Desertification in Mongolia is multi-dimensional and cross-cutting process characterized by the continental climate, especially aridity, cold temperatures, long regeneration times, the overall fragility of the ecosystems and external factors such as changes in the socio-economic situation of the centuries-old lifestyle of nomadic Mongolians. The very survival of nomadic pastoralism and the country’s long term prosperity depends to the greatest extent on natural factors and the state of the environment as its aggravation will ultimately impact adversely the well-being of Mongolians, especially of the rural poor.
Factors for desertification are of natural and anthropogenic origins, the latter prevailing with an estimated 87% against 13% of natural factors. Anthropogenic factors include poor natural resource management (excessive use of forest, land and water resources, poor herd management and overgrazing). Natural factors include global warming and climate change, which are causing increased droughts and drying up of rivers and lakes and wind erosion of fertile top soil. About 90% of the total territory of Mongolia is vulnerable to desertification, 70% is already affected by it.
At the grassroots level local communities are undertaking simple anti-desertification actions as their economic productivity and livelihoods are threatened by sand dune expansion and eco-system changes. Local initiatives to cope with desertification like planting windbreaks are undertaken on an ad-hoc bases, lacking professional approach and consideration of sustainability aspects. The political commitments remains mostly “on the paper” because of financial resource limitations and a lack of expertise and interdisciplinary approaches to the challenges.
The proposed Coping with Desertification project (CDP) consists of four complementary components – institutional capacity building, local level planning, awareness raising and technological innovations. The project is planning to address desertification issues in a comprehensive and integrated manner at local herders as well at the policy level. Component 1 will support the capacity development of the National Committee for Combating Desertification (NCCD); component 2 will address regional planning for the sustainable use of natural resources, starting in a river basin in Khovd aimag; component 3 will support awareness raising on issues of desertification and sustainable natural resource use with a focus on children; and component 4 will start with collecting the available information about best practices and indigenous technologies in coping with desertification and then engage in finding new technologies.
The main partner of the project is the NCCD. At the end of the project NCCD will have the necessary capacity to fulfill its obligations as specified in the Rio Convention and the National Action Plan on Desertification. The project will be implemented initially by a project support unit. Fro the beginning NCCD will be involved as an implementation partner and will take over more and more responsibility in its implementation as NCCD’s capacity grows. To build this capacity the Ministry of Nature and Environment has requested from the donors in the ‘environment and rural development coordination group’ assistance to employ a sector advisor for a few years. SDC supports this and the CDP will contribute to this position. Technical backstopping requirements for the four components include capacity assessment and training for NCCD, support in revising the National Action Plan (NAP) for combating desertification, appropriate technologies and community mobilization training in Khovd, designing an eco-education curriculum, preparation of environmental encyclopedia and the set-up of the national database on indigenous technologies.
