National Geographic Story on Mongolia

A realistic write-up on the predicament of far too many former-herders in Ulaanbaatar.

The Urban Clan of Genghis Khan
An influx of nomads has turned the Mongolian capital upside down.
Click here to read: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/ulaanbaatar/belt-text

It is a similar story for former-herders in rural areas who have moved to regional centres as well (towns of 15,000-25,000). Without skills they struggle to find jobs but but their children get access to education, without having to live in an unsanitary dormitory away from home, and they still have the family ger to live in.

Also very true that many look on communist days with nostalgia. Thanks to a high level of planning, back then there was no traffic or pollution or ger districts in UB (barely anyone could afford cars, the population was strictly controlled, everyone was given an apartment and a job and there were enough buses to easily get around). Herders were subsidised (not unlike farming in modern-day western countries) so that people had a good quality of life. When the economy transitioned, herders carried on doing what they had been doing but found they didn't make enough money - something the government had known for decades. The logical solution was to get more animals - surely more animals would mean more money.

But it doesn't work that way. More animals cause disaster for the natural environment. More animals for everyone mean that the end product is not worth as much. When natural disaster hits and animals die, it means that the losses are bigger.

This is where groups like Mercy Corps come into the picture - the core goal is to get herders working smarter, not harder. Smarter could mean value-adding to the product: instead of selling the wool straight from the sheep, turn it in to felt, make some products and sell these. Smarter can also mean building up store of food for animals to cope with bad weather.

Or it can mean using technology to plan ahead - the Mercy Corps LEWS project has implemented an advanced computational model based on years of research to predict and monitor weather and fodder conditions so nomadic herders can plan where to take their livestock and prepare for bad weather.