They had been nomadic herders lengthy earlier than the rise of Genghis Khan.
For 1000’s of years, Mongolian nomads have herded throughout the nation’s huge steppe grassland. It’s a legacy they preserve shut at this time: Roughly 40 % of Mongolians nonetheless herd livestock, following traditions their ancestors have honored for millennia.
For these communities, adaptability is survival. Nothing is static — not the cruel climate, not the steppe and definitely not the individuals.
However the tempo of change at this time is now not seasonal.
Mongolia is warming greater than thrice sooner than the worldwide common. Between 1940 and 2015, common temperatures rose by 2.24 levels Celsius (4.03 Fahrenheit). For comparability, a lot of the remainder of the world is struggling to carry warming beneath the harmful threshold of 1.5 levels C (2.7 F). Right here in central Asia, that threshold was handed way back.
The consequences are unmistakable: longer droughts, vanishing water sources and a surge in brutal chilly snaps often known as dzuds — sudden freezes that killed greater than 7 million livestock in 2024.
However a brand new effort supported by Conservation Worldwide in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert — one of many harshest landscapes on Earth — helps herders restore fragile grazing lands which have been fractured by overgrazing and local weather change.
© Jim Fitzpatrick
Mongolian herders transfer with the seasons in gers — conventional felt tents also called yurts.
One of many initiatives is centered within the Lakes Valley, a susceptible ecosystem within the shadow of Ikh Bogd, a 4,000-meter (13,000-foot) mountain that towers above the steppe. Right here, within the Erdenet Mal Sureg neighborhood, herders nonetheless depend on conventional methods like seasonal motion and rotational grazing to outlive the extremes.
With assist from the start-up Good Progress and funding from Conservation Worldwide’s Regenerative Fund for Nature, the neighborhood is pairing that deep information with new instruments to construct resilience on a altering steppe.
It begins with belief.
© Jim Fitzpatrick
Native herder, Munkhjargal, tends his flock of goats.
“Folks don’t change how they graze as a result of somebody exhibits up with a satellite tv for pc map of all of the degradation,” stated Jim Fitzpatrick, Conservation Worldwide’s lead on the challenge. “You need to sit down, drink tea, hear their tales. You need to perceive the land the way in which they do.”
Earlier than introducing any new instruments or approaches, Good Progress has frolicked strolling the land with herders — mapping valleys, marking the place grass now not grows, listening. Collectively, they’re agreeing on what wants to alter and the place to begin.
“We should guarantee any long-term plan belongs to the neighborhood,” stated Chultem Batbold, a scientist with Good Progress, who grew up on the steppe. “It has to come back from what the neighborhood already practices — and construct on it.”
© Jim Fitzpatrick
Odonchimeg, an area herder, milks goats within the pen.
Mongolian herders transfer with the seasons, guiding their flock from summer time pastures to sheltered winter grounds. These migrations aren’t random — they’re rooted in a deep, inherited understanding of the land’s pure rhythms.
By way of satellite tv for pc monitoring, herders are starting to obtain early warnings about circumstances on the bottom — a pasture drying out, or the telltale indicators of a dzud starting to kind. These real-time updates, shared by means of social media and cellular apps, might give herders a important window to reply.
And extra is on the horizon. Good Progress is working to develop a system that estimates how lengthy a pasture can assist grazing earlier than it wants relaxation — utilizing satellite tv for pc pictures, machine studying and on-the-ground checks. The purpose isn’t simply to react. It’s to stop pastures from reaching that breaking level within the first place — rotating grazing areas extra deliberately, whereas guaranteeing that herd sizes don’t balloon uncontrolled.
“For a lot of households, that is all about cashmere — generally that’s 90 % of their earnings,” Fitzpatrick stated. “And when the worth drops, they will really feel like their solely possibility is to boost extra animals simply to make up the distinction.”
© Jim Fitzpatrick
Cashmere drives Mongolia’s herding financial system — and its environmental pressure.
However that survival technique is dear for nature. Cashmere goats are particularly arduous on the land — stripping vegetation right down to the foundation.
“One possibility we’re exploring with herders is promoting livestock for meat, which has a extra secure value and will scale back the variety of animals they should preserve,” Fitzpatrick stated. “We’re additionally working to create markets for different fibers — like camel or yak — so households have extra methods to earn a residing with out including strain on the land.”
Good Progress is working with international vogue manufacturers to do exactly that — constructing a provide chain rooted in regeneration. Herders earn higher costs for higher-quality fiber, whereas the land will get an opportunity to recuperate.
On the coronary heart of all these efforts is stability — the place financial resilience and ecological well being, in addition to the long run and the previous, are sure collectively.
“Our lifestyle will depend on nature, so we’ve all the time recognized now we have to guard it,” stated Batbold. “That’s half custom, half perception — however at its core, it’s easy: nature is alive, and if we hurt it, it would reply again.”
© Jim Fitzpatrick
Mongolia’s Gobi Desert is without doubt one of the harshest areas on Earth.
Will McCarry is the content material director at Conservation Worldwide. Wish to learn extra tales like this? Join electronic mail updates. Additionally, please take into account supporting our important work.