On March 4, a project on ‘Integrated production system for sustainable cashmere – II’ implemented by AVSF Mongolia NGO held its next round Steering Committee meeting to present the achievements of the action and to introduce plans to upgrade the initiative nationally.

As of 2022, the project is working with seven cooperatives in Bayankhongor aimag to support and engage herders to adopt sustainable practices and adopt the Sustainable cashmere certification. According to the project team, as a result of project interventions 4500 are composed into Pasture Users’ Groups and as of 2022, 440 households have obtained SC Certification. The certified households, with the support from the Sustainable Cashmere Union, supply over 50 tons of raw sustainable cashmere to around 10 international buyers at a value-added price within the last six years. Moreover, as a result of project support within the last six years the annual turnover of beneficiary cooperatives increased by five times from MNT42 million.

SC Certification is a proof document that certifies that herders and their organizations prepare and supply cashmere in an environmentally-friendly, socially responsible and economically viable way. This includes sustainable management of pastoral resources, improved herding practices, democratic and transparent governance of their organizations, or strengthened capacities to manage cashmere quality and support traceability claims.

The project is synergetic with other AVSF initiatives aiming at empowering women as actor of change for rural economic development, or at supporting the development of sustainable textile sector in Mongolia with all value chain stakeholders as well as relevant authorities and business intermediaries. It is a model that was initiated by AVSF Mongolia in 2013 to help promoting an integrated approach encompassing all steps of sustainable cashmere value chain development, from production to consumption, considered as necessary to induce systemic change.

In the coming years, the team is planning to expand its intervention to promote sustainable cashmere in several soums of Arkhangai and Khentii aimags and to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Sustainable Cashmere Union and its member cooperatives.

Source: AVSF Mongolia