Overuse: How close are we to the point of desertification of rangeland?

The member of Mongolian academy of science. Ph.D, Professor, Jigjidsuren.S

In this way, we understand that rangeland is a spatial and temporal measure. Rangeland itself is an important ecological resource, a unique complex of ecosystems, and a comfortable living environment for human beings. It is an indisputable fact that Mongolia's rangeland is deteriorating rapidly. Rangeland condition and quality inspections (2008-2010) have identified 25.2 million hectares of rangeland degraded nationwide, of which about nine million hectares need to be rehabilitated. If we include only 331 soums, settlements, aimag centers, and suburban areas, the number will be even higher.

Compared to the total area of each soum, 31.8-43.2% of the total pastureland was destroyed in Tuv aimag, 24.8-31.5% in Bulgan, Orkhon, Uvurkhangai and Bayankhongor aimags, and 21.6-24.8% in Khuvsgul, Arkhangai and Khovd aimags. Can it be called “normal” when the whole territory of the aimag has deteriorated? In particular, more than 60 percent of the potential rangeland around the capital, Ulaanbaatar, has been degraded.

Thus, it is impossible to sit and watch with deafness. At the same time, deforestation, degradation, and desertification continue to "swallow" our rangelands from the outskirts of the capital city to the outskirts of remote aimags. No government agency knows, feels, and pays attention to this. It is already clear that if the situation continues like this, there will be not only a "tsunami" in Mongolia but seven times less danger.

In the current context of declining rangelands, declining yields, and declining vegetation, there is a need to protect, rehabilitate, improve, and provide rangelands, on the one hand, to limit the growth of livestock numbers, to streamline herd structure, and enhance the quality of livestock. I would like to say that the main goal and strategy of the government is to implement the policy of combined regional development consistently. Every historical tradition of Mongolian pastoralism dates back to the Xiongnu Dynasty, is very rich and selective, and has 2,200 years.

This tradition has every reason to believe that rangelands were established during the reign of Genghis Khan and the Great Khans. According to the Secret Bureau of Mongolia: Ugudei ascended the throne and said, "Let's not torment the country that Genghis Khan established by his father. Let's put his feet on the ground and his hands on the ground. I will also divide the country and city lands. When dividing and inhabiting a territory, it is necessary to distinguish the inhabitants from each thousand. There are no other animals in the Gobi except deer. People want to be spacious. Let's send a leader with two heads, Chanai and Uighur, to dig a well in the desert and Gobi and fence it."

This is a testament to the high level of land management development in Mongolia. The current land manager was called "Nutagchin". As far back as 1328, there is information that there is an organization that specializes in livestock. There is evidence that he paid close attention to its condition and quality and conducted interrogations in addition to allocating land and rangelands. In 1324, Esuntumur Khan repeatedly sent envoys to inspect the pastures and lands of Mongolia.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the historical traces of the orderly distribution of pastureland are now reflected in our favorite "unwritten law." Unfortunately, the five-year plan for raising livestock since the 1940s has largely forgotten about rangeland and weakened the government's rangeland policy. However, during the socialist era, the soum-cooperative management was responsible for allocating, protecting, and using rangeland. Best practices and beneficial initiatives were disseminated to other soums by the decision of the highest authority.

Such regulations played a role at the time and were effective in protecting Mongolia's rangeland from degradation. Since the privatization and distribution of livestock in the early 1990s, the government's rangeland policy has been completely lost. After the passage of the Land Law in 2003, the 20-year-old effort to pass the Rangeland Law failed, and the authorities ignored it. As the saying goes, "no one has a duck for the ownerless," the fertile land that has been used for public use has been flooded, and the ultimate state of degradation and extinction has begun to take its toll on desertification.

Unfortunately, all of this has become a disgraceful and tragic fact in our history for Mongolians, who have been nomadic for thousands of years and are proud to carry it. At the very least, the "Golden Rules of Pasture Use" were widely disseminated and published as a book through the Green Gold program. The Golden Rule is based on our elder's historical traditions and pasture use theory and has four elementary principles: 1. Do not overgraze; 2. Non-depletion of fodder resources; 3. Provide opportunities for rangeland vegetation to grow; 4—rotation of pastures.

These four principles have traditionally been followed by the traditional practices of Mongolian herders, who regulate the movement of their animals by looking at their appearance, behavior, activities, intestines, and feces. Here is the secret that the rangeland has been preserved in its original state for many years.

However, this issue was gradually abandoned, lost its owner, and the results were not visible. Let'sLet's hope that such a blind policy does not last long. Having a rangeland law and collecting rangeland use fees, and creating a "rangeland fund" will provide a lever to adjust the carrying capacity of pastures and improve degraded rangelands and hayfields and build wells and build reservoirs.