During the course of 2018 Batbuyan Batjav from the Centre for Nomadic Pastoralism Studies and Caroline Upton from the University of Leicester conducted a series of interviews and focus groups with the herding communities in the SIBELIUs test sites, with the aim of better understanding the herders’ requirements for environmental and meteorological information, and working with them to assess their current levels of dzud resilience.
In total 241 herder households were interviewed, comprising 788 people. The interviews have captured information on a wide range of subjects, including the composition of their households, number of livestock (by species), types of property, annual otor movements, income sources, mobile phones, sources of information, recent dzud losses, perceived ability to cope during past dzuds and perceived ability to cope when the next dzud arrives.
Analysis on this rich data source is currently being conducted to examine the factors which correlate with herder resilience, such as geographical region, wealth and access to transport.
The red shaded regions highlight the SIBELIUs test site regions; Delgerkhaan soum in the Khentii province, Khisingundur soum in the Bulgan province and Airag soum in the Dornogovi province.