Dzud is a deadly climate disaster unique to only Mongolia. The occasional hot but dry summers with droughts often lead to problematic, harsh winter. Each fall, herders prepare in advance for severe winter conditions by stocking up hay and feed for their livestock to reduce casualties as Mongolia’s weather is never predictable and a dzud could kill thousands of livestock if they’re underprepared. As most reporters in East Asia are focusing on China and based in Beijing or Shanghai, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) took journalists from various countries to travel 400 miles across Mongolia in February 2016, when the country was succumbed to effects of a particularly difficult winter, to highlight the issues faced by Mongolia and bring the country to greater prominence more generally in their reporting. I got the chance to speak with ADB’s senior communications specialist Graham Dwyer, who led the press tour. Here’s what he had to say about his first-hand review of dzud, which had killed approximately 1.02 million livestock in winter/spring of 2016 and slaughtered 63 percent of the total livestock population in Mongolia by the end of the same year, according to the National Emergency Management Agency of Mongolia. I heard that you got to personally experience Mongolia’s harsh winter. Can you tell me more about your visit? Why did you set out to Mongolia during the winter, which famous for being “extreme”? I was asked to be the HQ-based media focal point for China and Mongolia, in other words for East Asia operations. One of the things we wanted to do was to raise awareness among international journalists about different issues in Mongolia. We had decided that we would organize some press tours, bring international journalists to Mongolia, and show them some things that they might not otherwise get to see if they are on their own, using ADB’s resources and contacts with the government of the time. At the time, the beginning of 2016, a lot of Mongolia was experiencing dzud-like conditions. It had an especially dry summer and I think around 90 percent of the country was covered in snow. We decided to hold the press tour in the winter in February because we didn’t want the journalists to see the sunny side of Mongolia where there’s flowers all around. We wanted to show the reality of the country, the hard conditions, and how people deal with living in the winter because one of the things I learned was that Ulaanbaatar is one of the coldest capitals in the world. The journalists we assembled were from the Financial Times and Devex, a German press agency, some Bloomberg correspondents in the country, and a local reporter. It was a small party but we got a big squadron of Land Cruisers together because we had to go across 400 miles across a large landscape and we couldn’t just go in one car. We had foreign journalists so we needed to ensure their safety. It was my second trip to Mongolia. My first was for the 14th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program Ministerial Conference, held in Ulaanbaatar in September 2015. I’d just flown in for one night for that meeting so all I saw was the airport and the hotel before leaving. For my second trip, I wanted to actually see something. I remember that I got a flight through Beijing (from Manila, the Philippines) and as it was landing in Ulaanbaatar, the pilot said, “Welcome to Ulaanbaatar. The temperature outside is -15 degrees Celsius”. Usually, the pilot says something like “It’s sunny, 28 degrees Celsius outside”. I was well prepared and we’d also warned the journalists. We all assembled at a restaurant in Ulaanbaatar, which was very nice, and gave them a pep talk. The next day, there were some meetings with the government to introduce the country and give a presentation and then we set out in a Land Cruiser to Bayankhongor Province. It was quite a long journey, took about a day. As soon as you get out of Ulaanbaatar in late February, you’re just in a white landscape. We were soon out of town and along the way, we stopped at an Ovoo and climbed a hill to take pictures. One of the journalists had never seen snow before so that was a bit of a shock. I’d seen snow before but not like that – like the Antarctic. The road was very good – the infrastructure was good in terms of the road. But we didn’t see any town between Ulaanbaatar and Bayankhongor. We could immediately see the harsh landscape and the condition people lived in. For instance, if you wanted to go to the toilet on the way, there’s not really a place except in the field. You have to be pretty quick in the temperature.

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....Winter is special. I suppose there’s danger for an outsider and it could seem romantic because I don’t have to live there. To understand Mongolia and the people, I think you have to see it in the winter...

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When did you reach Bayankhongor? When we arrived in Bayankhongor at night, probably around 7:30 p.m., it was pretty dark and much colder. We were very tired and cold but then the hotel’s water system had frozen and there was no water or heating in the hotel. We were all huddled up in the lobby freezing and wondering what we were going to do in -25 degrees Celsius. Our local Mongolian officer was phoning around town to find accommodation for us. Luckily, there was one with heating nearby. We had an impromptu meal of Mongolian fried chicken in the new hotel. How far was the other hotel? It was a few blocks away but within the town. What did you do in Bayankhongor? We took the journalists on a program around town on the first day. We visited the historic kindergarten and high school. We met some people in the ger and talked to a family that had received some ADB’s assistance to transfer to a small house from a ger. We climbed a hill to see a water treatment plant. It was more or less ADB projects. The next day was focused on climate change and dzud so we climbed into the mountains. The local officials were leading us because we had to go off the road through the mountains and deep in the snow. We got stuck in the snow probably around six times and we had to be towed or dug out. It was quite a difficult journey but it was really good to show these journalists that ADB can give assistance to countries like Mongolia and actually deliver it. It really showed the difficulty of development work. It’s not something you can write about. You can write words, give money for projects but you have to be able to deliver it. We learned the word ADB often uses is implement. Throughout the journey, it was an education for everybody, including me. The difficulty of getting out the systems that people needed the most. Truck gets stuck in snow six times during 400 mile trip to Bayankhongor Province[/caption] One other thing was the animals dying. I think about 700,000 animals had died around then. We went to some gers and there were bodies of dead animals piled up. We met a family that’d lost their herds in a previous dzud and were relying on food stamps from an ADB project. We tried to give different angles to the stories and the difficulties that nomadic herders face. The road journey was epic. The word I would use to describe the whole journey would be mind-blowing. The scale and majesty of the country and the toughness of the people – very hardy and ingenious people – to live and thrive in that climate. I was totally blown away by the whole experience and really wanted to repeat it. Someday I hope. Was the press tour productive? After I released my photo essay, ADB mobilized a couple of millions of dollars for the needs of herders to add to the UN’s support. It served to raise awareness of the overall challenges of climate change. The journalists learned a lot of things about the lifestyle, how the locals have changed from riding the horse to motorbikes for herding, and the relative price of cashmere goats compared to cattle or horses. We visited many other places like banks in remote areas, government offices, dormitory schools that herders send their children to. I think that the journalists got to see the different aspects of Mongolian life that they couldn’t see on their own. I’d really call my visit to Mongolia one of my greatest journeys of life even though it was for only a week. It was amazing just the experience of going 400 miles across the large landscape, seeing the majesty of that landscape, the stark beauty – dangerous beauty in a way. By helping to publicize (climate change and dzud issues in the country), we accelerated our board and management to approve a grant to Mongolia. That was a really good outcome. Does ADB hold press tours often? We do them in various countries depending on what the issues are at the time. In regards to climate change and dzud, what kind of a conclusion did you make? You can’t theorize about development in just an office or write about it – you have to see it on the ground to realize the difficulties in delivery and the issues involved. You can’t just sit here in the headquarters and write a news release and get a sense of what’s really happening. The difficulties people are facing are major so I’m very glad to say that ADB has very capable people to design these tours and think of every angle that is going to get delivered. What did you find interesting in Mongolia? One of the things that really struck me as a newcomer to Mongolia was the smell of coal in the air. In the daytime, I could see that the town had so many chimneys with coal generating smoke. Smelling coal in the air like that was something that I have rarely encountered. It was interesting how many people you can fit in a ger because while we were visiting families, around 15 of us fit in. People were very hospitable, giving us refreshments, talking about their stories and answering journalists’ questions. I was interested in the look of people, their costumes, and how they’ve adapted to the climate. The music side, which I was exposed to at my hotel in Ulaanbaatar, really struck me. A man was making music with his nose and throat. Did you get to see Ulaanbaatar? Yes, after arriving at my hotel in Ulaanbaatar, I went around to explore a bit. I couldn’t take pictures because it was absolutely freezing although I had worn a really warm hat, body underlay, thermal layer, jacket, ski gloves and snow boots. I felt like an astronaut because I could hardly move but was well insulated. How would you define Mongolia in a very short sentence? Like a tweet? Wild and majestic, landscapes, very harsh conditions but totally mind-blowing in scale and grandeur. Would you recommend people to visit Mongolia and personally get this experience? Yes, I’m advocating and raving to other people to see Mongolia if they get the chance. Not just in the summer but in the winter too. Winter is special. I suppose there’s danger for an outsider and it could seem romantic because I don’t have to live there. To understand Mongolia and the people, I think you have to see it in the winter. I’d definitely like to see and explore Mongolia during other seasons as well.