Mongolia is sensitive to climate change due to its geographic location, ecosystems, and socioeconomic condition. Climate change in the last forty years has impacted desertification, water supply, and frequency and intensity of the natural disasters in Mongolia. Moreover, the livestock sector is more vulnerable to climate change due to its high dependence on weather and climatic conditions. The purpose of this study was to identify and categorize the most important, pressing, and measurable variables that directly and indirectly affect the social, economic, and ecological vulnerability of rural people, especially herders, to climate change. Based on the literature review, which was conducted on research reports and articles on the social, economic, and ecological impact, vulnerability, and adaptation of climate change in Mongolia and foreign countries, we identified 26 variables determining the vulnerabilities of Mongolia’s rural population, including herders. The variables included 3 variables of climate hazard (drought, dzud, and aridity), 5 variables of exposure (vegetation change, pasture use, pasture water supply, four seasons of pasture availability, and desertification), 12 variables for sensitivity (number of livestock, livestock mortality, migration, female-headed households, dependency ratio, herder education level, poverty, unemployment, loans, savings, non-performing loans, and deaths from cardiovascular disease), and 6 variables of adaptive capacity (number of doctors, prepared hay and fodder, indexed livestock insurance, health insurance, social insurance, and number of cooperative members). In the future, there is a need to analyze the interlinkage between these variables as positive and negative, indirect and direct to determine the relationship and overlaps of the variables, conduct vulnerability assessment in different ecological regions and areas using the variables, and identify the causes for vulnerability.
Peer-reviewed publication