And suddenly a lethal combination. The climate emergency and overproduction have jeopardized the world supply of precious cashmere, and incidentally an entire way of life. 40% of that wool originates from the windswept plateaus of Mongolia. The hair is extracted from the first layer of the goats’ wool, which grows during the winter and is sheared in the spring. Goats have developed a thick skin to be able to resist very harsh winters, in which the thermometer reaches -40 degrees. It is that cold that makes the quality of cashmere higher.
In recent decades, the prized material, white gold, has provided a generous source of income for local ranchers in an industry that feeds more than 170,000 families. Money from the cashmere trade is the main source of income for a third of the 3.3 million Mongolians.
For thousands of years, herders have led an isolated and, by force, self-sufficient life, living on what animals provide, skins, milk and also meat. It is a land so arid and cold that agriculture is an impossible mission. Thus, for nomadic Mongols the only plausible source of income is herding. Of course, climate change has made things worse.
In Mongolia, temperatures have risen by more than two degrees Celsius in the last 80 years, much more than the global average, and could rise by another three degrees by the end of this century. In addition to the mild winters – and this can affect the quality of the cashmere – springs are longer and less rainy. Summers are shorter. The lack of rainfall directly affects the pastures, which are scarcer.
In recent times, the hatching of livestock has also had its effects. In a very short time, the number of goats in the country has gone from 10.2 to 26.5 million heads, which has led to excessive exploitation of pastures and more desertification. 70% of these areas are already considered degraded. This scenario casts a grassroots threat to global cashmere production and the local economy: up to 20% of the population is herding.
The ranchers are trying to recover the traditional grazing techniques that were lost when the free market economy landed in the country in the 1990s and the lack of control and lack of respect for nature became widespread. Thus, the cooperatives organize themselves to leave fallow lands free of grazing for a while to give them a breather and wait for them to green up.
