Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the potential contributions of Mongolian herders' knowledge to studying climate change. It argues that its main contribution is a specific epistemological stance (a holistic worldview) but that the inclusion and framing of such knowledge are profoundly political processes.

Paper long abstract:

Pastoralist socio-ecological systems (SES) the world over appear to remain resilient despite the combined effects of a range of disturbances and stressors such as variable climate, marginalization and encroachment on their resources. Yet, the mechanisms and dynamics of this resilience are seldom acknowledged, let alone investigated. The present article proposes a critical evaluation of the role indigenous ecological knowledge plays in ensuring different elements of system resilience. By looking at the Mongolian system the article proposes that indigenous ways of knowing (i.e. locally relevant epistemologies) may provide insights into the main elements of system resilience: latitude, resistance, precariousness and panarchy. Whereas the knowledge employed by the Mongolian pastoralists cannot be termed exclusively indigenous (the majority are literate and exposed to formal scientific knowledge), the holistic ways by which all the elements of their body of knowledge are acquired, tested and employed are indigenous in that they reflect a specific form of interaction between people and their environments. Such interactions contribute to acquiring valuable information regarding environmental dynamics (e.g. of climate change and impacts thereof) that western science may otherwise be impervious to and what stresses and disturbances are important. At the same time it acknowledges that the way this knowledge is negotiated and transformed by what can be termed 'knowledge brokers' (e.g. elders) and the way it may be used to inform climate change studies and policies, are profoundly political.