Region: China
Author: Rong Yuan Goat Herders' Cooperative and ECOLOGIA
Consortium Member: Virtual Foundation Director (ECOLOGIA)
Status: Funded and Ongoing
Budget: $30000
Collected: $26610
Needs: $3390
Result: Planting selected indigenous species in a "tipping point" desert area will help to stabilize and restore a crucial ecosystem in Alashan, Inner Mongolia.
Donors: Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund (KNCF), Tokyo Japan [May 2009], Dinah Bear, Washington DC [January 2010]
Comment: The Herders' Cooperative is taking responsibility for the long-term success of this project. The "wild cherry" (Prunus mongolica maxim, or Mongolian Bian Tao) trees will yield an income-producing crop, valuable in traditional medicine, in three to five years. Companion plants will provide additional forage for camels and goats, as well as stabilizing the soil.
ECOLOGIA has identified an opportunity to link market incentives and environmental restoration initiatives in a critical ecosystem, the Left Banner of Alashan, in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia. Our project with local herders will address the needs of the human population and fragile desert ecosystem. It will also create a fair trade supply chain. This will provide herders with additional income, and will thereby reverse the current economic incentives which drive the over-production of cashmere and the overgrazing of cashmere goats. This mechanism will provide a truly sustainable economic incentive system for permanently reducing the downward spiral currently plaguing the region. In the past, environmental restoration initiatives have often been conducted without sufficient regard for the underlying economic forces that stress human communities and the ecosystems upon which they depend. Consequently, such environmental restoration projects have frequently occurred in the context of a strong economic headwind, making long-term forward progress difficult, and hard to sustain economically. In our environmental restoration work in Inner Mongolia, we are addressing the human and economic roots of an extremely stressed landscape and ecology.
Members of the Rong Yuan Goat Herders' Cooperative will plant selected indigenous species in a “tipping point” desert area, where advancing sand dunes currently threaten a still-viable grazing area. The combination of three selected species will serve many important functions: resisting erosion in the windy desert climate, because their roots stabilize the sand and because mature plants provide a windbreak; providing nutritious forage for a limited number of goats and camels; producing a cash crop of fruits and seeds; providing shade and shelter for lizards; encouraging biodiversity.
Background to the ecological problem
Desertification in central Asia has increasingly serious impacts on local flora, fauna and people, and on distant ones as well. As desertification increases, sand dunes cover formerly productive complex desert eco-systems, diminishing the vitality of the habitat and reducing the numbers of species that can survive. Sand storms blown in an easterly direction absorb toxic particulate pollution from Chinese coal-fired power plants and heavy industries, and carry damaging pollutants to eastern Asia, across the Pacific Ocean, and even to the west coast of North America. One particular locale is at the epicenter of these damaging changes: the Alashan Left Banner of the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. ECOLOGIA began work in this area in spring 2008, with the goal of working with local goat and camel herders, and the global supply chain, to reverse the current trend of desertification and to set the region on the path to restoration and long-term sustainable land use.
Before seeking to reverse the damage and to restore desert ecosystems in this region, it is necessary to analyze the multiple causes of the problem in order to select the most effective leverage points of intervention. Diminishing rainfall in the Alashan region is most likely related to climate change. However, the most powerful force behind this region’s desertification has been human decisions over the past five decades.
Traditionally, this area was maintained by nomadic Mongol herders, who traveled with their flocks of goats, sheep and camels throughout the desert and steppe regions. The nomads depended on their ecological knowledge (of plants, animals, weather, water supplies, predators, and their interaction); over time they developed a unique culture which maximized sustainable use of all the resources of the region. But incorporation into the People’s Republic of China (1959) gradually brought larger global forces into the area. Nomadic peoples were encouraged to settle down, and to restrict their animals’ movements by the use of fences. Since 1996, global buyers have created dramatically increased markets for the Alashan region’s most valuable product – cashmere fiber made from the hair of the special breed of Alashan goats.
As the increasingly aggressive global supply chain sought lower-cost and larger volumes of cashmere, the herders increased the numbers of goats they raised, and decreased the numbers of camels. While goats and camels both contribute to the well-being of the desert eco-system, the question is one of balance. Too many goats graze down some plants to the point of no return, and too many sharp hooves can inhibit the growth of new plants. On the other hand, the distinctive Alashan camel has large soft feet which gently pass over many young plants without killing them, while trampling down the vole trails and thus controlling the amount of rodent activity. Camels also graze on a number of shrubs and bushes which thrive from such “pruning”. But numbers of camels have decreased in recent years, both because of the fencing (camels need larger roaming areas than do goats) and because their products (camel hair, meat, milk) are not nearly as valuable on the market as are goat products.
A number of preservation and conservation efforts have been underway in Inner Mongolia for some time. However, many of those efforts involve completely moving people and their animals off the land. This has a great human cost, as families and communities are uprooted from desert and steppe grazing areas to towns and cities, a different culture and way of life requiring them to leave their traditional ways of life behind.
Finding a solution
What has become apparent only recently is that eliminating goats and camels completely from the Alashan desert is not the answer. Areas which are fenced off from human and animal use seem to thrive for the first two years, as vegetation formerly eaten by the animals grows back. Biodiversity, however, is a different story. Much of the biodiversity of the desert ecosystem depends on the actions of the camels and goats, as they travel distances, spread seeds in their droppings, and prune different shrubs and bushes at different times of the year. It turns out that camels and goats, when they are maintained in proportion to the carrying capacity of the land, are crucial to maintaining the Alashan plateau’s ecological balance. Working with the herders to identify and implement mechanisms by which they can limit the size of their herds while supporting themselves economically, is the path to restoration and to long-term sustainable development.
ECOLOGIA reasons that the market forces of the global supply chain, which have led to over-grazing and devastation in the region, can become a major part of the solution. Our “Sustainable Fibers” project started with funding and advice from Ford Foundation-China. The goal is to create a “fairly traded, ecologically restorative” supply chain for cashmere from goats raised by herders who agree to reduce the numbers of their herds in exchange for a higher price. Thus sustainable environmental practices will be encouraged through sustainable economic practices. Working through herders’ cooperatives (legal in China since 2007), we are supporting herders’ efforts to reduce their flocks and practice sustainable animal husbandry. In the “high end” global fashion market, higher prices can be commanded by fabrics, fibers and clothing items which combine ‘social responsibility’ with top quality. Thus, if fewer and healthier goats are raised, their high quality fiber can be sold to a supportive market that pays a fair-trade price and rewards sustainable herding practices. This will put economic legs under environmental restoration, thus increasing the likelihood of its long-term sustainability in human as well as in environmental terms.
This model will have applications for ecosystem restoration projects beyond Inner Mongolia. Rural cooperatives have just recently been allowed under Chinese law. “The Farmer Professional Co-operatives Law”, passed by the 10th National People’s Congress on October 31, 2006, came into force July 1, 2007. Cooperatives provide new opportunities for land use and wealth creation and distribution, within the framework of natural resource conservation and restoration.
Goals of the project
Specific Steps for Implementation
1. On land controlled by the Rong Yuan Goat Herders’ Cooperative, in the De Ri Tu area, lease and set aside approximately three and a half kilometers (350 hectares) as a protected area for creation of a restorative nature conservation reserve. The specifics of this plan – the location, types of species to be encouraged, etc. – all originated with herders themselves, during a discussion with ECOLOGIA staff in October 2008.
a) Plant “wild cherry trees” (Mongolian Bian Tao, an indigenous species which is currently a Class III protected species); fence out goats for the first two-three years until the trees have grown mature, large and high enough to protect themselves from destruction by goats eating their leaves and stems. In two-three years (and thereafter) the fruit of the trees can be harvested and seeds as well as dried fruit sold, to earn income for the cooperative. This is a traditional Mongolian medicinal crop. Currently, the seeds sell for 16 RMB/kilo (approx. $2.70/kilo). The photo below shows a mature Mongolian Bian Tao, growing within the specific area proposed for this project.
b) Cross plant Bai Ci (shown below in photo) another indigenous species, which is eaten by both goats and camels in the winter. (Because it is too bitter for them in summertime, it is able to put forth its new growth in the spring/summer. Winter-time pruning by the animals actually encourages stronger growth by the Bai Ci plants in the coming year).
c) Cross-plant Tie Jiang Yuang Zi (anti-drought bushes), another indigenous species, which contributes to desert biodiversity, has particularly strong root structure that helps to anchor the sands, provides shelter for small lizards, etc.
2.After three years, the wild cherry trees will be tall enough and strong enough that goats can be allowed in to graze. This makes the land productive and useful to the village cooperative, and encourages local understanding and support for the project. Healthier and better-fed animals mean higher quality fiber production, and higher prices.
3. Having more productive land for the goats will provide an additional incentive to the herders to reduce their numbers, in exchange for higher prices for their cashmere fiber.
4. The roles of ECOLOGIA and on-the-ground Mongol third-party experts and observers in this project are two-fold:
a) To attest to improvement of sustainability of farming/grazing practices, and to encourage the other members of the cooperative to do similar things;
b) To work in cooperation with the cooperative to ensure that its management decisions concerning this project are handled transparently and in accordance with the law.
Continuing past the first year If all goes as planned for the first year, we expect to cover the second year costs either through other grant sources, or through providing a loan to the Rong Yuan Goat Herders’ Cooperative, to be repaid over a fixed-year term from their sale of the wild cherry fruit and seeds. The business plan for this project is to develop a source of economic reward to the herders resulting from their ecological work, so that they see the long-term success of the project as directly beneficial to them. They should take responsibility for, and ownership of, the project with this model.
The global picture
A rural Chinese cooperative linked to a fair trade global supply chain would show how socially responsible enterprises can go beyond “doing no harm” and embrace opportunities to restore damage resulting from previous environmentally irresponsible behavior. In deliberations over the emerging ISO 26000 global guidance standard for social responsibility, ECOLOGIA has been a strong advocate for including fair compensation for those in the supply chain (“promote fair sharing of the costs and benefits of implementing socially responsible practices throughout the value chain”). This project is an opportunity for ECOLOGIA to show the world that wealth creation by socially responsible organizations can be a tool for environmental restoration, as well as for poverty alleviation and community development.
Budget
| Program Costs (Alashan) | |
| lease of land | 6000 |
| fencing | 5500 |
| seedlings | 2000 |
| watering | 1730 |
| photo documentation | 100 |
| support for farm workers | 2900 |
| support for local program manager | 600 |
| meetings with cooperative - room, meals | 150 |
| Organizational Costs | |
| international travel | 1600 |
| salaries and professional fees | 5500 |
| office costs, bookkeeping, reporting | 3960 |
| Total | 30,000 |