The UB Post-Leading English News

These hardy and proud countryside dwellers make a living by herding horses, camels, goats, cattle and sheep for milk, cashmere, meat and other livestock products. Maintaining a regular income, however, is a constant battle as the climate, in this semi-arid country known as the land of the blue sky, is unrelentingly dry and foreboding and prone to severe and freezing winters, and extremely dry summers.

In Mongolia, particularly bad winters are referred to as dzuds. Before this winter (2009 to 2010), Mongolia had not experienced a dzud since early 2002. This winter, Mongolia is experiencing unusually cold weather with temperatures dropping well below minus 20 as early as mid-December. It is expected temperatures will fall to minus 48 as northerly weather brings bitter snow storms from Siberia.

In the past, dzuds have been responsible for the deaths of millions of livestock, resulting in huge economic losses for herders. It is predicted that this year’s dzud will result in similar livestock devastation, as December 2009 alone recorded over 300,000 livestock deaths.

The World Bank funded, highly innovative Index-Based Livestock Insurance Project has been introduced to protect herders from the unpredictable and harsh Mongolian winter weather. With co-financing from the Japanese Government and the Financial Sector Reform and Strengthening (FIRST) Initiative, the system was established to protect herders against climate related losses of livestock.

In 2002, 36-year old herder Batbayar Davaadorj lost 30 per cent of his animals during the dzud as the area in which his livestock grazed was hardest hit. Devastatingly, other herders lost even more.

Kept warm by his knee-length wool and blue silk Deel, a traditional Mongolian costume still commonly worn in the countryside, Batbayar explains that he’s grateful for the help he’s now receiving through the insurance project, which is available through partnering private insurance firms in selected aimags.
“Of course this (insurance) is very important because the livestock is insured from natural disaster, so even though we have harsh winters, I am insured, and that is important!” said Batbayar.

There are more than 15,000 herder families in Mongolia who have bought insurance which protects against losses to livestock.

The World Bank, European Union and Japanese Government supported the Sustainable Livelihoods Project (SLP), which provides further assistance to herders and their families.
During Mongolia’s freezing winter months, fresh running water becomes a sparse commodity, especially in regional areas. Batjargal, a herder from Jinst soum, Bayankhongor aimag, in Southern rural Mongolia, must travel seven kilometers from his family ger (yurt) to his closest water source, a small well in an icy valley.

The well, which is used to sustain his family of six and 700 head of livestock, is a small square hole in the ground with ice gathering around its entrance as temperatures stay well below minus 20 for at least five months of the year.

A rickety wooden lid is all that alerts herders to the lifesaving water source below. Water is retrieved with a rope and a two-meter long wooden pole with a leather bag attached at the end.

The well is shared by other local herders, who gather on the snow dappled steppe, chatting together as they watch their goats, camels and sheep eagerly drink the liquid before it turns to ice. The shaggy animals lap up the water as it sits in an old tractor tire cut in half and spread out long ways like a trough.

Batjargal is the reason why this well exists. For many years it lay in disrepair. But following a successful proposal submitted by Batjargal, through the pastoral risk management component of the SLP, the well was rehabilitated. He is pleased the well is now operational, but he’d like to see another well developed four or five kilometers away, closer to his home, as livestock numbers keep increasing and the demand for water rises.

With financial assistance from the SLP, 30 year-old herder and father of three, Bayanmunkh, has learned to avoid risks to his 200 heads of livestock by creating his own pastures and fencing his animals in.

“Pastoral management has helped us overcome the crisis. Because of the fencing we can keep my livestock close to us. Before we had fences, we were nomadic and were always looking for better pastures, but now we can stay in one place and store feed and fodder during the warmer months for the livestock to survive on during the winter,” said Bayanmunkh.

Bayanmunkh walks purposefully through the crunching fresh snow in front of his small well-established home and proudly displays his fenced-in livestock. His visibly hardened and weathered skin is proof of his nomadic way-of-life, (a traditional way-of-life) that has sustained many Mongolian families for hundreds of years. And a way-of-life being preserved and supported by the Government of Mongolia through these initiatives.

Additional government projects have also improved herder access to energy sources. Some herders now have their homes connected to the town grid or, in the most isolated areas, herders have been provided with solar panels and small wind turbine systems, as sources of renewable energy.
Source: The World Bank Group