The role of traditional ecological knowledge, given the transformation of pastoralism in Central and Eastern Mongolia
Mongolian nomadic herders traditionally pass on ecological knowledge intergenerationally, mainly within families. However, little is known about how current societal transformation processes may impact the application and transfer of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) amongst herders. Combining quantitative household survey data with qualitative interviews, we show that TEK is still widely applied amongst herders. Our data show that households living under conditions of greater societal transformation apply TEK more often in order to adapt to the situation than households under lower transformation pressure. High transformation pressure goes along with high human population and livestock density and thus competition for good pastureland. In addition, our results show that intragenerational knowledge transfer between families is gaining more importance nowadays. For Mongolia, we recommend facilitating access to and strengthening the exchange of TEK to prepare herders for the future due to the high level of uncertainty accompanying societal transformations.
Authors
- Batbuyan Batjav (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1637-1802)
- Ulan Kasymov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5620-1379)
- Ganzorig Gonchigsumlaa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5516-573X)
- Denise Margaret Matias (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6047-1176)
- Sugar Damdindorj (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4490-8470)
- Sophie Peter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5262-6780)
- Lukas Drees (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3399-1990)
- Nandintsetseg Dejid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5376-3808)
- Marion Mehring (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9606-7554)
- Sarah Niess (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7339-3840)
- Khishigdorj Dorjoo
- Thomas Müller
- Yun Jäschke
Institutions
- California Native Plant Society (US)
- Mongolian University of Life Sciences (MN)
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (DE)
- Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (DE)
- Institute for Social-Ecological Research (DE)
- Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz (DE)
- Institute of Geography of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK)
- Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- AMBIO
- Published
- 2024-08-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02057-w
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.97
Funders
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung