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Mongolia Project

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These digital collections include conference proceedings and datasets from the Mongolia Project.

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Browsing Mongolia Project by Subject "community-based rangeland management"

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    ItemOpen Access
    Do formal, community-based institutions improve rangeland vegetation and soils in Mongolia more than informal, traditional institutions?
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015-06) Reid, Robin S., author; Jamsranjav, Chantsallkham, author; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria E., author; Angerer, Jay, author; Tsevlee, Altanzul, author; Yadambaatar, Baasandorj, author; Jamiyansharav, Khishigbayar, author; Ulambayar, Tungalag, author; Nutag Action and Research Institute, publisher
    Since the 1990's, herding communities across Mongolia have established over 2000 community-based rangeland management (CBRM) organizations to improve livestock grazing management and reverse perceived declines in rangeland (grassland) productivity. Here, we compare the vegetation and soils of rangelands managed by these formal community-based herder groups (CBRM) with those managed by informal traditional neighborhoods (non-CBRM) in four ecological zones across Mongolia. A companion study shows CBRM used both traditional and innovative rangeland management practices more often than traditional neighborhoods. We hypothesized that this should then result in better rangeland vegetation and soils in CBRM-managed than non-CBRM managed rangeland. We sampled vegetation and soils in winter pastures around 143 livestock camps or water points in soums (counties) with and without CBRM management. We explicitly controlled for grazing intensity by sampling plots along grazing gradients at 100, 500 and 1000 m from these impact points. At each 50 x 50 m plot (n=428) we sampled standing biomass, plant cover, basal gap, species richness, forage quality, and soil and site characteristics. We also compared paired time series of MODIS NDVI data in counties with and without CBRM organizations from 2000-2014 to quantify changes in length of the growing season, and current and previous season greenness (a proxy for biomass accumulation). We then analyzed all data using general linear models and χ2 tests. CBRM had surprisingly few and subtle impacts on vegetation and soils in Mongolia's rangelands, whether measured in the field or by remote sensing, compared with areas managed by more traditional neighborhood groups. Some CBRM pastures supported more litter biomass, plant connectivity and less soil erosion, and a lower abundance of grazing tolerant or annual plant species than non-CBRM pastures in some ecological zones. CBRM management appears to modestly improve vegetation condition in the steppe than other ecological zones. At the soum level, we could see no differences in the length of the growing season, current season greenness or current and previous season greenness of the vegetation over the 15 years from 2000-2014. We did find, however, that herding families that participate in CBRM groups hold more livestock, sometimes twice as many, in 3 of the 4 ecological zones. This suggests that CBRM management may be having more impact on pastures than our data show, since these pastures can support more livestock without losing rangeland vegetation abundance and soil retention capacity.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Time series analysis of satellite greenness indices for assessing vegetation response to community based rangeland management
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015-06) Angerer, J. P., author; Kretzschmar, J. K., author; Chantsallkham, J., author; Jamiyansharav, K., author; Reid, R., author; Fernandez-Gimenez, M. E., author; Nutag Action and Research Institute, publisher
    After the transition of Mongolia's agriculture sector to a market economy in the early 1990's, community-based rangeland management (CBRM) organizations have been established across Mongolia to cooperatively manage rangeland resources. We hypothesized that rangeland ecoregions under CBRM would have greater biomass than ecoregions managed using traditional herder practices. We used time series analysis of AVHRR (8-km resolution, 1982 to 2012) and MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (250-m, 2000 to 2013) to calculate integrated NDVI (iNDVI) as a proxy for vegetation biomass. To address whether CBRM response is scale related, we created buffers of increasing distance around livestock winter shelter locations in soums where CBRM programs had been initiated and soums without formal programs. Spatial averages of iNDVI were calculated within buffer boundaries for each location, stratified by ecological zone. A repeated measures mixed model with yearly rainfall as a covariate was used to test for differences in iNDVI for CBRM status over time for buffer distances of 1, 2, 5, 10, and 30 for MODIS, and 10 and 30 km for AVHRR. In general, results were similar across buffer distances indicating that average vegetation response was similar for distances greater than 1 km around sampling sites. For MODIS NDVI, sites in the Desert Steppe and Eastern Steppe did not have significantly higher productivity in CBRM managed soums over time, regardless of buffer size. Mountain and Forest Steppe (MFS) locations had higher iNDVI in non-CBRM sites throughout the time series for both NDVI data sets, although these differences were not statistically significant. CBRM sites in the Steppe zone had higher iNDVI throughout the time series for both MODIS and AVHRR. Given that these differences occur throughout the AVHRR time series, they do not appear to be the result of CBRM activities. Our findings indicate that differences in vegetation response as a result of CBRM activities were not detected during the time series using productivity proxies from satellite imagery. In addition, the MODIS time series may be too short for detecting CBRM differences since it does not include data prior to when most CBRM programs were implemented.