SUBPROJECT IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS A. Aimag Level Subprojects
E. Subproject Implementation Schedule
1. First Generation Sub-agreements
a. PUG /RUA establishment sub-agreement
39. Objective: The objective of the sub-agreement is to establish the organizational structures, relationships, and agreements that can lead to sustainable pasture management in the soum. At the heart of these arrangements is that of the PUG, and the RUA that the PUG enters into with the soum government.
40. Structures: The overall structure is summarized in Figure 4. There is an average of 120 herder households per bagh. Each five households form a Khot ail. Five of the Khot ails form a Neg nutag Alliance (each of 25 herders). About five of the Neg nutag Alliance form a Nutag Pasture Council (each of 125 herders). The Nutag Pasture Council should include all herders in the bagh. There should be six Nutag Pasture Councils per soum. The term PUG is considered to be equivalent to the more traditional term “Neg nutag Alliance.”
Figure A4.4: PUG Development Structures and Relationships
Source: Asian Development Bank.
41. The neg nutag/usniikhan is the people live in the same ecological environment, where herders together possess the same pasture or water resources, and salt marshes. There are several neg nutag in a bagh. The khot ail is a few (about five) herder families who stay together and have the same pasture or water sources. The saakhalt ail is the few khot ails or families that live nearby.
42. The key organizational unit is the Neg nutag Alliance (or PUG) which makes the Rangeland Use Agreement (RUA) with the soum government.
43. Once 80% of herders in a bagh have joined into PUGs/RUAs, they can establish a bagh-level Nutag Pasture Council. Once there are at least two Nutag Pasture Councils, the Soum Pasture Society can be established.
44. The Soum Pasture Management Working Group (SPMWG) acts to bring together the Soum and Bagh Khural, the Soum Pasture Society, and the Soum Government. Until the Soum Pasture Society is formed, the SPMWG can operate with the other entities.
45. The Terms of Reference and by-laws, and other functions of these bodies will be developed in the capacity building component of the project in order to be standard across the project area, and be consistent with national practices already in place in other areas of the country, in particular based on experiences of the SDC-supported projects. Structures above the level of aimag will be addressed in the capacity building component of the project.
46. There are 73 pasture user groups in the project soums. However there appears to be a lack of formal structures and processes in many of them, and lack of RUAs. Given this, the first work of the soums is to establish PUGs in a formal sense consistent with national standards and agree on RUAs. The RUAs should include a both a long-term target for total livestock numbers, numbers of herder households and stocking rates and productivity to match the environment of the PUG grazing area, and the achievable annual, and end of project targets.
47. There are four Soum Pasture Associations (SPA) in the target soum: two in Bulgan (Mogod, Saikhan) and two in Bayankhongor (Jinst, Bogd).
48. A key issue for the project will be to clearly define what is a PUG and what is an RUA, especially since there are many types of herder groups and cooperatives in the project area. In the project, a PUG will be defined as group of herders who have entered into a RUA with the soum that includes:
(i) a grazing management plan for the PUG area and soum reserve areas
(ii) annual targets over a 15-year period for matching stocking rates to the environment of the PUG grazing area, and a strategy for managing the transition from current stocking rates to the target. In keeping with the approach of the project across all activities, the RUA should include a with- and without-project analysis.
As a guide, the RUA should have a target of 80% of initial LSU by the end of year four, with annual targets of 95%, 90%, 85% and 80%. The final LSU should be a minimum of 80% of the starting LSU.
(iii) the RUA should include a description of the baseline of the PUG herders, including livestock ownership (species, age and sex), and details of head of herder household (age, gender, education level), and transition plan, and target for each herder household.
49. Proposal: The soum government in collaboration with bagh governor (as representative of herders) will develop the proposal. The proposal will describe the activities required to establish the PUGs/RUAS, the Nutag pasture council at the level of the bagh, the soum pasture council at the level of the soum, and the soum pasture management working group (SMPWG). The SMPWG will consist of representatives of the bagh and soum khurals, soum government, and soum
pasture society. The proposal will specify the civil works, equipment and supplies and services required to support implementation.
50. The sub-agreement proposal should include baselines and targets for key structures and arrangements. These indicators will form the core of reporting and feed into the reporting of against the targets in the aimag subprojects (Table A4.2).
Table A4.2: Framework for Targets for PUG/RUA Establishment sub-agreements Indicator Baseline Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 No. National Pasture /PUG
Society meetings
No. Aimag Pasture /PUG Society meetings
No. Soum Pasture /PUG Society meetings
No. Nutag Pasture Council (bagh/PUG) functioning No. PUGs/RUAs signed
PUG = pasture user group, RUA = rangeland use agreement.
51. The activities in the sub-agreement will be led by the soum land manager in close collaboration with SAU and include:
(i) Awareness raising among herders and traditional grazing management
(ii) Baseline survey of PUGs/RUAs and other relevant structures and arrangements (iii) Soum and bagh authorities will facilitate a series of meetings, workshops, and site
visits with groups of herders that the bagh considers are likely, because of their traditional grazing areas, to be interested in forming into PUGs, and then developing RUAs. Initial meetings will be with large numbers of herders but will then break up into smaller groups of herders who are likely to join into individual PUGs/RUAs
(iv) Establishment of PUGs and related organizational capacity building, including PUG registration
(v) Ecological Site Description (ESD) mapping and rangeland assessment of PUG grazing area
(vi) Estimate carrying capacity of PUG area and PUG area mapping
(vii) Development of Rangeland Use Agreement. The RUA describes grazing management and transition to stocking rate targets that are matched to carrying capacity. The RUAs should cover a 15-year period
52. Services: Consultants provide technical support to sub-agreement development and implementation.
53. Equipment and supplies. The sub-agreement will include provision for training and information materials and supplies related to PUG/ RUA development.
54. Civil works: There are no civil works envisaged to be needed in the sub-agreement.
55. Period: The sub-agreement proposal should cover the whole period estimated by the
soum/baghs to be able to reach the targets for PUGs/RUAs as stated in the aimag subproject.
Given the time to establish PUGs/RUAs, the period should be at least three years.
56. Investment analysis: The sub-agreement is non-income generating and the output cannot be monetized so there is no need to do an investment analysis. However, an estimate of cost per PUG/RUA should be calculated as simply the total cost of the sub-agreement divided by the expected number of PUGs/RUAs.
57. Approval process: The sub-agreement proposal should be submitted directly to the Grants Secretariat of PMU with a cover letter from the Soum Steering Committee.
58. The services should include the entering into national databases related to PUGs registration, ESD mapping, PUG area mapping, stocking rate estimates, and adjustments, and RUAs.
59. Potential scope of the PUGs/RUAs: There will only be one PUG/RUA development sub-agreement per soum. Assuming an average of 25 herders per PUG/RUA and that 80% of herders will join, then there is scope for 466 PUGs/RUAs in the 20 soums. These figures are shown in Table 3. This could vary during implementation, with the baseline suggesting up to 585 PUGs may be needed in the 20 project soums. The establishment of the PUGs and RUAs will be a major effort for the project. The existing pasture user groups could prove to be a basis on which to start.
Table A4.3: Scope of PUG/RUA Development
Items Bulgan Arkhangai Bayankhongor Uvurkhangai Total
No. Herder households 2,759 4,894 3,637 3,286 14,576
No. PUGs/RUAs 88 157 116 105 466
Average no. herders per
PUG/RUA 25 25 25 25 25
No. Herders in PUGs/ RUAs 2,376 4,925 3,077 2,578 12,956
% of herder households in
PUGs/RUAs 80% 80% 80% 80% 80%
% of pasture area covered by
PUGs/RUAs 80% 80% 80% 80% 80%
Source: Asian Development Bank estimates.
60. While the PUGs/RUAs are the basic building block for improved grazing management, it is also important to develop other structures. The number of organizations and of herder household members is shown in Table 4.
Table A4.4: Herder Numbers in Structures Related to PUGs/RUAs
Unit Number
Herder Household Members
(no./unit)
Herder Household
Members (no.)
Aimag Pasture Association 4 3239 12,956
Soum Pasture Society 20 648 12,956
Nutag Pasture Council (Bagh-level) 120 108 12,956
Neg nutag Alliance / pasture user groups 585 22 12,956
Khot ail 3,000 5 2,932
Herders 14,659 1 14,659
Source: Asian Development Bank estimates.
b. PUG/RUA Implementation Sub-agreement
61. Objective: Herders who have joined into PUGs/RUAs have improved productivity through improved grazing management, stocking rates, and herd structures.
62. Justification: Support is needed to implement the RUAs and the implementation sub-agreement embodies some of the incentives that provide motivation for herders to form into PUGs and develop RUAs.
63. Proposal: The sub-agreement proposal should be submitted by the business units involved in implementation: a grouping of a minimum of five PUGs/RUAs in a contiguous area, preferably within one bagh; the soum land manager; and the SAU.
64. While there is scope for 585 PUGs/ RUAs in the project soums, it would be impractical to have this many sub-agreements. Ideally, the sub-agreement proposals would be lumped at the level of the bagh Nutag Pasture Council. This would suggest that a single sub-agreement would consist of five PUGs. If PUGs from more than one Nutag Pasture Council could be lumped with another, this would be acceptable. Preferably, PUGs from different baghs would not be included into the same sub-agreement proposal. The proposal should be co-signed by Nutag Pasture Council, the Soum Pasture Council, and the Soum Pasture Management Working Group (SMPWG), the soum land manager, and SAU.
65. The proposal should include a business plan for each of the individual PUGs/RUAs. It should describe the civil works, equipment, and supplies and services required to support implementation. If the PUGs/RUAs wish to put in place a system of grazing fee collection and use, this should be included in the business plan. The business plan will be based on the RUA.
66. Targets: The sub-agreement proposal should include baselines and targets for key indicators. These indicators will form the core of reporting and feed into the reporting of against the targets in the aimag subprojects (Table 5).
Table A4.5: Framework for Targets for PUG/RUA Implementation PUG/ RUA ID:……….
Indicator Baseline Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Livestock Units in PUG/RUA
% carrying capacity No. herders in PUG/RUA Grazing fees collected No. productivity-monitoring herders
Herder livestock gradient
% sheep units as goats
% ewes in sheep flocks Degradation level of PUG area (1-5)
No. wells in PUG area
No. wells with O&M functioning No. new wells
No. livestock houses improved No. rodent control actions
PUG = pasture user group,RUA = rangeland use agreement, O&M = operation and maintenance.
Source: Asian Development Bank.
67. Activities: The sub-agreement activities include:
(i) Herders sell livestock to reduce stocking rates according to the provisions of the RUA.
(ii) Herders change herd structures to reach agreed targets in the RUA.
(iii) The soum land manager monitors the environmental status of the RUA grazing areas, incorporating into local and national database systems, and feeding back to herders.
(iv) Soum technical team conduct extension activities (meetings, workshops, extension materials) to herders on the factors affecting productivity and profitability, with the objective of herders moving to higher levels of productivity through improved herd structures, feeding, breeding and health, and better livestock, and livestock product turnoff. The team collects and analyses data from the livestock weighing and assists in livestock weighing.
(v) Herders reporting on livestock numbers (species, age and sex) according to reporting schedule in the RUA.
(vi) Design and implementation of a water access improvement plan including operation, maintenance, and use of existing wells, rehabilitation of wells, and construction, operation, maintenance and use of new wells.
(vii) Design and implementation of a livestock housing improvement activity including upgrade of existing housing and construction of new housing; including housing design to make animal identification and weighing and condition scoring easier.
(viii) Herders in PUGs pay grazing fees if decided as an internal issue for the PUGs.
(ix) Meetings of the Nutag Pasture Council (bagh/PUG), and Soum Pasture /PUG Society.
(x) Defining and managing soum reserve pasture areas
68. Services. Consultants provide technical support to sub-agreement development and implementation.
69. Equipment and supplies: The sub-agreement can include:
(i) For Land Manager: Cameras for expanding photographing of sites for environmental monitoring; computers and IT systems
(ii) For PUG herders: Digital hanging scales for weighing lambs, kids, and feeds for all PUG herders
(iii) For PUG herders: Herd productivity technical information and record books (iv) For a group of PUG herders: Ear-tags for all goats and sheep in three flocks which
are representative of the flocks (i.e. large, medium, small flocks) within the PUG at the start of the RUA; ear-tags for all new born lambs and kids in these same flocks;
weighing scales for these flocks
(v) For all PUG herders: Digital hanging scales for weighing lambs, kids and feeds for all PUG herders
(vi) For all PUG herders: materials for improving winter housing; hayfield fences
(vii) For herders and SAU: Well operation and maintenance technical information and record books
(viii) For herders: Well repair parts, hay/fodder making equipment
(ix) For SAU and herders: Livestock housing technical information booklets (x) For SAU and herders: Rodent control technical information book (xi) For soum reserve areas: deep wells, animal shelters, signboards 70. Civil Works: The sub-agreement can include:
(i) an office and for a soum PUG association. The office is owned by the soum, but a rental agreement can be organized with the PUG.
(ii) new wells for PUGs
71. Period: The sub-agreement proposal should cover the whole period estimated to complete the activities.
72. Investment analysis: The sub-agreement investment analysis should include all costs one side, and return measured in an estimate of increased productivity because of stocking rate reduction. This calculation will be automatically generated based on models developed by the PMU.
73. Approval process: The sub-agreement proposal should be submitted to the Soum Steering Committee with a copy to the PMU. Once cleared by the SSC, the proposal should be sent PMU with SSC in copy.
74. Potential scope of the sub-agreements: Ideally, if there were one PUG/RUA implementation sub-agreement per bag, this would make about 120 sub-agreements. While this may sound high, it will be up to the PMU to make the templates and standardized procedures to make it work.