Climate change threatens nomadic herding in Mongolia: A model of climate change risk perception and behavioral adaptation

Abstract

Abstract This study develops a model of climate change behavioral intention with nomadic herders in Mongolia. Climate change is creating unrelenting hardship by degrading pastures and fragile ecosystems that nomadic herders rely on for survival and by increasing the frequency of extreme weather threats. The model considers the relationships among resource loss, stress, coping and social support, posttraumatic growth, climate change knowledge, norms, and risk perceptions with climate change behavioral intention. The project was conducted in remote regions of the Gobi desert and mountainous areas of Western Mongolia (referred to as one of the most remote places on Earth), and the logistical challenges were formidable. The research team traveled great distances in 4x4 vehicles to locate nomadic herders, camped on the steppes and plains, and carried supplies to be self-sufficient for almost three weeks. The participants were 287 (141 men, 146 women) nomadic herders (age: M = 41, SD = 13) who completed standardized measures. The structural equation model shows two pathways to climate change behavioral intentions: (1) community norms concerning climate change actions are directly associated with climate change behavioral intentions, and (2) resource loss, biospheric and altruistic values, and climate change knowledge were associated with positive stress response, which was associated with climate change risk perceptions. Risk perceptions were associated with behavioral intentions. The findings support and extend a model of behavioral adaptation developed by the authors in the South Pacific. Implications of the findings are discussed.