Ulaanbaatar
UNDP facilitates workshop to address Mongolia’s cashmere industry challenges
Society
Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. On August 13, UNDP Mongolia facilitated the ‘Cashmere Sector Recovery from COVID-19 - Building Forward Better’ workshop with key stakeholders of Mongolia’s cashmere industry including public, private and civil society representatives under the guidance of international Systems thinking experts.
Cashmere is a highly strategic commodity for Mongolia
as nearly a million herders’ livelihood depend on. Although increased recent
global demand for cashmere brought itself number of benefits, it also
contributed to an environmental degradation such as overgrazing, deforestation,
landscape and rangeland erosion, and loss of biodiversity. While the herders
and processors both acknowledge and face the disappearing pastureland, they
struggle to change current practices and are largely unable to shift to more
sustainable ways.
In addition, COVID-19 continues to bring unprecedented challenges to the industry. Raw cashmere price is reduced by 50 percent from last year and sales has decreased 70-80 percent due to sector-wide cancellations of export contracts.
Ms. Nashida Sattar, Deputy Resident Representative of
UNDP Mongolia, said “UNDP recognized the need to introduce sustainability
measures to the cashmere sector and rolled out the Sustainable Cashmere
Platform last year with the objective of positioning Mongolia as a global
leader of sustainable cashmere. We are leveraging the Cashmere Platform to help
address the extraordinary challenges faced by the sector today” during her
opening remarks.
UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to
end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our
broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to
build integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet.
Source: UNDP Mongolia
