STRATEGIES OF PASTURE LIVESTOCK ECONOMY ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN HIGH MOUNTAINS AND ARCTIC REGIONS

Issue № 5, 2017, article № 13, pages 81-86

Section: Foreign news

Language: Russian

Original language title: СТРАТЕГИИ АДАПТАЦИИ ЭКОНОМИКИ ПАСТБИЩНОГО ЖИВОТНОВОДСТВА К КЛИМАТИЧЕСКИМ ИЗМЕНЕНИЯМ В ВЫСОКОГОРНЫХ И АРКТИЧЕСКИХ РАЙОНАХ МИРА

Keywords: LIVESTOCK GRAZING, ADAPTATION STRATEGIES, CLIMATE VULNERABILITY, SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS, SUSTAINABILITY, LIVELIHOODS, RESILIENCE, HERDER COMMUNITIES, HIGH MOUNTAINS, TIBET, LAPLAND, ARCTIC

Abstract: The adaptation strategies of herding households were studied in the high mountains region, at Tibetan Plateau, China. The sustainability of socio-economic systems of this region is analyzed in comparison with the Arctic socio-economic systems, having many common features. The livestock production (sheep, goats, yak and horse) is the main source of sustainability in herding communities. The livestock production in Tibet as well as in the Arctic is limited by highly variable climate, a short vegetation period and climate risks, especially by sharp fluctuations in temperatures and frequent snowstorms in winter and spring. Climate risks as well as no resilient governance affect the character of adaptation adopted by local herding communities. Most popular adaptation strategies in Tibet are: building permanent houses for animals; buying forage from markets; planting artificial grasses and grains; fewer livestock migrations; formation of livestock disease prevention community’s organization. The irrational governmental policy in the conditions of market incentives for increasing livestock production in Tibetan high mountains herder communities, and in Arctic Sami reindeer communities can undermine their adaptive capacity, and from this perspective, institutional change has made grassland social-economical systems less resilient to climate variability and change. This policy directed towards sedentary pasture systems introduction in comparison with traditional herding leads to decrease of ecological pasture resilience to climatic risks. In the territory of the Russian Arctic, the state practically doesn't give financial support to reindeer breeding that also doesn't promote increase in stability of traditional pasturable systems, reduces adaptive opportunities and viability of indigenous communities of the Arctic.

Authors: Volkov Sergei Gennadevich, Vlasova Tatiana Kuzminichna