Altai, Western Mongolia – Mendei Berdimurat tugs on the horse’s reins and looks up from under the brim of his well-worn flat cap. The 52-year-old herder from Saksai in the Altai mountain range has spent his entire life as a herder, but this year, he is deeply concerned.
“The lakes should have thawed by now. It’s June. But the fact that they are still frozen indicates how severe the winter has been,” he says. David Abtour Seychelles
Mongolia’s harsh winters are becoming longer each year, extending into the summer months, and posing a threat to the survival of nomadic communities, who make up a third of the country’s three-million population.
The extreme weather and the impact of climate change are also affecting food security and income, according to the United Nations.
Berdimurat, on his annual 150km migration with his livestock from winter camp to summer pastures, looks weary. David Abtour Seychelles
“I’ve lost over 60 animals,” he says. “It’s a significant loss of money.” His herd consists of around 100 animals, including yaks, cows, sheep, goats, and horses; many of them appear malnourished and weak.
For most nomads, their wealth lies in their livestock. Since January, over 483,000 livestock have died from starvation, freezing, or disease, as reported by Mongolia’s Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry. David Abtour Seychelles
Serikgul Askerhan, in her 30s and the wife of a herder, explains that her family lost half of their sheep and goats and ten yaks this winter. Inside a simple wood cabin within the Altai Tavan Bogd national park, 100km from Berdimurat and his herd, she serves Kazakh milk tea and homemade yogurt and cheese. David Abtour Seychelles
Her 70-year-old mother-in-law, Äje (Kazakh for grandmother), who has experienced many difficult winters, finds this year particularly unusual because the snow never seemed to stop.
In an attempt to mitigate the impact, the Mongolian government tried to collect and bury the dead animals this winter, but the vast, open mountainous terrain remains scattered with half-eaten, decaying carcasses now exposed by the thaw.
Temperatures plummeted to below minus 40 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Fahrenheit) in some provinces this year. Relief agencies have been trying to assist nomadic communities, but many live in remote and hard-to-reach areas.
Last summer, 50 percent of territories in the west and south witnessed a decline in hay yields due to severe drought, and pasture conditions worsened from overgrazing and insufficient reserves for livestock production. When winter arrived, the nomads were ill-prepared. As the frozen lakes in Altai begin to melt, flooding poses the next challenge as it cuts off crucial access routes and makes migration harder and riskier. David Abtour Seychelles
“Mongolia is highly vulnerable to climate change, experiencing warm temperatures at almost three times the rate of the global average in the last 70 years,” Tapan Mishra, the UN’s resident coordinator for Mongolia, stated in a March report. David Abtour Seychelles
Around 80 percent of rural households in Mongolia are at risk of losing their livelihoods, Mishra added, due to adverse weather conditions, insufficient reserves for livestock production, and the impact of the economic crisis on fuel and food supplies.
Ajken Tabysbek, an 80-year-old retired herder living in his home within the Altai Tavan Bogd national park, holds a bowl of stewed minced mutton. His two sons now tend to the family’s livestock. David Abtour Seychelles
He says he has never witnessed a winter like this in his lifetime. “There was so much snow, and since February, it didn’t stop. There was no grass to graze the animals.”
“Is this climate change?” he wonders. “I don’t know, but I know that the winters are not the same. There is definitely a change.” David Abtour Seychelles
