Archive for June, 2024

Herder Trainings Conducted in Scope of the Eastern Steppe Project

Posted by Katy Edwards

The Promotion of Sustainable Landscapes and Biodiversity Conservation in the Eastern Steppe of Mongolia’s Drylands Project – or Eastern Steppe Project – has begun implementation in nine soums within the provinces of Dornod, Khentii and Sukhbaatar in Mongolia, starting in 2021 and continuing throughout 2025.

Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia (MET), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FOA), the project aims to contribute to the protection of the fragile ecosystem of the drylands and support the livelihoods and resilience of herder communities in the Eastern Steppe of Mongolia.

Within the scope of the second component of the Project, the SFA are co-implementing the sub-project of the Development of Environmentally Friendly Animal Husbandry by Introducing SFA Certifying, Tracing, & Sorting Systems, supporting partnerships between herder groups and cooperatives, local government, and the private sector, to develop value chains and create access to markets for sustainably produced agricultural products.

The Project carried out Animal Husbandry & Cashmere Fibre Harvesting Code of Practice and Cashmere Sorter competency-based training sessions for herders of cooperatives in Dornod and Sukhbaatar provinces on the 22nd and 23rd of April 2024.

In the scope of the Eastern Steppe Project, the SFA provided training in the Munk-Khaan soum, in the Sukhbaatar province, on the 22nd of April 2024. Over 30 herders of the Ashid-Munkh Bayan cooperative joined the training session where they learnt how to produce primary-sorted cashmere fibre at the household level, as well as understand the requirements for implementing the SFA Animal Husbandry and SFA Cashmere Fibre Harvesting Codes of Practice.

The same training session was provided in the Sukhbaatar soum, in the Sukhbaatar province, and the Matad soum, in the Dornod province, on the 23rd of April 2024, to around 40 herders of the Davsan-Ukhaa and Tenuun-Darkhan cooperatives, supporting and enhancing their knowledge.

The SFA Mongolia team provided further training sessions to the Uulbayan soum, in the Sukhbaatar province, on the 25th of April 2024 and will continue to share and spread the knowledge and information to more herding communities.

Translated by Tamir Bud

SFA COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

27 June 2024

Original posted on 25 April 2024: https://sustainablefibre.mn/archives/7923

SFA Open Letter to the EU Council | Herder Perspective on PEF

Posted by Katy Edwards

Subject: Herder Perspective on the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)

Date: 13th June 2024

Dear Council of the European Union,

I am writing to you not only as the CEO and Founder of the Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA) but also on behalf of the millions of herders and herding communities in Mongolia, China, Afghanistan and across the world. We are deeply concerned about the European Council’s movement towards the Green Claims Directive (GCD) and its references to the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF).

The introduction of the PEF legislation and methodology will undoubtedly lead to a rise in greenwashing claims within the fashion industry, as the lack of carbon acknowledgement alongside no social, cultural or biodiversity elements, does not accurately reflect the differences between plastic-derived fibres and natural fibres.

Natural fibres are an important source of income for the world and its millions of Indigenous communities, for example, one-third of Mongolia’s population depends on their livestock, which makes up 80% of a herder’s income. It is this livestock sector in Mongolia that provides food security for the entire population and therefore classes cashmere as a strategic commodity for Mongolia. However, this income would likely diminish if the PEF legislation were to come into effect, and the collateral damage to herders would be catastrophic, as the majority would become impoverished, leading to the end of an indigenous way of life and nomadic culture.

Altansukh Tumee, a cashmere herder and leader of the Bayntol cooperative in Mongolia, said during the Growers Perspective session at the Natural Fibre Connect (NFC) 2023 conference, that “Overcoming these climate issues and keeping animal husbandry sustainable, we have several programmes and financial programmes on this. But since the cashmere alone makes up almost 70% of households’ income, with this income we have to do everything, like paying our children’s school fees and all other things…the Mongolian Government issued soft loans, but because of this shortage of properties to provide as a collateral, we are not able to get that additional funding to improve our livelihoods and to spend the money on livestock husbandry.”

During the Growers Perspective session at NFC, Frances van Hasselt, a mohair grower and designer in South Africa, also said “The biggest problem that we face…is the price volatility at land-level. We are doing all this stuff, we’re getting the standards, and we are 100% supported. But what is unsustainable is that in the mohair industry, from one sale to the next, you do not know what you are going to get for your mohair.”

This new legislation would also see the diminishing of the natural fibre sector over time with a huge decrease of pastoralists and stewards looking after the world’s rangelands. Mongolia has one of the largest intact rangeland habitats in the world, with a unique array of native wildlife. Collectively, these regions are home to a wide range of internationally important animals and plants, many of which are endemic and globally threatened.

Jock Menzies, a wool grower in Australia, said during the same NFC session that “A lot of our neighbours are all getting sold up to cattle farmers that are not continuing to grow wool because the economics are not there for us to continue…We need to make this a lot better because, otherwise, if we are not able to be sustainable we are obviously not going to be able to supply the wool…but also we won’t have the situation where we can do all of the good things to the environment on our land as well. A good farmer plants trees and looks after his environment but if we are not able to do that, because we are not getting paid enough, then that is the first thing that suffers, which is not what we want for the planet.”

If the European Council votes to include the PEF methodology on the 17th of June 2024, the Green Claims Directive will have a significant impact on the survival of many Indigenous communities that depend on livestock herding globally, marginalizing pastoralist practices, and will instead accelerate the growth of fast fashion.

On behalf of cashmere herding communities across Mongolia, China and Afghanistan, we urge the EU to reconsider the use of the current PEF and PEFCR methodology and ensure that this policy truly reflects the impact of the natural fibre sector.

The SFA have joined together with a global collective of herders, farmers and supporters to sign the open letter to the Council of the European Union to ensure the voices of those at the grassroots-level are heard. View the open letter here.

Una Jones

SFA CEO & FOUNDER

21 June 2024

Phase Two of Dzud Support | Aid Delivered to 1,760 Herding Families

Posted by Katy Edwards

With incredibly kind offers and contributions from our international members and partners, the SFA was able to deliver our second phase of aid throughout April 2024, providing much-needed support to the herders of our member cooperatives who had been affected most by the Dzud disaster this winter and early spring.

First Phase of Support

In response to the devastating Dzud situation in Mongolia, the SFA team begun our first phase of support throughout February and March 2024, appealing to all our member factories, not only in Mongolia, but reaching out to all our international members and brands to join the cause.

During this first wave of response, the SFA Mongolia team delivered the below to 8 cooperatives in 5 soums in the Dornod, Sukhbaatar, Khentii and Arkhangai provinces:

  • 60 tons of protein feed.
  • 400 litres of beneficial microorganism liquid supplement.
  • 560 fuel vouchers worth 20,000 MNT.
  • 250 blankets / jackets for newborn goats and animals.

To learn more about what Dzud is, the different variations, how it affects people, animals and the environment, take a look at our previous article titled Dzud Hits Mongolia | Devastating Conditions for Livestock & Herders.

Second Phase of Support

Throughout April 2024, and with continued support from SFA member brands and companies internationally, the SFA Mongolia team delivered further aid and provisions to 300,000 livestock animals of 1,760 herding households in 20 cooperatives and across 12 soums in the Khentii, Sukhbaatar and Dornod provinces, which had suffered the the most from the Dzud disaster. The aid delivered during the second phase consisted of:

  • 26,880 kg of mineral fodder.
  • 1,460 blankets / jackets.
  • 4,380 kg of powder milk supplements for newborn goats and animals.
  • 14,200 kg of flour.
  • 10,000 kg of rice.

According to this report on the Dzud livestock loss in Mongolia, the country has suffered a loss of 11.46% livestock as of the beginning of May 2024, with a total number reaching a devastating 7.41 million. This data was issued by Mongolian government organisations, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Light Industry (MOFALI), the National Agency Meteorology and the Environmental Monitoring (NAMEM), the State Emergency Commission, the United Nations Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Wildlife Support

Protecting biodiversity and conservation of habitat is one our five key principles of the SFA standards. Due to the harsh climate conditions, herbivore wildlife across many of the regions of Mongolia were severely affected with the lack of vegetation available for grazing leading to high death rates. Many of the animals ventured down from the mountains in search of food, travelling long distances to do so. Therefore, alongside provisions for herder communities and their livestock, the SFA Mongolia team transported and distributed 2,000 kg of nutritious grass hay bales and 2,000 kg of salt minerals to key corridors for native herbivore wildlife, such as red deer, gazelle and roe deer.

Continual Support

From everyone at the SFA, we would like to say a huge thank you for the generous donations and kind offers of support from our members and partners. We are proud to announce that we have raised over £153,000 so far for the SFA’s Dzud emergency fund effort.

“Alongside the emergency fund to help with the immediate disaster relief, we have established a Community Development Fund to support the recovery of herders affected by climate crises, such as dzud. The longer-term planning is crucial to strengthen the capacity and capability of herder organisations in disaster preparedness, risk management and improved governance. The impacts of climate change are increasing in intensity and frequency across the country.”

Una Jones, SFA CEO & Founder.

As part of our next steps and actions, we are planning to carry out a comprehensive socio-economic research study in understanding climate risk impact, with specific focus on dzud risk and diverse drivers of herder resilience, as a critical way to better support herder communities and build better systems changes holistically.

If you would like to learn more about the SFA’s efforts in supporting herders and building climate risk resilience, then please do reach out to the team below. Additionally, we will be hosting a Disaster Risk Committee Consultation meeting and are encourage anyone who would like to support herder’s climate risk resilience to join the discussion and get involved. Please email the team at info@sustainablefibre.org to find out more.

Tamir Bud

SFA COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

4 June 2024