Workshop Brief
November, 2016
“By Herders for Herders” The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO) represented by the SECIM C2 team “Support to Employment Creation in Mongolia” in collaboration with Mongolian Pastoralist Alliance (MANIP) conducted a 3 day workshop for rural young herders called, “Young Herders – Eco Business”. It was held in Hustai National Park on the 7-9 November 2016. Over 30 young herder representatives from 13 Aimags/Provinces attended the workshop to share their leadership experiences and community and cooperative practices. There was discussion about what eco-business means for them and their need for developing business and market oriented attitude, new ideas and initiatives.
“This workshop is unique in the sense of being organized By Herders for Herders ...Your initiatives and proposals will be incorporated as much as possible in our work plan and budget for the coming years” - Kevin Gallagher FAO Representative a.i
Young herders, are being supported by UNFAO, GEF Forest project, Greengold the Swiss Development Cooperation programme and members of MANIP. All participants shared their experiences in pasture and forest conservation, community-based tourism and value added production and marketing. ...(continue on next page)
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Young Herders—Eco Business 2016 1
In Numbers 30 participants from 13 provinces in Mongolia
= 16
= 14
Average age: 32.2 Group photo: Young Herders– Eco Business 2016 organizers & participants
The main objectives of this workshop has been for the young herders to share their experiences from their home areas, then discuss about eco business opportunities, new ideas and develop interventions and solutions. Group communication, collaboration training and advocacy options were key subjects of the workshop. Some of these ideas are highlighted below:
Establish a Nomadic Camp for youth from urban areas to learn from the herders about nomadic culture and their way of business and life
Learn to make the traditional horse milk leather container by processing animal skin and hide
Improve livestock local breeds
Develop community-based tourism
Process milk products; cheese, curds, horse milk and other dairy products
Process meat and meat products and develop sales market
Produce traditional bakery in rural areas; Selenge and Buryad breads
Make animal hide and leather products
Collaborate with the national wool product processing factories
While most of the participants have livestock as their main source of income, a few have alternative income sources as well. 4 participants (Livestock, agriculture) 1 participant (Livestock, ecotourism) 1 participant (Livestock, carpentry) 1 participant (Livestock, forestry)
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Learn more at Food and Agriculture Distance Learning platform!
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Hustai National Park Hustai Center is operating to conserve ecosystems, biodiversity of the park and historical stone monuments, build up takhi population in the wildlife, organize national and international workshop and meetings, in other part, to develop eco tourism and support the local sustainable livelihoods in the buffer zone of the park since it was established in 2003. The Hustai National Park covers 50.6 ha land which is home to 459 species of vascular plants, 85 species of lichens, 90 species of moss and 33 species of mushrooms. 44 species of mammals have been recorded, including Red deer, Mongolian gazelle, Roe deer, Wild boar, Wild sheep, Ibex, Mongolian marmots, Grey wolves, Lynx, Pallas’ cat, Red fox, Corsac fox and Eurasian badger. The 217 species of birds include Golden eagle, Lammergeier, Great bustard, Whooper swan, Black stork, Daurian partridge and Little owl. There are 16 species of fish, 2 species of amphibians, and 385 species of insects. For more information, visit www.hustai.mn
Photo of participants engaging in team bonding game to draw a Mongolian yak
The workshop was enriched through the attendance of special guests and speakers including Dr Kevin Gallagher, FAO Representative a.i in Mongolia opened the workshop and in his speech he highlighted that “This workshop is unique in the sense of being organized By Herders for Herders. The aim of this workshop is; we as FAO are not here to instruct you, but to hear voices of young herders and facilitate to interact with each other, make new ideas and propose partnership models with the UN FAO and other involved organizations. Your initiatives and proposals will be incorporated as much as possible in our work plan and budget for the coming years”. Dr. T.Erdenechuluun, professor of School of Economics and Business, Mongolian University of Life Science and Director of Institute of Natural Resource and Agricultural Economics delivered a very interesting and practice oriented presentation on ‘Leadership and Eco-Business’ that was highly appreciated by the young herders. Dr.Erdenechuluun highlighted that the main criteria for the eco business would be: 1) prioritize sustainability of the environment 2) No waste in all business operations or recycling solutions and 3) Worth and beneficial for Sellers and Buyers or Business intelligence. 3
Group Discussions The young herders divided into 4 groups and discussed not only eco business related topics, but also about some of the problems herders face on daily basis and possible interventions. In total, more than 20 eco business ideas were discussed in teams and 8 ideas were presented in the final team presentations. Team discussion: Mr. Erdenechuluun, Ms. Narantuya from right hand side
Mr T.Altansukh, the Chairman of Mongolian Pastoralist Alliance and Ms.B.Oyun-Erdene, youth representative of the Alliance shared their experiences in herder community, cooperative and alliance management and international experiences. Mr.Altansukh is from a herder cooperative “Bayantul” in Must Soum, Khovd
Aimag/province and he presented about the mission and vision of MANIP as “By Herders for Herders”, meaning that the alliance is organized and led by the herders and work for the interest of herders. He shared his own experience in leadership, management and business development. Following on from Mr Altansukh presentation Ms Oyun-Erdene shared her learning experience from Salone del Gusto 2016, international food festival organized by Slowfood in Turin, Italy and highlighted the youth network and initiatives at global level. Mr.Ian Brooks an Australian volunteer specialized in agribusiness shared his country experience in rural eco- tourism development. The presentation was greatly appreciated and interested by those who are con-
sidering or are already developing rural community-based eco-tourism business. Mr.Ts.Dashpurev, Director of Hustai National Park, who provided the convenient and favourable environment and venue which brought the young herders and FAO together gave his presentation about; the park and the introduction of the wild horses into Mongolia and the park`s partnership with local herder communities on sustainable livelihoods within its buffer zone. Mr.T.Purevjav, Training Coordinator for the SECIM C2 project introduced Moodle based Food and Agriculture Distance Learning Platform which aims to give herders access to online courses in variety of topics.
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Contact Us: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: G. Munkhbolor (Communication and Networking, munkhbolor.gungaa@fao.org) T. Purevjav (Training, purevjav.tumendemberel@fao.org)
Tel: 70150078 Mongolian Pastoralist Alliance T. Altansukh, E. Munguntsetseg, B. Oyun-erdene E-mail: manipmongol@gmail.com Mr. Kevin Gallagher, Mr. T.Altansukh handing certificate to Ms. Narantuya
Tel: 99770688, 99132124, 99130169
At the end of the workshop the youth discussed about how to build regular communication among each other and
in which way FAO, MANIP and MULS can collaborate with them. They also agreed to join MANIP as members, to bring their voices to a national level, use some innovative technology for communication and to share the learning outcomes with their communities back home. The UN FAO SECIM2 team expressed its willingness to follow up and support the young herders incorporating their ideas and proposals into its work plan and budget for the coming years and organize the next workshop. MANIP stated to keep regular communication with the herders and work actively under its mission of ‘By Herders for Herders’. The Young Herders – Eco-Business workshop came to an end for this time with an energy, smile, motivation, bright dreams and positive attitude as well as with full of hopes and trust. The young herders have said goodbye to the beautiful Hustai National Park, where the Mongolian people`s pride the spiritual Takhi horses are living, and return back to their homes with songs, joys and beliefs in meeting again. Taking this opportunity to give special thanks to Malchin TV team who were together with the young herders preparing a special programme as Young Herders – Eco-Business and broadcasted throughout the country.
Best wishes for the young herders and their families, who are the true generation and owners of this precious land preserving the nomadic culture and heritage forever!
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