Changes In Mongolia Research Articles

Challenges and Triumphs of Democratisation in Mongolia

The major socio-political change in Mongolia was the change of political system from one-party socialist to multi-party democracy in 1990s. The political liberalisation of ideas- the change of economic system, inauguration of the new constitution in 1992 and the first ever free parliamentary elections are the key features of the Mongolia’s Democratic revolution. The importance of researching democratic consolidation in Mongolia can be underscored in several keyways. Firstly, Mongolia serves as an exemplary case of a nation that has transitioned positively towards democracy in a global landscape where democracy often remains an outlier rather than the norm. From the events that Mongolia had to overcome and the knowledge that was gained, there is much to learn on how democratisation processes could be maintained in transitional societies. Qualitative research approach is fitting for this study since it enables the researcher to gain an insight into subjective experiences as well as perceptions of those who are either involved in or affected by a democratic transition in Mongolia. Findings of this research highlights Mongolia's democratisation process both possibilities as well as difficulties involved. Mongolia has done fairly well in terms of institutionalising democracy, but numerous challenges are still persistent which require continuous attention and concerted efforts being made towards addressing them. By introducing strategic reforms, endorsing comprehensive development, fostering transparency culture and nurturing a sense of accountability within state institutions Mongolia can reinforce further consolidation of its democratic gains.

Swimming with the Whales: Inflection Points in Mongolia’s ‘Third Neighbour’ Foreign Policy

ABSTRACT When it became a democracy in the early 1990s, Mongolia began to embrace a multi-pillared foreign policy known as the ‘third neighbour’ policy, whereby it regarded the United States and other democracies as its ‘third neighbour’ that balances the influence of its powerful immediate neighbours, Russia and China. Thereafter, four major inflection points have emerged in the development process of the ‘third neighbour’ policy, all in response to changes in Mongolia’s external environment, particularly as it relates to China and Russia. The first inflection point was Mongolia’s move away from a diplomatic culture centred on Russia to one that is more globalised. The second was Mongolia’s effort to reduce China’s economic influence. The third inflection point was a response to increased China–Russia strategic cooperation after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the fourth began only recently and is still taking shape. We have tentatively identified this fourth phase as one of impermanent neutrality.

Changes in morphometric parameters of lakes in different ecological zones of Mongolia: implications of climate change

The aim of this study was to determine the way recent climate change impacts the morphometric changes in lakes in various ecological zones of Mongolia. We studied 4 lakes located between 48 and 50°N as representative of other environmental zones of Mongolia and determined the correlation between climate variables and changes in the area, depth, and volume of these lakes. To analyze changes in the morphometric parameter variation in the lakes, we used the normalized difference water index, trend analysis, aridity index, and statistical analysis. According to our calculations, the area, depth, and volume of the lakes have decreased during the last 30 yr. Trend analysis showed that the average air temperature has significantly increased since 2000. Furthermore, the morphometric parameters (area, volume) of lakes decreased for all studied lakes, with R2 = 0.023 to 0.457. This study shows that ongoing climate warming in Mongolia has increased intensively since 2000, which is directly affecting the morphometric parameters of the lakes by reducing their area and volume. The calculation of the aridity index proved that the degree of dryness was intense in regions with high climate resources. The results presented in this article can help us understand the spatio-temporal patterns and causes of the morphometric changes in the lakes in relation to climate change in Mongolia.

Relationship between Dynamics of Modern Glaciers of the Mt. Munkhkhairkhan (Mongolian Altai) and Climate

Mt. Munkhkhairkhan is the most crucial region for understanding climate and glaciation changes in Mongolia. This study investigated the relationship between glacial area changes and the climate elements of Mt. Munkhkhairkhan in the Mongolian-Altai Mountains using a remote sensing approach, in-situ observations, the Mann–Kendall (MK) test, Innovative Trend Analysis Method (ITAM), Sen’s slope estimator test, and statistical analysis. The study results showed that for the last 30 years, the annual average air temperature of Mt. Munkhkhairkhan has been slightly increasing. Total annual precipitation (mainly snow) in the mountain area decreased from 1990 to 2000, but since 2000, a significant increase in precipitation levels has appeared. For the last 30 years, the glacial area has decreased by 32% to 11.7 km2. Multiple regression results showed a strong correlation between Temperature, Precipitation, and Glaciers (Multiple R = 0.69, R2 = 0.48). Ruther indicated that Temperature (t = −2.332, p = 0.036) and Precipitation (t = −3.212, p = 0.007) were significant predictors in the model. Air temperature and precipitation explained 48 percent of the change in the glacier area, and R = 0.69 is a strong correlation. The glaciers and snow area in the study area have changed due to climate warming and precipitation changes and are located in arid and semi-arid regions of Central Asia. This study of Mt. Munkhairkhan shows that climate change significantly impacts glaciers and snow.

Spatial–Temporal and Driving Factors of Land Use/Cover Change in Mongolia from 1990 to 2021

During the past several decades, desertification and land degradation have become more and more serious in Mongolia. The drivers of land use/cover change (LUCC), such as population dynamics and climate change, are increasingly important to local sustainability studies. They can only be properly analyzed at small scales that capture the socio-economic conditions. Several studies have been carried out to examine the pattern of LUCC in Mongolia, but they have been focused on changes in single land types at a local scale. Although some of them were carried out at the national scale, the data interval is more than 10 years. A small-scale and year-by-year dataset of LUCC in Mongolia is thus needed for comprehensive analyses. We obtained year-by-year land use/cover changes in Mongolia from 1990 to 2021 using Landsat TM/OLI data. First, we established a random forest (RF) model. Then, in order to improve the classification accuracy of the misclassification of cropland, grassland, and built and barren areas, the classification and regression trees model (CART) was introduced for post-processing. The results show that 17.6% of the land surface has changed at least once among the six land categories from 1990 to 2021. While the area of barren land has significantly increased, the grassland and forest areas have exhibited a decreasing trend in the past 32 years. The other land types do not show promising changes. To determine the driving factors of LUCC, we applied an RF feature importance ranking to environmental factors, physical factors, socioeconomic factors, and accessibility factors. The mean annual precipitation (MAP), evapotranspiration (ET), mean annual air temperature (MAAT), DEM, GDP, and distance to railway are the main driving factors that have determined the distribution and changes in land types. Interestingly, unlike the global anti-V-shaped pattern, we found that the land use/cover changes show an N-shaped trend in Mongolia. These characteristics of land use/cover change in Mongolia are primarily due to the agricultural policies and rapid urbanization. The results present comprehensive land use/cover change information for Mongolia, and they are of great significance for policy-makers to formulate a scientific sustainable development strategy and to alleviate the desertification of Mongolia.

The Expected Effect of Korea-Mongolia FTA and EPA

On December 30, 2021, the Mongolian government enacted a “New Revitalization Policy” to accelerate economic development and enhance the effectiveness of the long-term development policy “Vision 2050” after the COVID-19. Mongolia is currently a member of the Japan-Mongolia Economic Partnership Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement(APTA). The joint research on the Economic Partnership Agreement with Korea-Mongolia and Mongolia-China are completed. Joint research of a free trade agreement with Mongolia and EEU(Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan) is in progress. Economic cooperation between Korea and Mongolia is not showing good results compared to current political, social, and cultural cooperation. The expected effects of the conclusion of the Economic Partnership Agreement can be summarized as follows. First, if the tariff barriers on Korea-Mongolia trade are gradually resolved through the conclusion of the economic partnership agreement, the volume of trade is expected to increase significantly. Second, the inclusion of special information on investment in the bilateral economic partnership agreement is expected to improve Korea’s FDI environment with Mongolia, and increase investment in mining, agriculture and infrastructure and SMEs. As the tree planting campaign is a nationwide campaign, demand for forestry machines, equipments, and irrigation systems is expected to expand gradually. Korea has become a representative country that has succeeded in foresting project of Mindungsan(bald mountain). Korea’s forest diplomacy also played a major role in fields such as greening projects, desertification prevention projects, carbon emissions, and global warming climate countermeasures on the international stage. The “Planting 1 Billion Trees” campaign to respond to climate change in Mongolia can be an opportunity for Korean companies.

Монгол орны голоцены үеийн байгаль орчны өөрчлөлт, хурдас хуримтлалын онцлог

The investigations presented in this paper focus on the reconstruction of Holocene environmental change in Mongolia based on published paleoclimate records, including lake sediments, lake levels, pollen records and eolian sediment records. These data indicate that the early Holocene of Mongolia is characterized by increasing temperature and humidity. The mid Holocene is characterized by enhanced aridity, and during late Holocene humidity increased, evaporation decreased.

Spatiotemporal variations of Vegetation change and its response to Climate change in Mongolia during 1982-2015

Using GIMMS NDVI growing season (April-October) data from 1982-2015, mean temperature and monthly precipitation data from 60 meteorological station observations for the same period, the vegetation cover change and climate change in the Mongolian region and its response were studied with the help of linear trend analysis and Pearson correlation method the relationship between vegetation cover change and climate change in Mongolia and its response was studied using linear trend analysis, Mann-Kendall trend analysis and Pearson correlation. The results show that the average NDVI of the growing season in Mongolia has gradually increased spatially from south to north over the past 34 years. Seasonally, there was an overall increasing trend of NDVI in all three seasons, and the influence of precipitation on vegetation NDVI was greater than the influence of temperature on it. Different vegetation types responded more to precipitation than to temperature, and alpine grassland vegetation significantly affected air temperature and precipitation.

Russian Language in Everyday Discourse of Mongols (Data from an Expert Survey)

The results of a study conducted in 2021 and devoted to the analysis of the current position of the Russian language in Mongolian society is presented in the article. The relevance of the study is due to the need to analyze the changes taking place in the minds of the Mongols regarding the Russian language, and to search for further prospects for its functioning in Mongolia. The impossibility of conducting a mass questionnaire survey due to the pandemic of a new coronavirus infection led to the choice of an expert survey as the main research method. The factors leading to the weakening of the Russian language positions, which include, first of all, the change in Mongolia’s foreign policy priorities, the search for new partners, the decrease in Russia’s influence, and the processes of globalization are considered in the article. It was revealed that, despite the narrowing of the spheres of functioning of the Russian in Mongolia, its socio-cultural potential in the Mongolian society has not been exhausted. The factors restraining the growth of negative trends are highlighted, namely the presence of the Russian in the educational sphere, the presence of specialists with Soviet and Russian education, a common historical memory based on friendship and trust. Analysis of the results of the study shows that the further development of cooperation between Russia and Mongolia in all spheres of public life, the strengthening of political union, economic cooperation and cultural interaction can allow the Russian language to become one of the leading foreign languages in modern Mongolian society.

Father Presence, Father Engagement, and Specific Health and Developmental Outcomes of Mongolian Pre-School Children.

This study explored father involvement as a social determinant of child health within the context of macro-environmental changes in Mongolia. Using data for children aged 3–4 from UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, this cross-sectional analysis examined the association between father presence and engagement with child health and educational outcomes. Multivariate regression modeling was employed to identify associations between father presence, engagement, and child outcomes including fever, respiratory illness, diarrhea and preschool attendance. In unadjusted analyses, father engagement was associated with higher odds of preschool attendance (Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.12; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.04–1.20) but not with child illness (OR = 1.04; 95% CI 0.95–1.14). Father engagement was no longer associated with preschool attendance after controlling for potentially confounding variables (ORadj = 0.95; 95% CI 0.88–1.03). Unadjusted and adjusted analyses showed that father presence was not associated with acute illness or preschool attendance. Results also suggest that a larger proportion of children were engaged in activities by their mother compared to their father or other adults. Data indicate that father presence and engagement were not associated with child illness or preschool attendance. Factors such as maternal education, household wealth, and region of residence are stronger predictors of preschool attendance and should continue to be considered for promoting child health and development in Mongolia.

Recent fertility changes in Mongolia: what can we learn from examining tempo-adjusted fertility?

ABSTRACT Between 1990 and 2015, several post-communist countries experienced a decline in fertility, followed by a rise in the period fertility rate of roughly one child per woman. Mongolia is a good case-in-point. Its period fertility dropped further after the demise of socialism in 1990 but has increased again since 2005 and fluctuated around 3.0 children per woman in recent years. Political factors have been suggested as the explanation of these changes. This research investigates whether demographic factors also provide explanations for the period fertility changes in Mongolia. We study this through reconstructing the fertility rates, by age and birth order, from data collected by several social and demographic surveys. The fertility rates are adjusted to examine the role of tempo effects in recent fertility changes. The results show that the demographic influences, in particular childbearing postponement and recuperation, have contributed to recent changes in fertility trends and levels in Mongolia.

Language, Literacy, and Social Change in Mongolia: Traditionalist, Socialist, and Post-Socialist Identities. By Phillip P. Marzluf. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2018. vii, 223 pp. ISBN: 9781498534857 (cloth).

Language, Literacy, and Social Change in Mongolia: Traditionalist, Socialist, and Post-Socialist Identities. By Phillip P. Marzluf. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2018. vii, 223 pp. ISBN: 9781498534857 (cloth). - Volume 80 Issue 1

Foreign Policy of President Kh. Battulga (2017-2020)

Mongolia located between Russia and China has been the object of close attention not only for its geographic neighbors, but also for non-regional states called as “third neighbor”. That’s why Mongolian foreign policy has traditionally been an important part of its development strategy. One of the main roles in the process of determining Mongolia’s foreign policy strategy belongs to the President. Democratic Party candidate Kh. Battulga won at the Presidential elections in 2017. All his steps in the field of foreign policy can be divided into three main areas. Firstly, the President of Mongolia has established himself as a supporter of improving relations with Russia, primarily through intensifying trade and economic cooperation and active personal diplomacy towards the Russian side. Secondly, Kh. Battulga demonstrated diplomacy in the Chinese direction though he had difficult time to build cooperation with the southern neighbor of Mongolia due to his election campaign criticizing China. . . Thirdly, Kh. Battulga made some changes in the strategy of relations with the “third neighbor”. For example, he rejected an active participation in some global international events and stayed indifferent to the idea of “permanent neutrality” of Mongolia. Perhaps the most serious foreign policy initiative of the new President of Mongolia was the idea of joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a permanent member. This idea has caused serious political discussions in the country, dividing the expert network into supporters and opponents of the President’s initiative. However, despite certain changes in Mongolia’s foreign policy under the President Battulga, it is difficult to state a radical turn in the foreign policy strategy. Due to political and legal reasons, as well as the external conditions of social and economic development of Mongolia, the President is not able to change the main foundations and principles of foreign policy of the state formed in the post-socialist period. Meanwhile it could be admitted that in Mongolia’s foreign policy the rationality based on the ideological solidarity (“commonwealth of democracies”) is gradually giving way to the rationality of a geographical contiguity and economic pragmatism.

Spatio-Temporal Pattern of Land Degradation from 1990 to 2015 in Mongolia

Land degradation is an important environmental problem facing the world. “Land Degradation Neutrality” is one of the core indicators in the 15th goal of the “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” for 2030. Mongolia is an important country for global land degradation. The increasingly serious land degradation has caused a direct impact on the ecosystem of the entire Mongolian plateau. We analyzed the patterns of land degradation and restoration during 1990–2010 and 2010–2015 and determined the driving forces behind the variations, by using fine resolution land cover data for the first time in Mongolia. The results showed that the spatial distribution of newly increased land degradation and restoration have a strong transitional nature. For the past 25 years, the trend of land change in Mongolia was dominated by land degradation. However, land degradation was accompanied by ongoing restoration of some land areas, and the capacity for land restoration has been gradually improved. This study discovers a series of typical land degradation and restoration regions and provides an interpretation of the driving forces in these areas. The joint effects of natural and socioeconomic factors have been found to result in land degradation and restoration in different regions.

Globalization of world economic relations and the change in Mongolia's position

Globalization of world economic relations and the change in Mongolia's position

Cold-season disasters on the Eurasian steppes: Climate-driven or man-made

Socio-ecological damage from climate-related disasters has increased worldwide, including a type of cold-season disaster (dzud) that is unique to the Eurasian steppes, notably Mongolia. During 2000–2014, dzuds killed approximately 30 million livestock and impacted the Mongolian socio-economy. The contributions of both natural and social processes to livestock mortality were not previously considered across Mongolia. Here, we consider the contribution of both multiple climate hazards (drought, cold temperatures and snow), and socioeconomic vulnerability (herders’ livestock and coping-capacity) to mortality risk. We performed multi-regression analyses for each province using meteorological, livestock and socioeconomic datasets. Our results show that 93.5% of mortality within Mongolia was caused by a combination of multi-hazards (47.3%) and vulnerability (46.2%), suggesting dzuds were both climate- and man-made. However, in high-mortality hotspots, mortality was primarily caused by multi-hazards (drought-induced pasture deficiency and deep-snow). Livestock overpopulation and a lack of coping capacities that caused inadequate preparedness (e.g., hay/forage) were the main vulnerability factors. Frequent and severe multi-hazards greatly increased the mortality risk, while increased vulnerability caused by socioeconomic changes in Mongolia since the 1990s tended to amplify the effects of multi-hazards. Thus, reductions in herder vulnerability within high-mortality hotspots would likely be an effective means of mitigating the risk of future dzuds.

STUDY ON MONGOLIAN FOREST STAND DYNAMICS USING MATHEMATICAL MODELING

A Global warming, climate change and negative human activities are expected to directly and negatively influence Mongolia’s forest resource area and quality [21]. In 2015, Mongolian forested area was 12,188.2 thousand hectare and in compared with the forested area in 2010, it has decreased by 864.5 thousand hectare. The important causes of deforestation and forest degradation are fire, improper commercial logging, illegal collection of wood for construction and fuel wood, overgrazing, mining activity, and damage by pests and diseases. Mongolian forest stand is not only decreasing in quantity, but also forest age class has been changing into maturity forest classification in recent years. The maturity forest resource has counted for 74 percent of total forest resource is in National Forest Inventory, 2016. There are few study for Mongolian forest stand dynamics and this work is first research that used stochastic process to predict forest stand dynamics in Mongolian case. This paper considered the main factors such as Climate factors and Socio-Economic factors in predicting forest stand dynamics. The factors are chosen based on real situation of forest resource’s changes in Mongolia. The study has estimated coefficients of relationship between forest resource and main factors, as well as main factors and their explanatory variables, using suitable regression model for all estimation. Moreover, Markov chain process has been used to extracted future dynamic of forest stand by age class structure based on imbalanced age structure of total forest resource today. The result of this paper shows that the most important factors that influenced the future forest stand changes are forest fire, commercial logging and afforestation. The estimated model results shows the forest fire will be decreased (9%), commercial logging will be increased (25%) and reforestation will be increased (30%) by 2030. Specially, this paper presented that forest resource will be decreased by 13 percent in future 15 years. Additionally, this decrease is consist of forest age structure changes which is young aged forest would be increased by 27%, middle aged forest would be decreased by 15%, maturing forest would be decreased by 39% and maturity forest would be decreased by 16% in 2030.

Exploring linked ecological and cultural tipping points in Mongolia

Abstract We review evidence of Holocene climate, vegetation, and cultural changes in Mongolia and critically examine evidence that Mongolia’s steppes are at the brink of ecological and cultural tipping points in the Anthropocene. Until 5,000 YBP there is no evidence of lasting human influences on ecosystems, but after this time, changes in vegetation and soil physical properties signal domestic livestock grazing impacts on steppe ecosystems. Contemporary (1991–2015) literature and region by region analysis of climate, livestock, remote-sensing and human population data reveal two potential tipping points. Temperatures warmed across the 5 regions. Since 1991, livestock densities and forage use increased in most regions, the spatial distribution of grazing pressure is more heterogeneous, and variability increased in stocking densities, forage use and forage production in all or most regions. Substantial plant species shifts and losses occurred in the mountain and forest steppe regions. Although a large proportion of Mongolia’s rangelands are altered from their ecological potential, few have crossed an irreversible threshold of ecological change. Rangelands in Mongolia’s Khangai, northern and central regions may be approaching an ecological tipping point if grazing pressure is not reduced. After 1991, herder populations initially rose and then decreased significantly across most regions. If demographic and social trends contribute to loss of herding knowledge and identity, a cultural tipping point could occur. We describe four potential future scenarios that could unfold if these tipping points are reached, hypothesize feedbacks between ecological and cultural thresholds, and discuss implications for policy and management.

Makro- und mikroökonomische Folgen des Rohstoffbooms in der Mongolei

Zusammenfassung:In den vergangenen 15 Jahren ist ein radikaler Wandel der mongolischen Wirtschaft zu beobachten. Bedingt durch die Aktivitäten transnationaler Investoren im mongolischen Bergbausektor, wächst die ökonomische Bedeutung des Bergbaus, während die traditionelle Tierhaltung an wirtschaftlicher Relevanz verliert. In diesem Beitrag werden verschiedene ökonomische Auswirkungen des Bergbaus in der Mongolei auf nationaler Ebene und Effekte auf die Haushaltökonomie traditioneller Tierhalter, die in den Bergbauregionen leben, thematisiert.

Insect community dynamics in relation to climate change in Mongolia

In recent years, many research revealed plant-insect interactions are becoming unstable because of climate change, human activities and grazing effect. In this work, it is aimed to disclose that how climate of two different years is influencing on insect community at certain locality in Mongolia. The data on the insect community are collected, covering full flowering season from June to August in 2014 and 2015. In order to include all species of insects in Udleg Station, data was collected in three different sites. One of them was around edge of forest, another one was in ungrazed area or inside the fence that has been kept for more than 9 years and last one was in grazed area. Weather was a perceptible difference during two year's study. This climate differences significantly influenced on the insect community. In 2014, overall 305 insect species were recorded, in which 124 insect species in order of Diptera, 44 in Lepidoptera, 33 in Coleoptera, 31 in Hemiptera, and 73 in Hymenoptera were determined. But in 2015, these number of species noticeably decreased, and total 150 insect species were recorded, in which 58 in Diptera, 26 in Lepidoptera, 13 in Coleoptera, 12 in Hemiptera, and 41 in Hymenoptera were determined.