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T
RADITIONALLY LIVESTOCK WAS
a unique source for sustain-
able living in a country with an extreme climate and
insufficient and irregular distribution of both heat and
moisture. Here, the cold weather lasts for six to eight months and
the natural grass growing season is short; it lasts for a mere four
to five months. More than 80 per cent of atmospheric precipita-
tion falls by the end of the growing season.
In such an unstable environment the ecosystem is poor, and
pastoral animal husbandry is a factory that operates all year round
and produces living necessities. Here, nature and herders are “co-
investors”. Nature invests for grasslands and the herder invests for
his livestock. Approximately 50–1 200 kg/hectares of annual
grass growth, coupled with the herders’ labours, provides one-
third of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a quarter of the
country’s export sales.
Global change affects Mongolia, causing temperatures to rise
twice as rapidly as the global average. The epicentre of atmos-
pheric pressure changes is located in Mongolia. The faster the
climate changes, the greater the risk of disaster. Steppe grasslands
are considered particularly vulnerable to such changes, so pastoral
animal husbandry, which is wholly based on weather and natural
grasslands, is at great risk.
A severe drought, a dzud disaster and an epidemic disease
affected the livestock sector during 1999–2003, and as a result,
How to reach the rural herders
scattered across Mongolia
R.Oyun, Coordinator, Risk Study Working Group and Director,
JEMR Consulting Company, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Figure 1: Weekly monitoring of pasture vegetation and its biomass for Erdenedalai county with use of ground and NOAA AVHRR data