Page 24 - FMR64_Trafficking and smuggling & Climate crisis and local communities_2020_web

FMR 64
24 Climate crisis and local communities
www.fmreview.org/issue64 June 2020

origin, this may eventually lead to substantial work and creating year-round, diversified
disruptions in their tangible and intangible employment opportunities and relevant
cultural assets, some of which have defined education for youth
Mongolians’ unique culture for millennia. improving governance of natural resources
by providing financial support to local
To stay or to go? water user groups (paying special attention
Although people and rural livelihood to the needs of disadvantaged and down-
systems in Mongolia have historically stream users), while also focusing on
shown a high degree of resilience, they are enhanced soil and pasture management
now becoming increasingly vulnerable. practices
Serious concerns about the prospects of monitoring migration flows by conducting
youth in particular were raised by rural regular surveys which reflect the combined
community members during interviews: longer-term impacts of climate-induced
“They [youth] all want to go to the [provincial] extreme weather events and slow-onset
centres or Ulaanbaatar. […] Very few young people changes on households’ economic situation.
want to continue herding as a herder’s life is quite Current efforts by international donors often
tough and herders can’t adapt to the climatic either lack an adequate assessment of climate
changes. […] I don’t have any children who want change or tend to duplicate past and ongoing
to be herders in the future. The children want to be development interventions. Government
educated and then they want to get a job.”
agencies, development finance institutions and
Others paint a more nuanced picture, the donor community must better integrate
recognising the absence of decent work lessons learned, coordinate their activities
opportunities in urban destinations: (in education, health, employment, women’s
empowerment and capacity building for
“Children from herder families realise, ‘why should youth) and avoid promoting highly carbon-
I waste my parents’ money to go to university and intensive practices that are unsustainable in
study something to then not find a job in this field.’ the context of climate change. Lastly, reflecting
[…] Also, herders do not want to be unemployed; the needs expressed by local communities,
this is why they stay in the countryside.”
interventions should take a community-
Holistic solutions for strengthening led, bottom-up participatory approach
the rural economy in the long term in and adhere to the concept of sustainable
order to counteract the need for internal adaptation by taking the projected long-
migration as an adaptation strategy term impacts of climate change into account
may therefore need to focus on: when planning projects and programmes.
increasing the resilience of, and quality of Simon Schoening schoningsimon@gmail.com
life provided by, existing local livelihood Independent consultant; former research fellow,
systems (particularly for pastoralists and Centre for Rural Development (Seminar für
farmers) by providing direct assistance Ländliche Entwicklung, SLE), Humboldt University
in the form of subsidies rather than loans of Berlin www.sle-berlin.de
or inaccessible insurance schemes to 1. Beushausen W, Gilli M, Schoening S, Schreiner L, Vargas Koch
households identified as most at risk of C and Zotschew J (2020) ‘Adaptation of Rural Livelihoods to
sudden asset loss Structural and Climatic Changes in Western Mongolia: An Analysis
of the Potentials of Horticultural Production and Tourism Activities
promoting cooperatives and the collective as Complementary Income Sources in Khovd and Uvs Province’,
organisation of economic activities in SLE Publication Series S282 bit.ly/Beushausen-et-al-SLE-2020
agriculture and other sectors, drawing 2. IOM (2018) Mongolia: Internal Migration Study
on existing social networks and thereby bit.ly/IOM-Mongolia-2018
strengthening community self-reliance 3. Lehmann-Uschner K and Krähnert K (2018) ‘When Shocks
Become Persistent: Household-Level Asset Growth in the
taking into consideration the needs of Aftermath of an Extreme Weather Event’, DIW Berlin Discussion
Paper No 1759 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3259103
women in accessing income-generating