Mongolia's nomadic herders have lived off the land for centuries, but are now enduring the worst of climate change
For thousands of years, Mongolia's nomadic herders have survived at the mercy of the country's brutal winters — where temperatures drop below -30 degrees Celsius
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"Now winters have no snow or less snow, summers are overheated and there's little rain … grasses don't grow and because of this the animals don't get very fat."
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Mongolia's climate is warming much faster than the global average, and has increased by more than 2C over the past 70 years.
Dzuds used to be a rare occurrence, with official declarations of the weather phenomenon happening about twice a decade, but now some provinces endure them every year.
The number of natural losses of adult livestock — which includes natural disasters, such as dzuds, heavy rain, fire, lightning as well as infectious and non-infectious diseases — reached 3.9 million in the first nine months of 2023, according to the National Statistical office of Mongolia.
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Under the current situation of facing repeated droughts and then dzud, the future of rural herders and residents is very bleak."
The provincial government in Uvurkhangai is working on ways to help their herders, and encourage them to reduce the size of their herds.
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