Regenerating Mongolian Grasslands

Planned grazing can be accomplished with many different species, and adapted to almost any culture. 

 

The “Pasture Land — Use it Sustainably” (PLUS) project is a partnership between ADRA and the Savory Institute that seeks to introduce and consolidate the use and understanding of Holistic Planned Grazing among the herders and communities of the Ider Soum in the Zavkhan Province of Mongolia.

The project kicked off in 2021 with Savory’s team working directly with herder families to restore degraded grasslands using Holistic Management, a human and nature-centered design and decision-making framework that results in socially sound, financially viable, and ecologically regenerative activities.

Through both virtual and in-person sessions, the Savory team has helped participants create Holistic Grazing Plans in addition to setting up land monitoring transects using Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV), an ecological monitoring protocol that tracks land health trends and informs ecologically-sound management decisions.

The majority of trainees and project participants are women herders, who are seen by community representatives as those leading the process to restore their grasslands and improve the management of their family herds. Through this project and others in development, Savory is aiming to regenerate 1 million hectares of Mongolia’s grasslands.

Video produced by Guillermo Fernandez.