Social Adaptability under Climate Change: Case Study in a Pastoral Community of Inner Mongolia

Abstract: Climate change, along with grassland degradation, have become major causes of livelihood difficulties for herdsmen in Inner Mongolia for the past few decades. The purpose of this study is to seek better understanding of the relationships between climate change and herders’ livelihoods in pastoral communities in Inner Mongolia, map out the major institutional changes on climate adaptation measures and their impacts on herders’ livelihoods and explore concrete measures to enhance climate adaptability in the region. This is accomplished through a review of the literatures on climate variations and related adaptation measures in the region and semi-structured interviews with the local herders. This study found that grassland contract program, marketization of pastoral production as well as a series of grassland protection projects promoted by the central government are the three major changes on climate adaptation measures in the pastoral communities in Inner Mongolia. These changes contributed to increased exposure and sensitivity to climatic disasters as well as decreased adaptive capacity to climate change of the local communities, which was largely reflected in the interviews with the local herders. Most of the interviewees reported increased frequency and duration of droughts, reduced grassland productivity, decreased mobility and access to rangeland, increased costs for animal husbandry and reduced cooperative measures for coping with extreme climate events. The major measures they adopted to cope with climate change are: storing or purchasing hay and forage; have less livestocks; rent pastures and find alternative livelihoods. This study concludes that many social benefits of the traditional local climate adaptation measures are overlooked and eliminated by the institutional changes of adaptation measures in the past four decades. A community-based grassland management system with the essence of nomadic culture would create more mobility, social cooperations as well as enhance the social adaptive capacity to climate change in the region.