We are at Mishig's sister-in-law's house, and as the evening sets in, Mishig begins to talk about many of the issues confronting the Darhad Valley. So my education is branching beyond music. I had been wondering if that would happen.
Natural resources are at the forefront of his thought. Mine too, especially since everyone here heats their homes with wood-burning fires. Where is all that wood coming from? How long will it last? Mishig says the average family will burn 48 cubic meters of wood per year.
There is a program in this area now, in which each time a family cuts down a tree they must plant three seedlings in its place. They are being encouraged to clean the forest of dead wood first, even though this might require hiking farther. Mishig says if everyone burned only dead wood - the families in the valley could go for three years without cutting down a live tree.
Mishig then segues to another concern - the ecosystem of the Darhad - which he says is getting very dry. Desertification is going on. No one ever argued over pastureland 15 years ago. But now, it is sandy, with different (unhelpful) grasses. There are sand dunes growing in the Darhad... it's beginning to look like the Gobi.
The Montana University Bioregions project conducted research on this phenomenon, and managed to come up with a way to introduce helpful grasses to prevent the sand from taking over. Unfortunately, Mishig explained, these grasses are extremely popular with the animals, and shepherds have allowed grazing to occur even in the fenced-off experimental areas. So the solution was not sustainable.
We moved on to a third topic. Apparently the Darhad provides a large resource of medicinal herbs. They grow wild here. Mishig notes that during the Soviet times, European medicine was used, but now some Mongolian companies are returning to traditional medicine and are harvesting herbs from the Darhad.
Our host then compares the Darhad Valley, or Darhad Depression, to the heart of the world.
This was one evening in which I was deeply grateful for Badmaa's interpretation skills.
1 comment:
Amazing. I studied a similar issue regarding sustainable forestry in Nepal. The key is education. How do we help the shepherds, who need to feed their flock, that a long term regeneration process needs to be allowed to take place?
Issues are parallel... and we have a chance to help Mongolia, to keep them from digging themselves in as deep as we are - suddenly to realize we have out grown our seemingly 'infinite' resources.
Share the knowledge. That is exactly what this blog is doing and hopefully the information will find its way to that shepherd.
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