Becoming a herder again: why a young family comes back to the countryside
Published: May 25, 2017 Reading time: 3 minutes
“I used to help my grandmother take care of the animals. She was a herder”, recalls his early memories of nomadic life Nasanzhargal, a 29-year-old herder from Dornod. When his grandmother passed away in 2006, Nasanzhargal, back then 18 years old, took over all the responsibilities and became a herder himself.
Mongolia is one of the countries where pastoralism remains the only possible way for many people to secure their livelihood. Experience and knowledge of nomad life that had been passed from generation to generation helped Mongolians adapt better to one of the harshest climates in the world. However, recent climate change exacerbated by human footprint in the landscape led to significant changes in the country’s weather pattern. Natural catastrophes such as dzud, draught, steppe fires and heavy rains started to occur in the country more often, taking even experienced herders by surprise.
Three years after Nasanzhargal’s grandmother passed away, he lost all his animals. “I had around 30 cows. They all died during cold rains in June 2009”, remembers Nasanzhargal.
The so-called “cold rain” is another grave threat for Mongolian pastoralists. Herders move several times a year to find better pasture for their livestock and by June, when the cold rains hit, the herders are in their summer camps which have no covered shelter to protect the livestock, unlike the winter camps. Moreover, all the animals are extremely weak after winter and just started to gain the weight back. Additionally, June is the month when herders usually shear sheep to sell wool. Exposed to very cold rain and wet snow for several days, sheep and goats usually die first, jeopardizing the well-being of the whole household. With no resources to buy new animals immediately, herders have no option but to seek a paid job. While some are able to stay in the countryside and to work as an assistant of another herder, the others, such as Nasanzhargal, have to search for a job in the city.
“When I lost all the animals, I went to the army”, Nasanzhargal continues telling his story. He finished his service in 2012 and started to work in construction in Ulaanbaatar. In 2014 he met his wife Yanjinkhorloo and shortly after their first child was born, the family decided to leave the capital and become herders again. At a time when more and more young people come to cities attracted by opportunities to study, work and interact with outer world, the decision of the young family to leave the capital and move to the countryside may seem incomprehensible. Nevertheless, in reality there is more logic behind this than it seems.
Urban lifestyle is expensive. Well-paid job in the city requires knowledge and skills that people from the countryside usually do not have. While some are lucky enough to find at least some job, others continue to live in dire conditions without access to basic services and family support. Feeling unhappy in the city, Nasanzhargal and Yanjinkhorloo decided to come back to what they already knew – herding. They took all their possessions and moved to the east of the county to Bulgan soum, over 600 km far from Ulaanbaatar.
“It is much better to live in the countryside than in the city,” says Yanjinkhorloo while we are standing next to her family’s spring camp. The first winter in the countryside was harsh for the young family. A dzud affected almost every soum in Dornod province this year. “The fields were covered in snow. Roads were blocked. We couldn’t move far to graze livestock because the pastures with less snow were affected by steppe fires earlier” recalls Nasanzhargal. When the dzud affects the region, it is a big challenge to keep animals alive. Temperatures can drop down to -40°C, pasture is inaccessible due to dense snow, animals become weak and more vulnerable to diseases, and herders’ reserves run down fast. Without any support, vulnerable herders with small herds face risk losing all their animals and potentially their livelihood as well.
Fortunately, with support from People in Need and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Nasanzhargal’s young family survived their first winter in the countryside with minimal livestock losses and is now ready to move to its summer camp with the herd bigger by 35 newly born lambs and goatlings.