4:15 PM - 4:30 PM
[HCG28-04] Academic-public-private partnerships for sustainable herding under increasing frequency of climate hazards
Keywords:Transdisciplinary approach, Disaster risk map, Climate disaster, Livestock mortality, Mongolia
Socio-ecological damage from climate-related disasters has increased worldwide, including a slow-onset cold-season disaster that is unique to Mongolia, known as dzud. Dzuds are defined, bio-geophysically, as anomalous climatic and/or land-surface (i.e. snow) conditions that lead to reduced accessibility and/or availability of pastures, and ultimately to significant livestock mortality during winter–spring. Our studies showed that recent dzuds were caused by a half-to-half combination of multi-climate hazards and man-made vulnerability, including inadequate pasture management, poverty, and insufficient winter preparedness. With this background, for the first time, our academia produced a new dzud risk map to predict risky areas at the national level for the 2015/2016 winter. Subsequently, the early warning system developed together with the risk map has been implemented and successfully applied for sustainable herding under the framework of partnerships among universities/research institutes, Mongolian government, international aid organizations, and herders. This action was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science ‘Integrating Dryland Disaster Science’ and nominated as a top case study of early warning early action at the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in July 2018.