Climate Exchange

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Climate information services

for herder families in Mongolia

National Weather and Hydrological Service, Mongolia

he people of Mongolia live under extremely harsh

weather and climate conditions. Their daily behaviour

is directly dependent on weather, therefore weather and

climate information are very important and hold significant

benefits for them.

Today, these people are facing many challenging issues due to

climate changes and the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmos-

phere, a phenomenon caused by human activity. In the last 70

years, the annual mean air temperature of Mongolia has increased by

2.1

C and annual precipitation has decreased by nearly ten per cent

between 1940 and 2011. This condition is causing dryness and inten-

sifying the severity and harshness of weather and climate compared

with previous years. One fact which exemplifies this change is that

the frequency of almost all types of atmospheric extreme events has

doubled in the last decade compared to the previous decade.

Under the influence of this climate change, the Mongolian climate

is becoming more severe and harsh with the risk of significant

impacts for the country’s citizens, especially rural communities and

herder families.

griculture

Currently in Mongolia, the agriculture sector

produces 20 per cent of the country’s gross domestic

product. Among them, the livestock sector accounts

for nearly 80 per cent of total agriculture production.

The livestock sector is based on a traditional nomadic

pasture system and a herder family’s livelihood is much

dependent and influenced by weather and climate.

Every year in summer and autumn, herder families

need to prepare for the oncoming winter and spring,

to prevent the loss of their livestock. To prepare for

winter, the conditions of the past summer in terms of

biomass and vegetation growth, and the coming winter

weather and climate outlook are essential information

for decision-makers at

soum

(small administrative

unit),

aimag

(province) and country level as they

plan the migration of herder families, prepare hay and

arrange other measures.

According to government resolution No. 190, which

considers measures to protect livestock from drought

and harsh winter (

zud

), an assessment of pasture

capacity must be carried out over Mongolia in August

every year. Using this information, the winter weather

and climate outlook is prepared and disseminated by

Mongolia’s National Weather and Hydrological Service.

This climate information is fundamentally important

for planning the following activities:

• Organizing the wintering-springing of livestock

• Balancing the use of pasture in an effective way

• Warning herder communities as early as possible

about warm harsh winters

• Assessing the main human factors influencing

pasture and grazing.

Long-term pasture monitoring in Mongolia has been

carried out every year since 2001, at 1,550 points across

the country using ‘line point intercept’ methodology.

Simultaneously, the number and type of livestock,

area of pasture in hectares and the number of days the

pasture is expected to be used is gathered from the

monitoring points in order to assess pasture capacity.

For instance, in the winter-spring of 2011-2012 the

summer condition was normal over 70 per cent of the

country, with semi-drought in 25 per cent and drought

in 5 per cent. Generally, summer conditions were quiet

good and the carrying pasture capacity was enough for

livestock wintering. An exact assessment showed that

Typical herders wintering, Tsogt-ovoo soum of Umnugobi aimag, 2008

Image: National Weather and Hydrological Service, Mongolia