THE CONSEQUENCES OF POST-SOCIALIST TRANSITION AND DECENTRALIZATION FOR RURAL LIVELIHOODS AND PASTURE LAND MANAGEMENT IN MONGOLIA

The document analyzes the gap between Mongolia's formal decentralization policies and the 'de facto' decentralization occurring in pasture land management. It argues that an institutional vacuum, characterized by high political decentralization but negligible fiscal and administrative autonomy, has led to rising social inequality and environmental degradation. The author highlights how the retreat of the state from regulating land use has empowered wealthy herders while marginalizing poorer ones, resulting in decreased pastoral mobility and increased grazing pressure near settlements.

• Mongolia exhibits a highly imbalanced pattern of decentralization, characterized by substantial but incomplete political decentralization, very little administrative decentralization, and virtually no fiscal decentralization.
• The transition to a market economy led to a significant increase in the number of herding households, which grew from approximately 17% of the population around 1990 to about 35% by the mid-1990s.
• A 'de facto' decentralization has occurred as the state retreated from regulating pasture land, creating an institutional vacuum where rules for land allocation are unclear and inconsistently applied by local governors.
• The decline in pastoral mobility, driven by the sedentarization of newer, more marginalized herding households near settlements and roads, poses a serious threat to environmental sustainability.
• Local governance of pasture land is characterized by a lack of downward accountability, with wealthy herders using informal influence and hospitality to secure favorable land dispute resolutions from sum governors.
• The failure to provide local governments with budgetary resources to match their devolved responsibilities for risk management contributed to massive livestock losses during the dzud years of 1999/2000 and 2000/2001, totaling approximately 17% of the national herd.

APA

Mearns, R. (2002). THE CONSEQUENCES OF POST-SOCIALIST TRANSITION AND DECENTRALIZATION FOR RURAL LIVELIHOODS AND PASTURE LAND MANAGEMENT IN MONGOLIA. World Resources Institute. http://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/pdf/eaa_decent_mearns.pdf

Chicago

Mearns, Robin. THE CONSEQUENCES OF POST-SOCIALIST TRANSITION AND DECENTRALIZATION FOR RURAL LIVELIHOODS AND PASTURE LAND MANAGEMENT IN MONGOLIA. World Resources Institute, 2002. http://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/pdf/eaa_decent_mearns.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mearns |first1=Robin |title=THE CONSEQUENCES OF POST-SOCIALIST TRANSITION AND DECENTRALIZATION FOR RURAL LIVELIHOODS AND PASTURE LAND MANAGEMENT IN MONGOLIA |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=February 2002 |url=http://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/pdf/eaa_decent_mearns.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mearns2002consequences, author = {Mearns, Robin}, title = {{THE CONSEQUENCES OF POST-SOCIALIST TRANSITION AND DECENTRALIZATION FOR RURAL LIVELIHOODS AND PASTURE LAND MANAGEMENT IN MONGOLIA}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2002}, month = feb, url = {http://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/pdf/eaa_decent_mearns.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }