20 No. 1, 2010 Mongolian pastoralists have used their traditional ecology of the nation. To be sustainable, both tourism system of extensive pastoralism without seriously and livestock require vastly improved grassland man- threatening the region’s biodiversity during most of agement to maintain a healthy and productive steppe. region’s human history. Extensive pastoralism helped Managers must also balance mining, an important maintain natural grasslands, and as Mongolia supports and growing economic sector of Mongolia, with the the lowest human population density in the world (about country’s animal livestock and tourism sectors to avoid 1.66 people/ha in 2007; NSOM 2008), the large area of sacrificing long-term values for short-term economic natural grasslands and sparse human population helped gains. Our collective work has focused on accomplish- maintain natural biodiversity. Following the collapse of ing this task, namely, improving livestock husbandry, the Soviet Union and the transition from a communist, biodiversity conservation, and nature-based tourism to command-control economy to a democratic, free- ensure that all remain sustainable and enjoy enduring market economy, overgrazing and loss of biodiversity public support. In this paper, we provide a context for have become major concerns. The main challenges to and background on Mongolia’s grasslands, then exam- protecting biodiversity on grasslands in Mongolia are ine the challenges and opportunities for conservation. overgrazing, poaching, mining impacts, and inadequate We conclude with lessons from Mongolia that could be management and training in natural resource conser- adopted to improve aspects of biodiversity conservation vation. The extent to which these threats will impact in the U.S. Great Plains. Mongolia’s grasslands remains unclear, but poor mining restoration prospects, increased livestock numbers, and MONGOLIA’S GRAZING LANDS a rise in poaching suggest that the challenges to biodi- versity conservation will only rise. Mongolia contains vast expanses of grazing lands Mongolia’s capacity and investment in grassland with 80% of the country used as extensive grazing conservation and management have not kept pace with and a further 10% of the country in forest that is also the increased challenges facing the country. We can often used by pastoralists for grazing (Suttie 2005). partially explain this by a lack of financial resources, as Arable lands comprise less than 1% of the total area, the United Nations rated Mongolia as one of the world’s with urban, industrialized roads comprising about poorest nations, with a per capita gross national income 5% of the total area (Suttie 2005). Steppe grasslands ranked 160th in the world in 2007 (NSOM 2008), and to comprise the majority of grazing lands and in 2007 an economy still adjusting to changes following the col- only about 365,000 people lived as nomadic pastoral- lapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Balancing economic ists, practicing outside cities on the Mongolian steppe development and nature conservation will prove chal- (NSOM 2008). In this paper we use the term nomadic lenging, but it is vital if the country hopes to create a pastoralists to refer to herders who live outside villages sustainable future based on its three-pronged economy and towns and move their livestock, generally several of livestock-based agriculture, mining, and cultural and times a year, to meet the needs of their animals. This nature-based tourism. Mongolia has begun embracing type of mobile pastoralism stresses extensive graz- nature-based tourism as a means of providing additional ing and native breeds that require lower inputs as jobs and enhanced livelihoods to local communities in compared to more intensive grazing systems used in its steppe grasslands. Nature-based tourism develop- other parts of the developed world. Nomadic pastoral- ment in Mongolia may provide a model for conserving ists’ numbers have remained relatively constant since biodiversity in the Great Plains. Similar developments the early 1990s; however, livestock numbers have in- are beginning in the Great Plains but have focused creased rapidly with large fluctuations in the national primarily on big game hunting and dude ranches. Ex- herd size since the end of communism (Figs. 1 and 2) panding the model in the Great Plains to include the (NSOM 2008). Increased livestock numbers and large Native American culture and wildlife viewing may offer fluctuations in livestock numbers have important im- alternatives that help restore biodiversity and enhance plications for biodiversity conservation on Mongolian livelihoods. grasslands. In this section, we discuss livestock graz- We believe that an opportunity exists for Mongolia to ing on the Mongolian steppe, the human population develop a sustainable economy in the nation’s grasslands and local livelihoods, and the status of steppe wildlife. based on a combination of extensive livestock produc- For more details on the context of grasslands conserva- tion and tourism focused on the unique culture and tion in Mongolia see Reading et al. (2006). © 2010 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Conserving Mongolia’s Grasslands • Richard P. Reading et al. 87 80 Sheep units 70 Livestock 60 50 40 Number 30 20 10 0 1917 1927 1937 1947 1957 1967 1977 1987 1997 2007 Year Figure 1. Number of livestock and sheep units in Mongolia, 1918-2007 (NSOM 2004, 2008). Sheep units determined by multiply- ing the number of sheep by 1, goats by 0.9, cows by 6, horses by 7, and camels