Perilous Times and Climate Change
Mongolia: Nomadic way of life at risk as nearly eight
million animals are wiped out by the paralysing cold
As nearly eight million animals are wiped out by the paralysing cold,
UN predicts influx of up to 20,000 herders into the cities
* Andrew Jacobs
* The Observer, Sunday 23 May 2010
They call it the zud, a prolonged period of heavy snows and paralysing
cold that adds to the challenges of living on a treeless expanse nearly
the size of Alaska. Mongolia and its 800,000 herders are reeling from
the worst winter that anyone can remember. According to United Nations
relief officials, nearly eight million cows, yaks, camels, horses,
goats and sheep died, about 17% of the country's livestock. Even if the
spring rains arrive soon, 500,000 more animals are expected to succumb.
"This is not only a catastrophe for the herders but for the entire
Mongolian economy," said Akbar Usmani, of the United Nations
Development Programme. "We expect the ripple effects for months and
years to come."
The last serious zuds, three consecutive harsh winters between 1999 and
2002, sent thousands of destitute nomads streaming into the capital,
Ulan Bator. A decade later, their tattered yurts still crowd bleak
neighbourhoods on the city's fringe as the former herders struggle to
fit into the modern world. The UN estimates the current disaster may
prompt as many as 20,000 herders to abandon their nomadic life and flee
to the city. "A lot of the herders have no skills so they usually end
up breaking the law and falling into poverty," said Buyanbadrakh, the
governor of a small administrative district known as a soum, who, like
some Mongolians, uses a single name. He said 70% of the livestock in
his soum, Zuunbayan-Ulaan, was wiped out this year, with at least 2,800
families losing their entire herds.
The disaster poses a challenge to a government already struggling to
address the needs of the third of the population that lives in poverty.
But it also raises questions about climate change, environmental
degradation and whether the pastoral way of life that sustains many of
the country's three million people has a future. Although mining and
tourism are a growing portion of the Mongolian economy, a third of the
population still depends entirely on husbandry for its livelihood. "The
key question we have to ask is whether this way of life is
sustainable," said the UN's Usmani. "It's a very sensitive issue."