Abstract
In many regions of the world, traditional and local ecological knowledge is still important today for coping with environmental challenges. This study explored the relevance of such knowledge for predicting and coping with harsh winter conditions (dzud) in a remote area of western Mongolia, where government support to disaster-affected herders is restricted by weak infrastructure. Structured face-to-face interviews were held in 50 households (HHs), addressing aspects of livestock possession and management as well as disaster prediction and mitigation. The responses disclosed that livestock losses during the 2009/10 dzud averaged 112.4 animals per HH, equaling nearly 80% of the interviewees’ total livestock possession in summer 2013. To reduce such high losses in the future, herders planned to improve their hay-making efforts and winter pen preparation. However, they also stated that the earliest signs for a dzud occur in September, when it is already too late for substantial hay-making. Therefore, some herders underlined the necessity of maintaining livestock productivity through segregated summer grazing of specific animal groups, controlled mating and early sale of weak livestock. Animals are then entering a harsh winter in good body condition. National and international organizations wishing to support livestock keepers in this and similar regions should therefore highlight the relevance of local strategies for disaster prevention and support community-based approaches that can compensate for the prevalent lack of family labour.
Highlights
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and local ecological knowledge (LEK) is knowledge held by indigenous and local cultures that often reflects the long-term past (TEK) and present (LEK) experience gained from the intimate involvement of humans with their local ecosystem (Berkes 1999; Chapman 2007; Martin et al 2010)
During the past two decades when the global society increasingly realized the need for long-term sustainability of agro-ecosystems management, improved resource use efficiency and better reconciliation of societal needs with natural ecosystems’ health (e.g. WCED 1987; Mebratu 1998; Fernandez-Gimenez et al 2016), scientists and ecological practitioners started to revaluate TEK held by communities that are strongly engaged in traditional subsistence systems (Menzies 2006; Martin et al 2010)
Across the three wealth strata, the number of adult yak was negatively correlated to that of adult sheep (r = − 0.98) and camels (r = − 0.92); the latter were mainly owned by herders from the large herds (Lhs) stratum, especially Torguud
Summary
Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and local ecological knowledge (LEK) is knowledge held by indigenous and local cultures that often reflects the long-term past (TEK) and present (LEK) experience gained from the intimate involvement of humans with their local ecosystem (Berkes 1999; Chapman 2007; Martin et al 2010). During the past two decades when the global society increasingly realized the need for long-term sustainability of agro-ecosystems management, improved resource use efficiency and better reconciliation of societal needs with natural ecosystems’ health (e.g. WCED 1987; Mebratu 1998; Fernandez-Gimenez et al 2016), scientists and ecological practitioners started to revaluate TEK held by communities that are strongly engaged in traditional subsistence systems (Menzies 2006; Martin et al 2010). Scientists have tried to better integrate TEK with modern approaches of natural resources management and conservation strategies in different domains of human-environment interactions, such as inland and marine fisheries in Brazil (Schafer and Reis 2008; Teixeira et al 2013), forestry and traditional. There is recent evidence of spatially concentrated exploitation of grazing resources leading to rangeland degradation (Altmann et al 2016; Jordan et al 2016) and eventually severe livestock losses in the case of extreme environmental conditions such as an extremely harsh winter (Soma 2014)
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