Ulaanbaatar
Herders’ organizations at the core of Mongolian sustainable cashmere future
Society
Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. On March 4, a project on ‘Integrated production system for sustainable cashmere – II’ co-funded by the French Facility for Global Environment and the European Union SWITCH-Asia programme implemented by AVSF Mongolia NGO held its next round Steering Committee meeting to present the achievements of the action and to introduce plans to upgrade the initiative nationally.
As of 2022, the project is working with seven cooperatives
in Bayankhongor aimag to support and engage herders to adopt sustainable
practices and adopt the Sustainable cashmere certification. According to the
project team, as a result of project interventions 4500 are composed into Pasture
Users’ Groups and as of 2022, 440 households have obtained SC Certification. The
certified households, with the support from the Sustainable Cashmere Union,
supply over 50 tons of raw sustainable cashmere to around 10 international
buyers at a value-added price within the last six years. Moreover, as a result
of project support within the last six years the annual turnover of beneficiary
cooperatives increased by five times from MNT42 million.
SC Certification is a proof document that certifies that
herders and their organizations prepare and supply cashmere in an
environmentally-friendly, socially responsible and economically viable way. This
includes sustainable management of pastoral resources, improved herding
practices, democratic and transparent governance of their organizations, or
strengthened capacities to manage cashmere quality and support traceability
claims.
The project is synergetic with other AVSF initiatives funded by the European Union aiming
at empowering women as actor of change for rural economic development, or at
supporting the development of sustainable textile sector in Mongolia with all
value chain stakeholders as well as relevant authorities and business
intermediaries. It is a model that was initiated by AVSF Mongolia in 2013 to
help promoting an integrated approach encompassing all steps of sustainable
cashmere value chain development, from production to consumption, considered as
necessary to induce systemic change.
In the coming years, the team is planning to expand its
intervention to promote sustainable cashmere in several soums of Arkhangai and
Khentii aimags and to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Sustainable
Cashmere Union and its member cooperatives.
Source: AVSF Mongolia
