Mongolia’s harsh winter jeopardizes livelihoods of nomadic herders

BEIJING (AP) — Exceptionally cold weather in Mongolia is putting the livelihoods of more than 150,000 nomadic herders and family members at risk, just one year after another extreme winter killed more than 1 million animals, the Red Cross said Thursday, as it launched an emergency appeal.

Particularly vulnerable are families still suffering from the impact of last year’s “dzud,” an extreme weather phenomenon unique to the country that is characterized by a summer drought and then a prolonged winter of heavy snow and temperatures of minus 40 to minus 59 degrees Fahrenheit.

More than 40,000 cows and other livestock have already died this time, a figure that is expected to jump in the freezing months ahead and into spring when animals are still weak.

A dzud typically happens once every 12 years, but has struck for the second consecutive year this winter. The dzud last year killed more than 1 million livestock, which are the only source of food, transport and outside income for almost half of Mongolia’s population of 3 million.

Aid groups say the situation is compounded by last year’s harsh winter and a deep recession amid a market bust for the vast landlocked nation’s mineral exports.

Many herder families will lose their livestock and livelihoods “and will have no choice but to migrate to the slum areas on the outskirts of (the capital, Ulaanbaatar) and other urban centers where they will face great social and economic hardship,” said Gwendolyn Pang, head of the Beijing office of the International Federation of Red Cross.

The Red Cross said that 70 percent of the country is covered by snow. The agency appealed for $650,000 to help 2,740 most-at-risk families.