Reconsidering the role of absentee herd owners: A view from Mongolia

Since the privatization of livestock in 1992, rates of absentee ownership o f livestock have increased sharply in Mongolia. Unlike other documented ins tances of absentee herding in pastoral societies, absentee herd ownership h as few detrimental ecological or social impacts in Mongo[ia. Rather, the re lationship between absentee herd owners and herders may be viewed as a revi talized institution, with links to customary patterns of urban-rural exchan ge, emerging to meet the needs of both herders and town-dwellers during the transition from a socialist planned economy to a free market economy. Abse ntee herding in Mongolia differs from absentee and contract herding account s from Africa and the Middle East in its continuing emphasis on subsistence rather than speculative investment anti accumulation. Other important dist inctions include: (1) absentee owners and herders ape usually kin or friend s; (2) herders tend their own private herds in addition to absentee-owned a nimals; (3) few ethnic, caste, or class differences exist between herders a nd absentee herd owners; and (4) herders from all wealth strata tend absent ee-owned animals. Policies to restrict or regulate absentee livestock owner ship must be carefully considered in the Mongolian context, making clear di stinctions between informal, mutually beneficial subsistence-driven arrange ments among kin and friends, and more formal investment-driven contracts be tween businesses or investors and herders.