THE ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCE OF PASTORALISTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN MONGOLIA

This paper draws on research conducted from 2021–2023 by multiple teams in Mongolia to understand COVID-19 impacts on rural pastoralist communities. While Mongolia adopted limited national-level COVID-19 policies specifically tailored for mobile pastoralist households and their livelihoods, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a range of pressure points, adaptations and innovations in the local health care response. In addition, the research demonstrated how pastoralists adapted their livelihoods, mobility and participation in political processes, including widespread engagement with wireless technology to obtain information, access education for children, participate in cultural events and develop online markets for pastoralist goods. Finally, the research reveals that after the pandemic subsided as a primary risk, pastoralists continued to cope with additional challenges from winter dzud , dust storms, livestock disease outbreaks and the economic impacts of border closures with China. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ .