Page 23 - FMR64_Trafficking and smuggling & Climate crisis and local communities_2020_web

FMR 64 Climate crisis and local communities 23

June 2020 www.fmreview.org/issue64

impacts of such events certainly are. Once the of the role of social capital in dealing with the
number of livestock held by a household drops impacts of climate change on a local level.
below a certain threshold (surveys suggest
this is 200 animals), a family’s quality of life Gender, income diversification and cultural
is significantly impaired. Those left without heritage
any options to either restock or diversify The decision of rural households to migrate
their income locally are eventually forced to is mainly driven by their desire to access
migrate in search of alternative incomes. stable income opportunities and financial
The severity of climate-induced shock security. Many also seek to reunite with family
events in Mongolia has in fact become a members who have previously migrated.
strong predictor for rural households to While women traditionally undertake caring
drop out of the pastoral economy. The same duties and therefore often only limited or part-
may hold true for slow-onset events such as time income-generating work, they exercise a
decreasing surface water availability due to considerable degree of influence over a family’s
the melting of glaciers and more frequent decision to migrate. Women play an important
drought events. Glaciers in the Mongolian role with regard to managing household
Altai mountains have already shrunk by finances and ensuring children’s access to
30% since the 1940s, and resulting water education, often moving with children and
shortages lead to local conflicts over the use young adults to urban centres while their
of resources. The situation is set to intensify male counterparts generate income in the
amid the currently unsustainable use and rural economy. Such ‘translocal’ livelihoods,
inadequate governance of water resources. while not to be confused with permanent
The underlying vulnerability of Mongolia’s migration, are a common feature of family
rural communities to the impacts of climate life in Mongolia, with many families being
change is embedded in the country’s recent split during parts of the year at least.
political, social and economic developments. Another important strategy of households
The State-controlled agricultural support that are dealing with external pressures
system of the past provided those severely hit is the diversification of their incomes. As
by weather-related losses with resources, cash mobile pastoralism and farming are poised
transfers and in-kind contributions, ensuring to become increasingly difficult due to slow-
the stability of the rural economy. Since the onset climate change and shock events,
collapse of the country’s socialist regime in many households have started to generate
the early 1990s, however, the management of income from two or more sources, usually
risk exposure has been transferred into the assigned on a gendered basis depending on
hands of individual herders and farmers. customs and the availability of work. This
Today, herders can buy into market-based either excludes women from certain income
insurance schemes that issue pay-offs once opportunities or creates additional workload.
a mortality rate of 6% of an insured herd While income diversification tends to
is reached. While such insurance helps to benefit communities financially, it may come
mitigate some of the economic losses, asset- at a cost – and not only for female household
poor households are often unable to afford it. members. Adaptation strategies, such as
Others try to cope by taking loans, adding to the permanent resettlement from rural to
the already high level of indebtedness in the urban areas and the take-up of presumably
rural economy. Notably, what has been found more profitable and stable income sources,
to offer adequate support for loss-affected may over time erode communities’ long-
pastoralists is the aid received from other standing connectedness to place. Central
herders in the form of livestock transfers. to customs and norms in western Mongolia
A renewed, donor-supported interest in are beliefs about sacred sites, mountaintops
the collective organisation of the rural and formations in the local landscape. As
economy and the formation of agricultural communities are forced to abandon traditional
cooperatives further reflects the recognition agricultural practices and their places of