Commons

(“THE VISION 2050” CRITICISM 5: GREEN DEVELOPMENT)

The Mongolian government has set to implement “green development” policy that will ensure the following goals to be achieved by 2050:

1. Valuation and protection of natural resources; the conservation of the primary ecosystem
2. Restoration of natural resources; to reduce the shortage; facilitation of resources for exploitation; to leave to future generations the natural resources.
3. To prevent water scarcity and to fulfill the conditions to meet the needs
4. To contribute to international efforts to mitigate climate change by developing a low-carbon and inclusive green economy.

From the description above, the issues of greenhouse gas emission and desertification are given special attention here due to their urgency.

Greenhouse gas emission

In 2016, Mongolia was obliged to reduce the greenhouse gas emission by 14% by 2030 in accordance with the “National Target for the Paris Agreement”. The government had committed itself to identify its main greenhouse gas emitters in 2019 and laid out time frame and amount of reduction. In Mongolia, the energy and animal husbandry sectors are the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The following graph shows the prospected volumes of emissions in case of inaction.

Fig.1 Projections of greenhouse gas emissions, by sector

Source: Environmental Status Report of Mongolia

The energy sector alone produces half of the greenhouse gas emission, with the main sources being coal-fired thermal plants and power plants. As of 2016, 92.7% of our country’s energy production sources are in coal, which places Mongolia as the third in the world, after Botswana and Kosovo (Mongolia’s Energy Efficiency, Accessibility and Structural Analysis 2019).

Adopted in 2015 ‘The State Energy Policy’ confirmed the decision to develop renewable energy for the sustainable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and to replace 20% of the total energy sources by 2020 and, 30% by 2030 with renewable energy. Although Mongolia has huge potential for solar and wind energy that could amount to 20% of the total energy production, the percentile amount of renewable energy among energy production is still low because of low sales prices. Moreover, we could not manage to construct Eg river hydroelectric power plant due to interventions from our northern neighbor.

Although renewable energy is environmentally friendly, it appeared to be not economically efficient in Mongolia. The most realistic option still remains coal. In 2014, Mongolia produced 34 million tons of CO2, which accounted for 0.1% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, for the moment it is preferable to use coal sources at a constant level because it is cheap and, in the future, meet the growing need for energy from renewable sources.

Abandoned pasture and desertification

Mongolia is one of the ten countries most affected by climate change (Global Climate Risk Index 2014). Over the past 79 years, the annual mean near surface air temperature has been rising up to 2.24°C (Mongolian Environmental Status Report). Since 1996, the frequency of natural disasters doubled (Asian Development Bank 2017). That is why ‘The Vision 2050’ aims at the restoration of soil fertility and moisture to prevent from land degradation and desertification and restoration of degraded and contaminated lands to return them into the economic cycle.

The world’s attention is shifting towards poverty and inequality created by climate change. These issues have emerged in Mongolia as a result of rural-urban migration. At the same time, the nomadic livestock, traditional and cultural element of Mongolia, is also under threat.

Today, pasture is the main source of livelihood for 171,000 herder households in Mongolia. However, over 70% of the territory is overgrazed to such extent that the land is decertified and pasture ecosystems are threatened. For 30 years, since the 1990s, a dramatic temperature rise has coincided with a three times increase in the number of livestock from an initial 25 million. Twenty-two percent of pastureland, which translates to 25 million hectares, has deteriorated due to abandonment. This is a clear example of the so called “tragedy of the commons”.

It is better to improve the livestock industry in line with the pasture’s capacities and to rely on quality rather than quantity. One solution is tax on animals; it is time to tax highly overgrazed territories. Revenue and expenditure of tax should be transparently spent on the restoration of the pasture areas. Moreover, it is necessary to improve the efforts of conducting research in animal husbandry sector and, to invest for the innovation and to increase labor productivity.

However, the land resources usage cannot be improved by solely setting taxes and privatizing pastureland. Elinor Ostrom, a Nobel Laureate economist, has proven through many years of observation and research that the solution to the “tragedy of the commons” are the citizens themselves. From the experiences of Japan, Switzerland, Spain and the Philippines, she came up with eight principles of proper use of the commons. These include:

1. To define the boundaries of common property and to identify its users
2. The accordance of common properly usage procedure with local conditions
3. Every individual is ought to involve in changing or improving the rules for using commons
4. To control public assets and accountability
5. To introduce fines and penalties for violating the rules of use
6. To be able to resolve conflicts with low cost
7. Local governments accept the rules and regulations for the use of commons
8. Consumers of commons cooperate with others

About 600 people live in the village of Törbel, in the mountainous region of the Swiss Alps. In 1483, the villagers agreed to establish a community to better manage the use of the communal property. Anyone who purchased land in this village for any reason has no right to use common properties. Members are given the power to decide whether additional people should be admitted to community membership. Winter regulations written in 1517 stated that “no citizen could send more cows to the Alp than he could feed during winter”. Furthermore, there were proper penalties set for any attempts to use common (pasture) land to one’s own advantage. An authorized representative was appointed to monitor and implement the winter regulations.

All villagers withhold voting rights to amend the regulations and this communal association has been given legal authority to facilitate land usage. All cattle owners were part of this association. The association held meetings on a yearly basis to vote for their representatives, amend and initiate basic rules and policies. These representatives appointed personnel for road maintenance works in the Alps, facilitated meetings and imposed fines for procedure breaches. In this way, the villagers not only closely monitor their communal property, but also take care of their pastures through fertilization and mowing. Most importantly, the key decisions regarding the use of common property are made by the locals themselves. There are still villages that operate in a similar way in Japan. In Korea, there has also been significant progress in the ‘new community movement’ (saemaul undong) since the late 1960s.

In Mongolia

Mongolian citizens are facing a great challenge of retaining nomadic tradition for animal husbandry which goes back thousands of years. In the last 30 years, we neglected the pasture economy from policy perspective so that our herders ended up chasing the numbers, which resulted in the pastureland degradation. Ostrom E. has shown that the best solution in this situation is to work as a community, which is why it is time to implement eight principles on our community of citizens and manage pastures. Furthermore, government authorities have to provide the institution and legal framework to support such movements.

2020.03.18

Trans. by Riya.T and Sungerel.U