AVSF has been supporting nomadic livestock farmers in Mongolia since 2004, helping preserve not only their culture and their traditional way of life (which is arduous yet fragile, and based on respect for the natural environment) but also their main activity for economic survival.
Our offices in Ulan Bator, Bayankhongor, Tsetserleg and Chinggis city now have 23 employees.
Nomadic herders isolated in the face of harsh and degraded climatic conditions
Vast country of East Asia, rural Mongolia is characterized by a nomadic pastoral system now in crisis. The pastures are degraded, the space is saturated by herds of too large size and the climate change aggravates this situation. Breeders are struggling to access remunerative markets for meat and milk due to uncontrolled zoonoses blocking exports, and their fragile organizations are struggling to defend themselves against the textile market giants for their fibers.
OUR AREAS OF INTERVENTION
Animal health, with the establishment of 25 Health Defense Groups to facilitate access to medicines, provide management and care advice, deliver training to farmers, and at the same time strengthen the skills of local livestock support structures (public and private veterinary services) for the benefit of 850 families in the provinces of Arkhangai and Bayankhongor. We also support genetic and zoonotic disease control activities managed by the cooperatives.
The structuring of breeders’ organizations, federated around the improvement of their agricultural practices and the marketing of their products on remunerative markets. AVSF supports 7 cooperatives and the Sustainable Kashmir Union in financial management, good governance, access to financing and the development of services to their members.
Sustainable pasture management with the help of the creation and/or support to 110 Pasture Users Groups regrouping 4500 families whose role is to define seasonal pasture rotation plans. But also with the experimentation of different methods of monitoring the health of the pastures.
The valorization of local productions (animal fibers) at the national and international level via the creation and the support to the cooperatives of Arkhangai, Bayankhongor and Khentii, as well as to the Union of Sustainable Kashmir, in the marketing, the first stages of transformation and the improvement of the quality. The breeders of the Arkhangai Yak Breeders’ Cooperative (AYBC) have been producing and selling their yak wool ready-made garments and balls in the national and international markets for 12 years.
