Mongolians talk of their country’s tens of millions of sheep, goats, horses, cows, camels and yaks as the “national wealth.” More than 40% of the population are herders, so the exceptionally extreme “dzud” weather that struck Mongolia during the past winter, taking the lives of at least 7mn, or 10%, of herded livestock—and possibly many more, the counting amid the “die off” is not yet over—has come as a crushing blow.

The 2023/2024 dzud was perhaps the harshest experienced in nearly 50 years. The government determined that as many as 24mn animals were at risk of death. An emergency plan, a combination of traditional practices and modern interventions to mitigate impacts and aid the recovery, was implemented, with an Emergency Operations Centre activated and the country placed on a heightened state of readiness. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister coordinated the response efforts.

A vital consideration was recognising the psychological toll of the dzud, particularly on the herder communities who lost their livelihoods. This led to the provision of increased mental health support through counselling services.

There are 190,000 herder households in Mongolia, meaning the relief effort was an exacting task. International support played a critical role. Organisations like the United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), provided millions of dollars, as well as tonnes of emergency medical supplies and equipment.

At the local level, many herder communities prepared by stockpiling fodder and insulating their gers (yurt tents) to withstand the extreme cold. The traditional practice of informal mutual aid networks became essential. Families pooled resources, shared food and cared for each other's livestock.

Herders understand their animals extremely well and recognise when it might be safer to release a herd to the wild, allowing them to rely on natural instincts for survival. After the snow clears, herders then ride out and look for their animals. After the dzud hit hard, recovery efforts focused on distributing emergency supplies such as warm clothing, food and medical essentials to the hardest-hit areas.

Emergency fodder supplies saved herds unable to graze due to snow and ice-covered pastures (Credit: Screenshot, IFRC appeal video).

Mongolia's Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) has been crucial in mitigating loses. An innovative system, launched in 2005, it uses an index-based model that triggers payouts based on regional livestock mortality rates, eliminating the need for individual loss assessments. IBLI offers tiered coverage, including government-provided base compensation for severe losses and optional commercial insurance for less extreme losses. Subsidies and risk-sharing mechanisms make the insurance affordable, encouraging herders to adopt better risk management practices.

For Mongolian herders, disasters have occurred periodically throughout history. The herders have survived for thousands of years by demonstrating resilience and overcoming adversity. This adaptability extends to the government. It has implemented systems to prevent loss, mitigate damage and support recovery. However, after each dzud, a number of families abandon herding, and they are not replaced. That signals a threat to the continued existence of this traditional aspect and motif of Mongolian culture.

While modern technology and local and international aid help herders to persevere, there is a clear trend toward fewer individual herding families as large commercial operations take over.

A dzud, a severe weather phenomenon unique to Mongolia, occurs in years when a lack of rainfall during grazing months makes it difficult for animals to gain weight. This is followed by extreme winter conditions, with heavy snowfall, intense cold and strong winds combining to create an environment where animals struggle to survive as they struggle to access the grass beneath the snow or ice.

The aftermath of a dzud can force families into poverty, prompting migration from rural to urban areas as alternative means of survival are sought.

The ger district of the country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, is largely populated by herders who have lost their herds and now struggle to make a living in the city, where they are ill-equipped, lacking education, English or computer skills.

Although herders are used to working very hard to survive on the steppes, they often find it difficult to adjust to working on a fixed schedule for wages in the city. Each year that a dzud occurs, the population of the ger district grows, adding to the supply of low-skilled labour, which suppresses wages. Additionally, because the gers are heated with coal-burning stoves, the capital’s air pollution, already among the worst in the world, becomes even worse.

On the macro level, around 11% of Mongolia’s GDP derives from animal products including leather, hide, hair, cashmere, wool and meat. Both herding families and economic officials will be praying 2024/2025 is dzud-free, though all the indications are that, amid climate change, dzuds are becoming increasingly common.