Does the ecological quality of inherited campsites cause persistent inequalities and poverty in pastoral Mongolia?

Abstract

Most socioeconomic surveys carried out in Mongolia since the regime change of the 1990s report persistent inequalities and poverty in pastoral communities. To understand the reasons for this phenomenon, we studied the relationships between livestock numbers and ecological characteristics of herders’ seasonal campsites in a community of the Mongolian Gobi. We classified herders with help of a regression tree into three categories, where herd size is correlated with the proportion of the Stipa glareosa and Psammochloa villosa grasses around campsites. We established in addition from livestock-based income estimations that poverty could affect the small herd category, owning on average less than 180 heads of livestock. We finally observed that herders mostly transmit their campsites to their descendants, particularly in the small herd category. Herders are hence durably associated with campsites whose quality is related to livestock numbers, which may be a factor of inequality and poverty persistence. To further understand these processes, the zootechnical influence of S. glareosa and P. villosa should be investigated, as well as historical and anthropological determinants of campsites repartition.