Pastures for posterity

Nature's way

In May 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations inscribed the Ar Horqin grassland nomadic system on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems list, as one of "a living, evolving system of human communities in an intricate relationship with their territory, cultural or agricultural landscape or biophysical and wider social environment".

Since 2005, the FAO has designated at least 78 systems in 24 countries as agricultural heritage sites.

By the end of last year, China ranked first in the world in the number of the heritage systems, with Ar Horqin part of the country's total of 19 entries.

According to the FAO, the traditional nomadic production and lifestyle of Mongolians in Ar Horqin have been "well preserved here in an original way" — central to the area's sustainable success is how its nomads regularly move to different grazing spots between the seasons, alternately allowing the vegetation, soil and other limited resources to revive and thrive.