Project background

With an observed temperature increase of 2.1°C over the past 70 years, Mongolia is among the countries most impacted by climate change. Increased temperatures, coupled with decreased precipitation, have resulted in a drying trend impacting pastures and water sources, and shifting natural zones.

Responses to climate impacts by herders have not been informed by climate information or by the potential impact of those responses on land and water resources. Unsustainable herding practices and livestock numbers are further stressing increasingly fragile ecosystems and related ecosystem services.

Herder households make up one third of the population in Mongolia, approximately 160,000 households or 90 percent of the agriculture sector. Around 85 percent of all provincial economies in are agriculture-based. While herder households are the most exposed to climate risks, their scale and thus potential impact also means that tailored interventions can support transformational change towards more climate-informed and sustainable herder practices, benefitting the sector, the economy and the environment.

Led by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Light Industry as a key partner, this 7-year project project, seeks to strengthen the resilience of resource-dependent herder communities in four aimags (provinces) vulnerable to climate change: Khovd, Zavkhan, Dornod and Sukhbaatar, thus covering steppe, desert steppe, mountain, mountain steppe and forest steppe zones. 

With funding from the Green Climate Fund, the UNDP-supported project focuses on three complementary outputs:

• Integrating climate information into land and water use planning at the national and sub-national levels
• Scaling up climate-resilient water and soil management practices for enhanced small scale herder resource management
• Building herder capacity to access markets for sustainably sourced, climate-resilient livestock products

Project summary

• The project will strengthen capacity of the National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring (NAMEM) to collect and analyze the data necessary for climate-informed planning.
• The project will apply Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) measures to protect land and natural water resources, while also establishing or rehabilitating water wells for livestock.
• The project will support the planned policy transformations under the National Mongolian Livestock Programme, by ensuring that changes are informed by climate risk.
• The project will identify public-private-community partnerships for sustainably-sourced, climate-resilient livestock products; and in association with this, support the establishment and training of Herder Producer Organizations (or cooperatives) with support to include general business and market specific training in production, post-harvest processing, post-harvest value addition and on-site storage specific to the commodity value chain.

Project objectives

With the objective of strengthening the resilience of resource-dependent herder communities in four aimags vulnerable to climate change, this project seeks an integrated approach to address climate change impacts on herder livelihoods and on the natural resources on which they rely.

Expected results

This project focuses on three complementary outputs:

Output 1: Integrate climate information into land and water use planning at the national and sub-national levels

· Activity 1.1. Enhance technical capacity for long-term climate resilient development planning, and medium-term response planning capacity

· Activity 1.2. Integration of climate change and climate-informed carrying capacity into aimag and soum level development plans (incl. Integrated River Basin Management Plans (IRBMP))

· Activity 1.3. Analytical products to support policy and regulatory transformation promoting sustainable land and water management and resilient herder livelihoods

Output 2: Scaling up climate-resilient water and soil management practices for enhanced small scale herder resource management

· Activity 2.1. Enhance cooperation among herders on sustainable use and stewardship of shared land and water resources (formalized through Resource User Agreements)

· Activity 2.2. Reforestation of critical catchment areas to protect water resources and ecosystem services

· Activity 2.3. Establish haymaking and pasture reserve areas, and emergency fodder storage facilities to reduce volatility to livelihoods related to climate change induced extreme events

· Activity 2.4. Improve water access through protection of natural springs, construction of new water wells, rehabilitation of existing wells and water harvesting measures

Output 3: Build herder capacity to access markets for sustainably sourced, climate-resilient livestock products

· Activity 3.1. Identify public-private-community partnership for sustainably sourced climate resilient livestock products

· Activity 3.2. Establishment and training of Herder Producer Organizations (or cooperatives)

· Activity 3.3. Improve traceability for sustainably sourced, climate resilient livestock products

· Activity 3.4. Generation and dissemination of knowledge products to support private-sector engagement and herder enfranchisement in climate-resilient and sustainable production in Mongolia