Mongolia - Great "Steppes" forward through ecosystem-based adaptation

Although 60% of Mongolia’s population now lives in towns, nearly 40% of the population are reliant on subsistence livestock herding. The steppe ecosystem that supports the livelihoods of these nomadic communities is characterized by temperate grasslands; the communities are completely dependent on the ability of this ecosystem to provide surface water and pasture.

In recent years, herders have noticed a marked change in rainfall patterns and an increase in temperatures. The hydrological regime has also changed, altering the volume and timing of river flow and flood regimes.  The soil infiltration rate and water storage capacity have declined, resulting in deteriorating pasture quality and quantity. In addition, the occurrence of summer droughts and extremely severe winter weather events called ‘dzud’ has increased. The 2010 dzud killed over 25% of the livestock in the whole country, impacting 700,000 people. Changes in climatic patterns are already having noticeable impacts on the herders, exacerbating already serious land degradation problems.

Launched in 2012, the project Ecosystem-based Adaptation Approach to Maintaining Water Security in Critical Water Catchments in Mongolia, co-funded by the Adaptation Fund, the Government of Mongolia and UNDP is working with communities, local and national governments and NGOs in the Altai and Eastern Steppe landscapes. With these partners, the project combines traditional knowledge and technological innovation to maintain water provisioning services supplied by mountain and steppe ecosystems, and to incorporate climate change risk responses and ecosystem resilience principles into land use and water resource planning and management at the landscape level.

The project applies the principles of ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA)—a range of strategies for managing ecosystems to increase resilience and maintain essential ecosystem services and to reduce the vulnerability of people and the natural environment to climate change impacts. Specifically, the project supports evidence-based decision-making through improved knowledge and understanding of ecosystem dynamics and resilience, and of impacts of different land uses. The project also assists community actions to implement EBA principles and practices for the long-term sustainability of their livelihoods. At the national level, the project supports mainstreaming of the EBA approach into the country’s adaptation framework and relevant sectors’ policies. The project marks great steps forward in safeguarding the world’s largest steppe ecosystem and dependent communities.