BrianUBplus

Research at last

2011-08-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

The main reason for our trip to Hovd and Uvs described in previous blog entries was research. For both my research at Brighton and the study funded by Netherlands Mongolia Environment Organisation (NEMO) and World Bank I wanted to interview herders, to find out about their experiences and expectations of tourism. We interviewed 9 herder communities and now have more than 5 hours of recorded interviews to transcribe.

At soum in Uvs there was a well equipped concrete ger, provided in 2007 by an international NGO and regional government, to help the community host tourists Unfortunately nobody had considered how to establish links with tourism businesses or whether a concrete building was appropriate in a protected area and the community had received no tourists. As we left the community leader said "I have one request. Please can you help us establish links with tour operators and receive tourists"

It was such ill conceived interventions by donors which achieve little and raise expectations that inspired me to do a research degree.

Ulangom Uvs

2011-08-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

Ulangom is the capital of Uvs aimag. I was amazed to find a modern city, with good pavements, flowers in the town square, street lights and busy streets. All aimag capitals will become like this during the next years. The wealth is based on mining, trading with Russia and maybe good management. We also attended the aimag naadam, a bigger event this year to mark the 80th anniversary of the aimag.

Altai Sayan

2011-07-31T02:55:00.000-07:00

The Altai Sayan mountains extend across the borders of Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia and are identified by wwf as one of great wilderness in world. The UNDP have for seven years been working with herder communities to promote conservation and improve herder livelihoods. We travelled high into the summer pastures at 3000 metres to interview herders who were working with tourists, to talk about their experiences hopes and needs.

A day at the races

2011-07-31T02:48:00.000-07:00

Every town (aimag) and village (soum) holds a local Naadam in July or August. Most soum in Hovd aimag is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year and I was invited to attend by one of the communities I had worked with in the autumn, so Oyungerel and I timed our research visit to coincide. Because it was an anniversary the prize money was high, as much as a motorbike or car for the winner of wrestling or horse-race and many former residents returned, so the usually quiet village was transformed.

There are many cultural beliefs associated with Naadam, there is a crazy dash at the end of the race for yearlings as Mongolians try to touch the winning horse, the belief is they will gain strength and speed from the sweat, Munkdologor emerged from the melee with half a dozen hairs from the horse’s tail which she distributed to my party who carefully put the hair in a safe place. It is beneficial to have your picture taken with a strong horse, maybe I will gain strength for the gobi marathon in September.

Summer in the city.

2011-07-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

Life moves outside in the summer, even in Ulaanbaatar and there are bars on pavements and outside buildings. I have spent the last month in UB, tomorrow I head out to west Mongolia, - Hovd and Uvs. Meanwhile some pictures of city life.

In June Mongolia won their first ever game in the World Cup, beating Myanmar 1 - 0; unfortunately they lost the return leg 2 - 0.

The week after the football there was a folk festival in UB when musicians from all over Mongolia travelled to perform in UB. It was absolutely brilliant, there are video clips herehttp://www.facebook.com/brianrwat

Then last week was Naadam, the mongolian National holiday, for the first time I went to the opening ceremony.

and on the third day of Naadam it was national costume day.

I managed one notable trip to the countryside to see three siberian cranes, for pictures go to http://birdsmongolia.blogspot.com/

Uglugch Wall

2011-06-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

```````````Uglugch Wall, or Almsgivers Wall as translated, was one of those places which caught me by surprise and delighted me. My first impression from across the marshy valley was of a small wall and earth embankment, not dissimilar to the iron age walls in Britain. The next day I crossed the marsh and started following the wall up the increasingly steep hillside. As I climbed the wall was less damaged and more than 4 metres tall. The hill got steeper and walking hard work. Why had someone gone to all the effort maybe 1300 years ago to build this wall? Then, at the top I realised why, - there were commanding views over three valleys, this must have been a strategically important location.

But who built the wall and why? The guidebooks and Google are not very helpful and suggest an 8th or 9th century origin. Today there are just a few nomadic families living in the area, - when the wall was built there must have been hundreds or thousands of people living here. Just walking alongside the wall was hard work for me, never mind building a stone wall nearly 5 metres tall.

I was staying at a tourist camp owned by my friend Gala – Ugluch Wall Eco Lodge- located on a wooded hill side in north east Mongolia, - Gala has built the lodges himself from local timber and wants to develop it as an eco friendly destination. The camp is located at the top of a col on the edge of the forest steppe.

It was not the best of times for me to visit as Gala was busy preparing for the tourist season but I was happy to walk in the woods and valleys, birding, sitting in the shade and reading a book and relaxing. Even in early June birds were still migrating north and birds present one day had moved on the next. I enjoyed watching birds slowly, not a frenetic dash to see the next species.

The forest steppe is changing. Herders are abandoning the small mountain valleys but remaining in steppe valleys where the pasture is better, so the flowers are blooming and shrubs growing in valleys.

However the large herbivores mousse and red deer are hunted and numbers declined so vegetation grows unchecked. The other dramatic feature of the forests are fires. Fires are natural part of taiga ecology but their frequency has increased over years, either because of human influence or global warming.

On the steppe the landscape is changing as well, Gala described how a marsh area with at least two pairs of white naped cranes was a large lake in his childhood. Throughout Mongolia rivers and lakes are drying up, again global warming but probably not helped by water extraction for mining.

I travelled back to UB in a local mini bus, the 200 kilometre journey took 12 hours as we stopped at meat market to unload animal skins and a large bull’s head which had been traveling with us. It was a contrast to my usual travel in a development worker's land cruiser with English speaking colleagues; in UB life can be in a sheltered bubble with good restaurants and talk of investment and mining a country changing rapidly, and this contrasts with life in a ger in countryside..

Go east

2011-05-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

Choibalsan the capital of Dornod aimag looks like a Russian city with apartment blocks, murals and monuments.

However recent statues reflect a Mongolian identity. According to a Buriat legend birds were involved in creation and this statue shows woman emerging from a swan. Buriat are a distinct ethnic group in Russia and northern Mongolia.

Borte was Chinggis Khan's wife and born in Dornod aimag, fed up with her sons quarreling she gave each of them an arrow and asked them to break it with their hands which they did easily, she then took five arrows together and asked them to break them, but they could not. If you are united you are strong, separate you are weak.

I was in Choibalsan for a tourism conference organised by regional government. The aimag government is committed to developing cross-border tourism with Russian and Chinese neighbours and the Ministry is supporting this with proposals to build two tourism complexes. At first glance this makes sense, Dornod is far from UB and other international tourists. However development of cross-border tourism requires a change in policy from the Border Agency which does not wish to increase the number of border crossings. Everywhere in Dornod there was evidence of Chinese investment: Chinese mining companies drilling for oil, a Chinese funded irrigation scheme ploughing large areas of virgin lands for wheat, a Mongolian/Chinese tourist camp.

After the conference I traveled to the eastern border with Batbold, Head of protected areas, Gansorlig Tourism Official. and Baljimaa my interpreter. This trip was entirely arranged and funded by the aimag government so we did not have the regulations of international organisations like Mercy Corps. We had our first vodka at 8 am less than 10 minutes after leaving town, every meeting was accompanied by vodka, and at every departure there was more vodka on the edge of town. I stayed sober, politely sipping the drink rather than emptying the glass as encouraged by Batbold. Not surprsingly Batbold and Gansorlig ended the day pretty drunk but they were generally good company.

Dornod has the largest area of natural grassland in the world with an estimated two million gazelle and is described by conservationists as one of the last great wildernesses in the world, the locals seem surprised by this description.Gazelles are fine but tourism potential is limited, a bit like watching cows graze, and the landscape is very flat, fine if you like grass.

At Ikh Burkhant there is a large Buddha monument lying on the hillside, it was built by a local Khan in 1864v so that local Mongolians would not have to make a pilgrimage to Tibet.

Khalkgol was the site for Mongolian Russian defeat of Japanese army in 1939. The Mongolians take great pride in this victory, they were the only Asian country to defeat the Japanese. There are numerous monuments in the countryside and a museum in Khalkgol soum.

In communist times Khalgol soum was an important border town with flights from Russia however much of the Russian investment stopped in 1990 and now parts of the town are derelict. It reminded me of some of the small towns in Kazakhstan.

We then travelled east to Nomrog protected area, this was an uninhabited landscape of grassy plateaus, rolling hill sides and marshy valleys. There are no herders here but we stayed at Military border police.

Even in this remote area there was evidence of Chinese investment.

I had little time for birding but managed a few pictures of local wildlife. An account of birds on my recent trip to Gobi is on birds mongolia website. I was also pleased to see Asian Greenfinch which was a new species for me.

South Gobi Picnics

2011-04-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

I have been working with government officials and tourism businesses in South Gobi during the last two months, helping develop a plan for tourism development. The economy of the region is changing rapidly as some of the largest gold, copper and coal mines in the world are being developed here. National and regional governments still see tourism as a priority providing alternative employment to mining and hence a more balanced economy. However tourism businesses are losing all their best cooks, guides and drivers to the mining companies. My job is to help them decide what to do.

In early April I spent 8 days exploring some of the less visited parts of the aimag with staff from local government,- Badarch (Director Nature Environment and Tourism) Buurma (tourism Officer), Bagi (Driver) and Oyungerel my counterpart. One of the joys of traveling in Mongolia is the Mongolian enthusiasm for picnics.

We visited some amazing places, -

Demchigiin Khiid Monastery was one of several established in Gobi by Danzan Raja in nineteenth century and destroyed by communists in the twentieth century and now being established as a place of pilgrimage. Mongolians describe it as World Energy Centre but I have not been able to find where this designation originates or what it means. Still a wild and beautiful place.

We visited spectacular and rarely visited landscapes at Moon valley Saran Khundii and Khermen Tsav canyon as well as the popular sand dunes at Khongoryn Els.

The Gobi of course is the place for camels. This one was born as we arrived at the ger.

However the most dramatic site was the road from the coal mine at Tavan Tolgoi to the Chinese border, a continuous stream of trucks, night and day carrying coal, and a river of dust across the landscape.

Traveling in Zavhan

2011-01-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

Five of us, - my colleague Oyungerel, the aimag tourism officer, representative from Greengold a pasture management project funded by Swiss Development Company and our driver- spent two days visiting herder projects in the aimag. Traveling in the winter in Mongolia is amazing. From Uliatsu, the capital of Zavhan, we drove to Erdenekhairkhan where we stayed the night, we then drove onto some amazing sand dunes covered in snow before heading to Doruljin and then back to Uliatsu. Zavhan is not on the main tourism trail and traditional customs survive uncorrupted by exposure to international travelers. When hungry or thirsty we drove upto a ger, asked that the dogs were safe, and were invited in for tea, and fed buzz or meat, all for no payment. Should we encourage tourism in these places?

Relaxing in the hotel in Erdenekhairkhan

Steaming Buuz

Monastery at Erdenekhairkhan

These icons are made from animal fat

Monastery at Erdenekhairkhan

Relaxing at minus 20C

Erdenekhairkhan

Collecting water, usually water is collected in trolleys, a friend suggested that this reflects the strong Chinese influence in Zavhan, there was a large Chinese settlement at Uliastu in Manchu times.

At Doruuljin soum a mining company surveying gold deposits has provided this bank of solar panels which provides electricity to the population for five hours a day from 7pm to midnight. Two sons of our hosts were working for the mining company which employs about 60 local peoiple. They hopw that the mine will be developed as there are few opportunities in the soum.

A rangeland management meeting in Doriljin

It was minus 41C at night but the ger was warm

Community tree planting

2011-01-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

J and his wife from Community group were pleased to show us the meadows outside Uliatsu where they had harvested wagons of hay and planted trees. As the sun set we drank vodka, 2 black vultures drifted overhead, a goldeneye and a dipper ( a Mongolian tick) flew along the stream kept open by water from hot springs. The conversation turned to lack of support from regional government and undue influence of powerful landowners.

A bad day for wolves

2011-01-21T01:36:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a bad day for wolves: as we drove into Uliastai we passed one strapped to the front of a land cruiser, then later when I was walking in town a jeep drove by with one strapped to the bonnet. Mongolians have always hunted wolves, and for the herders of the 30 million livestock the wolf is a respected adversary in the struggle for a livelihood. Now the balance has been changed by land cruisers, spotlights, powerful rifles and an urban elite. Wolves are still widespread and not protected, not even in protected areas and the hunting pressure is immense. A World Bank funded study in 2006 estimated 20-30000 wolves were killed in 2004 out of a total population of between 50 and 100 000. I showed these pictures in the workshop the next day and we discussed wolves . “Hunting was necessary but if there were no wolves there would be no animals. They were surprised that they were almost extinct in western Europe and farmers paid not to shoot them”. Later I asked my colleague Oyungerel about the use of wolves in traditional medicine, - the stomachs are used to cure stomach problems, and ankle bones are worn by guys to increase their strength and luck.Apparently it is especially lucky to kill or even see a wolf in January. So Saturday was probably not an exceptionally bad day for wolves.

New Year

2011-01-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

The New Year in Mongolia is a time for parties. Christmas is not celebrated. The trees which have appeared in main squares are for the new year.

Office parties are more formal than in england and usually include singing and musicians, lots of good food, presentations and presents to staff and dancing.

Moust soum

2010-10-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

We travelled to Moust to visit herder community groups who had started to receive tourists and wanted advice. Moust is in the Altai Sayan, a great undeveloped mountain region straddling borders of Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and China, recognised by WWF as one of great unspoilt eco regions of asia, and currently supported by a UNDP project. This is home to snow leopards, argali sheep and wild goats, a bleak semi desert mountain range with permanent snow fields on summits, a stunning place. We visited herders, talked about tourists, played games, drank tea, and took photos of each other whilst lammergeirs and black vultures glided overhead. I want to go back in the summer.

2010-10-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Moust soum in Hovd aimag is one of the more isolated locations in Mongolia, a 6 hour drive from Hovd city, which in turn is 1100 kilometres or 3 hr flight from UB. We arrived in the soum in the evening, and Cameron and i wanted some exercise after 7 hours bouncing about in a Russian jeep so we scrambled up the local hill.

For some reason it is a common practice to place concrete statues of argali on the hilltops, maybe to fool lazy tourists.

Looking down on the other side we saw a small monastery, so we scrambled down, past flurries of snowfinches.

The monastery seemed deserted and the kennel was empty so we went in the compound.

As I was spinning the prayer wheels a giant dog appeared from nowhere a couple of feet from me barking and growling, fortunately the gods had appreciated my spinning and the lama appeared from the ger, restrained the dog and said welcome, sorry about that in perfect English, albeit with an American accent. Sansarbatr had previously been assistant to the head llama at main monastery in UB, had spent a year in London, and retreated to this monastery for a life of meditation and ritual. In the summer he moves his ger into the hills. He seemed content.

The monastery had been built a few years ago by local who had become a government minister and was beautifully built timber. We returned the next day with our colleagues and he showed us the copies of rare Tibetan Buddhist texts

and gave us two blessings, - one for purification, the other for longevity and prosperity

When Baljinnyam met and Dashnyam

2010-10-12T00:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday was an auspicious day in the Tibetan/Mongolian Buddhist calendar, its is the day when gods Baljinnyam and Dashnyam meet, - for an explanation of the Buddhist mythology look here , - and many couples decide to get married on such auspicious dates. I was invited to two wedding dinners, both were joyful occasions.The food was delicious, and there were singers and musicians. Look out for the Mongolian musicians on the new BBC series Human Planet /Music Planet, they played at Jan's wedding and were great and will be performing in London in November.

I have settled back in Ulaanbaatar. My flat is in a great location in the centre of town and in the same block as my favourite vegetarian restaurant. Which is fine, except when it was closed 'cos Richard Gere was expected.

There is a small park in the front and when i arrived bleary eyed and jet lagged I was surprised to see flowers in bloom, closer inspection they were plastic

In communist times it was one of the most prestigious buildings, located next to government building, now it is dwarfed by skyscrapers and the prestige locations are in modern blocks, or out of town on the edge of the forest.

After 10 months away I have noted a few changes. The increasing money from mining development is apparent. The Louis Vuitton shop has been joined by Armani, and I even saw a Lamborghini in the street, Mongolia must be one of most unsuitable countrries for such a low slung car. The increased affluence also shows in many hundreds of trees which have been planted around town during the last year.

However the affluence also highlights the inequalities. A friend who works as a social worker in the countryside outside Ulaanbaatar is trying to raise money for a kindergaarten where there is no furniture or toys for the children.

My work is going well, I am based with a Mongolian NGO, the Sustainable Tourism Development Centre. At present I am working on two projects, a continuation of my work with Mercy Corps supporting rural communities develop tourism, and a Dutch funded programme helping Mongolian tour companies develop European markets.

I am also finding time to do research for my PhD.

So far I have had little opportunity to do any birding, but hopefully that will change as I have trips scheduled to the countryside later this month.

Where eagles fly

2009-10-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

Bayan-Olgi is the westernmost aimag in Mongolia and 70% of the population is Kazak. Kazak culture and traditions survived here better than in Kazakhstan. An eagle festival is held each October to celebrate Kazak culture and the tradition of hunting with eagles.

Go West

2009-10-10T01:15:00.000-07:00

I travelled to Hovd, 1200km west of UB, a 3 hour flight, and 1 hour time difference, for a 3 day workshop and meetings.Hovd is one of the oldest towns in Mongolia, built as a fortress by Manchurians when this region was part of China. The old fortress walls remain as ruins, and the statues in the city square celebrate Mongolians involved in defeating the Chinese.

Flying out from UB i soon fell asleep and woke up to look down on small sand dunes and a landscape of stony deserts and mountains with the city built beside a green river valley.

The work went well, tho with less experience of tourism than other aimags we had to change the workshop as we went along. The representatives of local communities wanted to be told what to do rather than develop their own ideas.

After 3 days work I travelled onto Bayan Olgi, more of that in a fture blog, before driving back to Hovd for our return flight. Unfortunately on the final night in Hovd I woke with a fever and have spent the last 5 days in bed.. Four weeks ago I felt I would live for ever after enjoying the Gobi half marathon, now I can barely walk a kilometre.

For more information on Hovd visit Gohovd website.

Keep on Running

2009-09-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

Twelve of us travelled to the southern Gobi for the Gobi Marathon, four of us were entering the Half Marathon. It is a stunning journey across the changing desert landscapes, Dalanzadgad is 550 kilometres south of Ulaannaatar. We camped out the first night, cooking to a canopy of brilliant milky way and shooting stars.

On the saturday we travelled onto Dalanzadgad, our visit coincided with the annual market day and Gobi Festival organised by Mercy Corps.

The race was great: 5 entered the full marathon, 15 the half. Some had travelled from Germany, France and Macau just to enter the race; others were westerners living in Ulaanbaatar and there was one mongolian entrant, a tour guide with one of tour companies. The course was across desert tracks, mainly stones on a sandy base, then at 10 kilometres there was a 2.5 km climb up a sand dune, and at 19 kilometres a 1.5 kilometres ascent to the top of the Flamimg Cliffs, where the first dinosaur eggs were discovered in the 1920. The red sandstone cliffs the backdrop to an amazing finishing line.

team vso

Team VSO managed a respectable 3rd, 4th and 5th place.

Chinggis was here

2009-09-09T00:13:00.000-07:00

Dadal in the north of Hentii aimag, close to the Russian border, is the birth place of Chinggis Khan. Tourism is developing and I travelled there at the invitation of the aimag governor. Our trip started with a drive along one of the best roads in Mongolia to Ondorkhaan, the aimag capital. I interviewed the heads of policy and environment and tourism, met the governor.

Aimag capitals typically have a population of 30,000 to 50,000, a central square and park, municipal buildings, old communist era apartment blocks, new apartments, much waste ground and large ger district on the edge of town. The condition of aimag government buildings reflects the affluence of the aimag, and the monuments reflect local issue. In eastern Mongolia war memorials are to the war against Japan in the 1930s and of course in Hentii there are monuments to Chinggis

Dadal is 200 km north of Ondorkhaan and we travelled in a two car convey, the governor’s land cruiser leading, the Mercy Corps vehicle following. At the entrance to Berh soum we were greeted by the newly elected soum governor, smartly dressed in a new suit. Our car pulled alongside his and we were offered traditional greeting of cream and then vodka, after the toast the two governers walked away to discuss some business matters. A family group of demoiselle cranes fed 100 metres away.

Our next stop was for breakfast, meat cut from the bone, gherkins, potato and carrot washed down with beer. Lunch was at soum were we were joined by soum government officials.

We reached Dadal at the end of the afternoon, having stopped at the bridge over the Onon river. The Onon river is one of the headwaters to the Amur river, the twelth longest river in the world which eventually flows into the sea in China. The Onon is one of the least developed rivers with no settlements few bridges, a natural wild river.

At Dadal we were greeted by various officials and taken around the sites: a spring from which Chinggis drank; a hill overlooking his birth place, a couple of ger camps and the still being built protected area office. Many Mongolians belief they will gain strength from places associated with strong people, and from holy places especially mountains and ancient trees. Such places are decorated with stone cairns and blue flags. The first Mongolian gold medal winner at the 2008 Olympics had visited here before travelling to Bejing .

We spent the night at ger camp in a stunningly beautiful location on a terrace overlooking the Onon river. It was opened this year, owned by a director of one of the mobile phone companies and visitors mainly came for hunting and fishing. Yet this beautiful camp raised some questions about the future of tourism here in Dadal and in Mongolia. The Onon river is recognised as globally one of most natural river systems in the world, the wwf project has signed an agreement with soum officials not to build close to the river, yet here was a camp close to the shore with petrol outboard motors and hunting. Who should determine the future of tourism development here? Obviously it should be Mongolians, but can the benefits be shared equably so that local communities gain? Should the rich, whether Mongolians or rich tourists effectively develop exclusive use? How much influence should international conservation have in the development of one of great wildernesses in the world? Are the local institutions robust enough to manage all these demands?

The excellent evening meal was accompanied with shimin arkhii, a clear vodka distilled from fermented horse milk, one of the most disgusting drinks I have ever tasted. Then deputy governor a young guy probably about 30 agreed to sing. He stood up with a glass of vodka in his hand, his voice filled the room, powerful and tuneful , the songs were about Khentii aimag and the Buriat and Mongolian people working together.

Then a night of vivid dreams and as I drifted back to sleep I heard the rain on the roof, it was still raining in the morning and I did not climb the hill before leaving as I had hoped. Leaving Dadal we were escorted by the Head of the Border Army, we were just 50 km from the Russian border. At the edge of the town we stopped, army chief got folding chairs out and we sat down and toasted with vodka.

The journey back to Ondorkhan was uneventful but the trip had been amongst the most memorable. The northern landscape was stunning and travelling with the aimag governor gave an insight into local government. Unfortunately the journey was based on a misunderstanding by the governor, he is very keen for Mercy Corps to work in Hentii aimag and he thought I had influence.

28 years

2009-08-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

I have just come back from a morning birding with Peter Roberts at the UB lakes. He was in UB leading a tour group and had a free day. We realised we had last met in 1981, I could remember the date as I recall Sue was pregnant with Becky. Anyway we had a great time and agreed to keep in touch, exchanged e mails etc. As I left I said "Lets make sure its not another 28 years til we meet. " Pete replied "Yes, we may well not have another 28 years"

The road less travelled

2009-08-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of August I travelled east to Dornod and Hentii aimags with Tom and Amaraa. We were on a birding trip to look at lakes and river valleys; I will write an account of the birds on Birds Mongolia website.

My camera stopped working in June, so sorry I have no pictures.

Eastern Mongolia especially Dornod aimag is very different to the rest of Mongolia. The Eastern Steppe of Mongolia is the world’s largest intact temperate grassland ecosystem. At about 250,000 sq km, this vast wilderness is home to one of the world’s last great spectacles of migrating Mongolian gazelle, which may number over one million. Numerous other mammals live on the steppe, and there are many rare or critically threatened birds that nest or use the steppe for migratory stopover sites. Our focus was the lakes and river valleys which during autumn are important stops for migrant shore birds and waterfowl on their way from arctic breeding sites to wintering grounds in couth east Asia . We also hoped to see cranes, six species, that’s half of the worlds total can be seen in eastern Mongolia; we were only to see three.

For me the opportunity to travel in such a remote region was as important as any particular birds we did or did not see; camping by lakes, in the steppe and by forests, hearing wolves howling and setting off the herder’s dogs into a barking frenzy, listening to cranes and swans calling as a I lay in my tent.

Two things struck me about Darkhan, the length of grass and the low density of people. Both are related. Overgrazing is generally identified as one of the major ecological problems in Mongolia.; the number of livestock has increased from 20 million in 1990 to over 50 million. Everywhere else in Mongolia I have been I have wondered at how the animals can survive on such poor pasture. Here the grass was tall, the sward denser, a consequence of both fewer people and heavy rainfall. This summer has been exceptionally wet throughout Mongolia

Amaraa our guide and companion is just completing his masters thesis on bird deaths by power lines, a new desgn is killing large numbers of eagles on his last survey he found. Amraa is a Buriat, a distinctive ethnic group in north of Mongolia and Russia, their language is similar to Mongolian but distinct, and they live in wooden huts not gers, do not milk horses traditionally wore dels like other Mongolians but with a different fastening. Buriat make up maybe 10% of Mongolian population. Wherever we went Amraa met people he knew

I was also glad to visit VSO volunteer Raj, he and I are the only two remaining of the group of 12 who came out in February 2008. He is based in Choibalsan where he is working as a management consultant with the local health authority. . Friendships here seem short tem, westerners and volunteers are on contract a few months a year or two, so just as you get know someone they move on, to be replaced by someone else.

Family Holiday

2009-07-09T00:49:00.001-07:00

Ben and Becky came to Mongolia and June and we travelled to Hustai where we stayed with a herder family, Tsenkher soum where we enjoyed the hot spa, Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur and Mongol Els. Ben commented: "My time in mongolia was unforgettable, the people were warm and friendly and proudly welcomed us into their nomadic lifestyle and impressive country. Travelling over mountains, valleys and vast open steppes the truly unique landscapes were ever changing under the bright blue sky. The only drawbacks were the unforgiving roads and unpalatable cuisine of Buuz!". Here are some pictures

Mongolian Waltz

2009-07-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

Everybody in Mongolia can waltz. At sometime during any work party/ disco a waltz is played and my colleagues spin gracefully around the dance floor. Last week at our semi annual meeting Amaraa kindly offered to teach me, but I gave up when my other colleague Gana burst out laughing at my efforts. He explained that during socialist times everyone had to learn 10 dances.

The annual meeting was a great mix of work and fun, Mongolians love playing games and do not take themselves seriously. Here are some pictures from the meeting.

Going home

At work

At play

The winners

The sack race

My presentation

The camp viewed from surrounding hills

It was foggy and wet when we arrived

Mongolian Waltz

A great day out

2009-05-18T02:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday (23 May) Ishee, Konchog, Tom and I had a great day out in search of the beautiful white naped crane. Konchog provides an eloquent account of our trip on his entertaining blog Dreaming of Danzan Ravjaa . and Tom has written on Birding Mongolia website with species list and pics.

Here are a couple of pics of the gang in action and the great landscape - the cranes are the white dots behind the horses.

Mongolian birding at its best.

Back on track

2009-05-18T01:49:00.000-07:00

After my unsuccessful trip to Dorngobi, trips to Umnogobi and Arkhangai have got my work back on track. The aim of each trip was the same: to work with regional government and tourism businesses to improve tourism quality and marketing.

The similarities and differences between local government in Mongolia and England are fascinating. Certaily in England two day workshops do not end with gifts of fermented camel's milk from the participants and a picnic of boiled sheeps head as a delicacy to be washed down with vodka in the countryside with lammergeiers flying overhead.

The similarities are just as obvious. The imposing aimag centres are reminiscent of the Victorian town halls of northeren england, and a similar statement of civic pride. Like in England there seens considerable vataiation in the competency of different regional governments. The staff in Umnogobi were committed to improvement, eager to learn and making progress. In Arkhangai local politics seemed more important with tensions between government and entrepreneurs and suggestions of corruption.

Just when my work seemed to be going so well

2009-04-24T02:08:00.001-07:00

Just when my work seemed to be going so well one of my projects has collapsed. On Monday we travelled by train for 8 hours, arrived in sainshand in the evening, checked into the hotel and celebrated my birthday with a meal and a bottle of vodka. On the Tuesday we visited Khamaryn Khiid monastery and in the evening met with the governor to discuss the project. This should have been a routine meeting, we had met in January, sent draft proposal, agreed cost share and received itinerary including 2 or 3 days looking at cross border tourism with China. So i was shocked when the governer said this was the first he had heard of the project, he was not prepared to fund it. Shocked I agreed to meet the governer again the next day. Phone call, copies of e mails confirmed that the aimag government had known of the project and agreed the scope, tho there were claims that certain e mails had not been received. The main reason seems to be the governer did not wish to work with our Mongolian consultant Gantemur, claiming Gana had a conflict of interest. The governer omitted to mention that apparently his wife has a tourism business working with chinese tourists. So I returned to UB 3 days early, my Chinese visa unused, disappointed and a bit wiser about realities of working here.

But I was pleased to have the chance to visit Khamarin Khiid again

Dinosaur bones in Gobi

Spring in Mongolia

2009-04-24T02:05:00.000-07:00

Spring in Mongolia is notorious for changes of weather. On Saturday 18 April, after a week of glorious sunshine Tom and I set out for a night out camping in Khan Khenti Protected Area in search of the elusive black billed caipercaillie. Our plans were thwarted when we woke on Sunday morning to a blizzard and two inches of snow.

A new flat

2009-03-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

My flat is in the green building

Views from the window

I moved into a new flat at the weekend, my former landlord's son had returned from Korea and wanted the flat. I am pleased with my new home, tho not as smart as my former penthouse, it is closer, a 5 minute walk, to the centre of town, quieter as it is not right above the largest road junction in UB, and better laid out. The furnishing is spartan but i like the space. The fridge does not work but at present I can use the balcony as freezer, unfortunately the milk was solid after being left out overnight. There is even a TV and I spent an hour this morning watching BBC World News for the first time for a year.

I

Back to UB

2009-03-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

I returned to UB on 21 Feb after a 4 week break enjoying the tropical beaches of lamma island hong kong. UB was still cold. I was also just in time for my third new year celebrations, the Mongolian New Year, tsaagan sar is linked to lunar cycles and this year was at the end of febuary. Celebrations are largely family based and involve eating large amounts of buzz, mutton dumplings. One of the customs is to decorate significant hills and trees, a link to shamanistic religions.

Returning to UB I was struck by the pollution, a dirty haze and an ever present acrid taste of dirty coal. Just before I left for HK I was interviewed for a magazine about tourism potential of Ulaanbaatar. A difficult interview, as although I really enjoy living here it is an ugly city, with heavy pollution, poor infrastructure and transport and the few historic buildings do not bear comparison with similar sites elsewhere in the world. I did not wish to offend my Mongolian colleagues by criticisng their city but at the same time I did not wish to give unrealistic expectations about international tourism. I do think Mongolia is a great destination, but that greatness is because it is the last surviving nomadic culture in a harsh beautiful and largely undeveloped landscape. UB is just the jumping off point, not a destination in its own right.

The cold weather gives me a chance to indulge my pleasure in wearing hats, and Mongolia must be the best place in world to be able to wear what would in the UK be a silly hat, and get away with it.

Sainshand

2009-02-09T00:15:00.000-08:00

Sainshand is the capital of Dornogobi aimag, the eastern Gobi. I made a sort visit in the middle of January. I traveled by train, with a new interpreter Uuganaa. Train journeys are comfortable, but slow, in a 4 bed compartment, but the timing was tiring, leaving at 4 pm, and arriving at 2 am with a 9 am meeting with the aimag governer.

Uuganaa is from Bayan Olgi in the west of Mongolia and has just started working with our Mongolian partner. She had worked as a tour guide during the previous summer and told me that before then she had thought she would like to marry a westerner, but having seen them as tourists she had chnaged her mind. The westerners were so helpless, like children, and could not do basic tasks. I can understand her change of mind, I am continually impressed by some of the Mongolians I work with who have made the transition from nomadic herder to multilingual entrepreneur.

Our trip to Sainshand was at the request of the governer, - to develop proposals for development of a tourism strategy and a land use plan. There were two main issues for the tourism strategy: the development of cross-border tourism with China, and the management of Khamaryn Khid monastery, one of the most famous and visited monasteries in the country.

After formal meetings we visited the monastery. At the time it seemed bizarre. The monastery is kilometres south of Sainshand, my first impression was, - Is this it? there were two restored temples,

a central stupa and an untidy collection of buildings and gers which were the homes of the monks.

After a quick visit to the monastery we were shown the other sites, an ovoo in the form of two breasts,

meditation caves, some petrified logs.

We then went to what was called the world energy centre where the Mongolians looked at a distant mountain, threw a glass of vodka into the air and said a prayer, three times. I left bemused, sure there were visitor management issues at the site, the control of cars, interpretation, the gobi landscape was magnificent but I was doubtful about its value as a tourist destination.

We returned to UB on the night train, arriving at 8 am. That night I met up with Tom and Konchog for a birding chat, Konchog told me that Altangerel who I had met had played an imprtant role in the preservation of monastery documents and texts during the communist period and the next day Konchog gave me a copy of a book The Lama of the Gobi about the life and times of Danzan raja, the nineteenth century Buddhist monk, poet, womanizer, drinker who had built this and many other monasteries. It was a great read and I realised how much I had missed, what a great story there is to be told about the site.

Snooker and pool

2009-01-17T18:42:00.000-08:00

I have got used to seeing pool snooker tables outside in the street, but this one seemed so Mongolian.

New Year

2009-01-02T19:52:00.000-08:00

The new year dawned with a spectacular sunrise as the sun climbed over the mountains and hit Ulaanbaatar's pollution.
My main resolution is to spend more time birding,-last year i managed 199 species in Mongolia without really trying, if i make an effort how many can i see in 2009? 250, 275? ......

So far on 18 January i have seen 34 species,- winter birding is hard work here,the daytime max has been -11C, so its tough for the birds, and also for the birders. I started with two walks into the mountain forest to the north of UB, a short bus ride, then a walk-2km or so and i am into the woods. Highlights were three toed and black woodpeckers and bullfinches. One of the fun thing about birding here is that several species look completely different to those of the same species in england so the nuthatches here do not have any chestnut on the flanks as they do in uk, long tailed tits seem quite happy in the extreme temperatures whereas in the UK their numbers decline dramatically after a cold winter, and then the bullfinches look totally different, or some of them do. There are at least two races, one which has red or pink on the underparts as in England, tho there is less pink, and another which has no red or pink at all but is a grey bird, this is described either as a race of the Eurasian Bullfinch or as a separate species.

The last two weekends I have joined with Konchog, Abu (a visiting german birder) and Ishee to drive further afield, last weekend to the woods above Mansheer, this weekend 100om west of UB to Hustai.

On both trips mammals have been as interesting as the birds. Hustai is the main site where the Prewalzski horse has been successfully reintroduced to Mongolia and we saw several herds of the beasts. We also saw plenty of red deer, 10% of all Mongolian red deer occur here.But the most exotic mammal for me was the siberian flying squirrel we saw happily munching away on a larch tree. I did not know there were flying squirrels in the taiga, apparently they can be found from Finland to Kamchatka. Konchog has copied a picture onto his blog www.danzanravjaa.typepad.com

So here are some pics of our multi national team, Konchog an american,Abu german, Markus Brazilian and Ishee, Mongolian.

and my quiz for the day, what is this bird?

Travelling in the Gobi

2008-12-31T20:04:00.000-08:00

A break for camel's milk and a distant herd of gazelle.

Arkhangai again

2008-12-13T19:48:00.000-08:00

I returned to Arkhangai, some 450 kilometres west of UB in early December for a conference. It was my fourth visit to the region, so I feel comfortable travelling there, surprisingly temperatures were warmer than in UB.

The conference was on tourism development in the region and was organised by Mercy Corps, the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism, and our NGO partner the Sustainable Tourism Development Centre Mongolia. The idea is to encourage tourism businesses, regional government and protected area staff to work together to both improve quality of tourism products and marketing.

Generally it went well, Gana from the STDC is an excellent communicator with a good experience of international tourism, and the regional governor was open to suggestions and ideas. As often here everybody poses for group photos. They show participants at the seminar, posing with the governer and with colleagues, and discussion group.

Monuments

2008-11-21T21:52:00.000-08:00

The tomb of Chinghis Khan has never been found but there many modern statues in Ulaanbaatar and other cities. Lenin remains outside the UB hotel, Choibalsan was Mongolia premier and with Stalin's encouragement responsible for death of thousands of Mongolians. There are animals statues in UB, an argali sheep, and horses and camels in aimag centres. The most bizarre memorial was installed this year, a monument to the Beatles, reflecting the importance of their music to the independant movement in Mongolia.

Ovorkhangai

2008-10-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

It was great to travel to the countryside again after a month in UB. The landscape has changed from the green of July to straw colour as much because of drought, it has not rained since July, as the increasingly cold nights. I travelled to Ovorkhangai to give advice to Mercy Corps clients establishing small tourism businesses. Also had a chance to visit the oldest Monastery in Mongolia Erdene Zuu whihc is Orkhon Valley Cultural herritage World Heritage Site

Birding around UB

2008-09-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

On Sunday (7th Sept) I rented a car with Tom, another English birder who is teaching in UB, and we spent the day birding around UB. We started at the south side of Boghd Khan mountain at Mansheer. The south facing larch woodlands are less heavily grazed than those around UB and I always seem to see more birds here. Even so the density of passerines is low, tho nutcrackers, black-eared kite, great spotted woodpecker easy to see. Various phylloscopus warblers with tit flocks but only managed firm identification of yellow-browed and dusky warblers.

In the afternoon we visited the gravel pits to the west of UB. Small numbers of waders and waterfowls with distant kites and other birds of prey soaring in thermals. Again low densities of passerines.

Overall a very enjoyable day with some good birds but as always the birds we did not see equally interesting. No migratory thrushes yet, and the number of waterfowl and wader species disappointing, and overall density of birds was low.

Here is the list of what we saw: (not very different to what I would expect to see in western europe)

DATE
Sun 7 September 2008 0700 to 1700
LOCATION
Woodlands around Mansheer and gravel pits west of Ulaanbaatar
OBSERVERS
BW, Tom Jenner, Samina
Podiceps nigricollis Black-necked Grebe 2
Phalacrocorax carbo Great Cormorant 4
Ardea cinerea Grey Heron 100 Roosting on gravel pit
Cygnus cygnus Whooper Swan 1
Tadorna ferruginea Ruddy Shelduck 120
Anas platyrhynchos Mallard 200
Anas crecca Common Teal 200
Anas acuta Northern Pintail 8

Aythya ferina Common Pochard 4
Aythya fuligula Tufted Duck 30
Bucephala clangula Common Goldeneye 5
Mergus merganser Goosander 12
Pernis ptilorhyncus Oriental Honey Buzzard one bird possibly this species south of Mansheer
Milvus migrans Black Kite 50 Several thermals to west of UB
Accipiter nisus Eurasian Sparrowhawk 1
Buteo hemilasius Upland Buzzard 5
Buteo buteo Common Buzzard 2
Hieraaetus pennatus Booted Eagle 3 1 Pale phase at Mansheer
Aquila nipalensis Steppe Eagle 1
Aegypius monachus Cinereous Vulture 1
Falco cherrug Saker Falcon 3
Falco tinnunculus Common Kestrel 2
Fulica atra Common Coot 4
Charadrius dubius Little Ringed Plover 1
Tringa ochropus Green Sandpiper 1
Tringa glareola Wood Sandpiper 2
Tringa nebularia Common Greenshank 1
Tringa totanus Common Redshank 1
Tringa erythropus Spotted Redshank 1
Philomachus pugnax Ruff 4
Gallinago spp Snipe 3 unidentified snipe in distance not heard to call
Numenius arquata Eurasian Curlew 5
Larus ridibundus Common Black-headed Gull 15
Larus (vigae) mongolicus Herring Gull 10
Sterna hirundo Common Tern 4
Columba rupestris Hill Pigeon 5
Streptopelia orientalis Oriental Turtle Dove 1
Upupa epops Eurasian Hoopoe 1
Dendrocopos major Great Spotted Woodpecker 4
Eremophila alpestris Horned Lark 2
Anthus richardi Richard's Pipit 1
Motacilla citreola Yellow-headed Wagtail 1
Motacilla cinerea Grey Wagtail 10
Motacilla alba White Wagtail 8
Pica pica Common Magpie F
Nucifraga caryocatactes Spotted Nutcracker 10
Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax Red-billed Chough A
Corvus dauuricus Daurian Jackdaw 150 flying to roost UB in evening
Corvus frugilegus Eurasian Rook F
Corvus corone Carrion crow F
Corvus corax Common Raven F
Phylloscopus fuscatus Dusky Warbler 2
Phylloscopus inornatus Yellow-browed Warbler 2
Ficedula parva Red-breasted Flycatcher 5
Muscicapa latirostris Asian Brown Flycatcher 2
Saxicola torquata Common Stonechat 1
Oenanthe oenanthe Northern Wheatear 5
Parus montanus Willow Tit F
Parus ater Coal Tit F
Parus major Great Tit F
Sitta europaea Eurasian Nuthatch F
Certhia familiaris Eurasian Treecreeper 1
Passer domesticus House Sparrow F
Passer montanus Eurasian Tree Sparrow F
Emberiza leucocephalos Pine Bunting 2
Emberiza pusilla Little Bunting 1

Pictures from journey in august

2008-09-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

One more year

2008-08-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

I have decided to extend my stay here until December 2009. I have had a great summer and want the opportunity to explore more, work is going well, but only now do I feel I am getting to grips with it and hope to make real progress next year, and there seem likely to be some good birding opportunities next summer.

Into the Taiga

2008-08-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

At the end of August we traveled north (to the bit of Mongolia that sticks up into Russia if you look at a map). The attraction was the taiga forest, part of the great siberian forests and one of largest undeveloped wildernesses on the planet, and a small, 300 or so, community of nomadic reindeer herders.

The journey was straightforward if long, and involved train, bus, a jeep and finally a 7 hour horse trek, - it was worth the effort. The landscape was stunning, forests, lakes, peat bogs, sedge bogs, open grassland and great river valleys. The reindeer people, the tsaaten, are one of most endangered indigenous communities . I had reservations about travelling as a tourist to visit such a community. However we arranged our travel trough a tsaaten community centre which has been established to help them gain some money from tourism so we used local guides, stayed with local community and 25% of our fees went to a community fund.

Horse-riding was fun, through forest, up rocky hillsides, across streams and most challenging bogs. The horses tended to sink in the bogs and i went over the top when my horses front legs sank, but I had a soft if damp landing.

In the taiga birds were scarce; whooper swan and white-winged scoter on the lakes, pintail snipe in bogs, hazel hen and goshawk in forests. Passerines included dusky warbler, red-throated flycatcher, little bunting, olive backed pipit.

Jalman Meadows

2008-08-04T23:09:00.001-07:00

Mary Anne and I spent 3 nights at a ger camp 3 hours drive from Ulaanbaatar in Khan Henti protected Area, a large reserve of forest and steppe extending north to the Russian border. The camp makes great effort to minimise environmental impact whilst providing quality service, so there are solar panels, a wind generator, a ger library with a excellent selection of books on Mongolia. We enjoyed horse riding, a trip with an ox cart taking a raft upstream and then drifting downstream in the raft, wonderful starry skies and walking in the countryside.

At work in Gobi

2008-08-04T23:06:00.001-07:00

I spent 4 days in Gobi visiting Mercy Corps tourism clients and local government staff. The aims of the trip were to look at the training needs of both the ger camp owners and government staff. The ger camps were a mixed bunch, some needed little advice, others probably should never have started the business. One of the difficulties these new businesses have is making enough profit to reinvest. Between 30& 80% of family income comes from tourism and this money is needed to support basic livelihood

Barheaded Geese

2008-07-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

The office was closed for 10 days around the Mongolian National holiday Naadam so I decided to join the World Conservation Society team studying avian influenza in wild birds in the north of Mongolia. I met up with them in Murun and we travelled to Erhel Nuur, a brackish lake just under an hours drive from Murun. Erhel Nuur was the site of two outbreaks of avian influenza, in whooper swans. After pitching camp we split into three teams and walked around the lake shore looking for dead birds. This is repeated three times a year a part of annual monitoring for avian influenza. There were only six long dead birds, but plenty of living ones. The lake is an important site for moulting waterfowl; there were 120+ whooper swans, 2000 pochard. Other waterfowl included ruddy shelduck, goldeneye, shoveller, pintail, teal, tufted duck, wigeon, gadwall. Southward wader migration was just beginning and there were curlew, wood sandpiper, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, redshank, spotted redshank, unidentified stints and avocet. The next day Martin picked out 4 falcated duck on the shoreline and we headed north to the Darkhad depression, a 10 hour drive to the north and close to the Russian border so we needed border permits. We camped overnight in a broad valley where the previous year there had been a Lammergeir. In the morning I was woken by the persistent call of Blyth’s Pipit, and Pacific Swifts screaming if front of their cliff nests.. The density of birds in Mongolian steppe is often low. Why are there so few harriers and short eared owl in Mongolia when they are abundant in seemingly similar habitat in Kazakhstan? Is it because the grassland is so over grazed and just too short?
We arrived at Darkhad the next day, pitched camp, -there were 8 students, 4 drivers, 2 cooks, 6 biologists an myself and explored the immediate area. There were flocks of bar heads on the river may be 3 or 4 hundred in total but few whooper swans, the other target species. A young white tailed eagle was still in its nest but surely ready for its first flight, common tern fished in the river and goldeneye and gadwall were on the river and pools. But there were relatively few passerines,- horned lark on the grassland, tree sparrows in the copse where earlier in the year Martin had seen lesser spotted woodpecker (I have seen more lesser spotted woodpeckers in 6 months in Mongolia than during the last 6 years birding in southern England) and heard Tengalms’ Owl.
I stayed with the team for 3 nights and we had two catches of bar heads, and left before a newly built pen was tested. In all we caught more than 70 birds. For each bird samples were taken of blood, from throat and before they were fitted with an individually marked neck collar. The collars mean the birds can be followed on their migration. Last year bar heads from Darkhad were seen in India during winter.

All quiet

2008-07-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

The state of emergency has come and gone and the burnt out buildings of the Mongolian Revolutionary Party are now on the tourist trail, and there is a regular stream of tourists taking pictures, like those attached.
It is difficult to know what will happen. On the evening of the riot I had to walk past the demonstration to get home, and tho my eyes smarted a bit from remnants of tear gas, there seemed to be more people watching than participating.
Now everyone is preparing for the national holiday Naadam.

Bad bird pics

2008-05-31T19:42:00.001-07:00

Bad pics make identification a challenge, so can you id all these species?

Visiting a Mercy Corps Client

2008-05-31T19:22:00.000-07:00

I joined Choi a colleague on a visit to a MC client who wants a loan so he can grow vegetable on upto 5 hectares of land formerly cultivated for wheat by the state cooperative farm. the client has permission to cultivate land and to use water from the well. He wants the loan to buy fencing seed and a small tractor.

Horse Riding

2008-05-31T18:09:00.000-07:00

"20 kilometres in 4 hours, surely it was only two hours. " My colleagues comment when I told him about our ride

May 28 in Arhangay

2008-05-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

After temp of 25C on Sunday it was a shock to wake up to these views on Wednesday morning.

So what am I doing here?

2008-05-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

So what am I doing here?

I am working as a tourism adviser with Mercy Corps. Mercy Corps is an international non government organisation it "exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build sevire, productive and just communities" World wide MC operates in more than 35 countries specialisng in post conflict development. It has been working in Mongolia since 2000 and it has one goal “To support rural communities to mobilise resources to meet their economic and social needs. At present Mercy Corps works on three main projects,- (for more details follow the link to the website on the blog) two of which are largely USAID funded. I am working in the Rural Agribusiness Support Program team.

A main part of development work in Mongolia is supporting the transition to a market economy from the communist economy . MC supports the establishment of small business through providing collateral on loans and business development support. Loans are usually short term and interest rates are punitively high, with MC support banks are usually willing to lend at significant discount.. Banks have not experience of operating loans, herders have not the collateral to support a loan or business experience. These projects are well managed and MC achieves 97% repayment of loans.

Mercy Corps employs approx 120 people in Mongolia of whom 4 are westerners;60 are based in the UB office, the rest in aimag offices. The work culture is very western, we work an 8 hour day, 9 to 6 with an hour for lunch and many colleagues work extra hours.

Tourism is seen a potential alternative livelihood for rural communities in general and herders in particular. At present tourism earnings amount to 10% of the country foreign earnings. After agriculture it is the second or third largest employer.

Independent travel for foreigners is difficult,- there are no road, and signposts, and few people outside uB speak English. The tourism industry is dominated by tour operators.

So if there is such a flourishing private sector why should an ngo funded largely by USAID get involved? There are several reasons: -

· although international tourist arrivals continue to grow at 10% or more a year It is difficult for herders to take advantage of the growth and diversify into tourism. They lack capital to buy gers, they do not understand expectations of tourists and have little business experience. MC can provide support for loans, and both business development training and more technical tourism training, -guiding, cultural differences etc

· There is also a concern that tourism growth will destroy itself by poorly planned development. So intervention is justified to promote responsible tourism throughout the industry from initial land use planning and environmental impact assessments to tour operators and guides.

So that’s the background, what do I actually do? Well there are three main projects:

1) Developing training. The Mongolian Universities are producing many tourism graduates and the big tour operators train their own staff but there are key training needs not met by these trainers. .At aimag level the regional administration, the aimag staff have little understanding of tourism development, land use planning and environmental assessment. Knowledge is also a barrier to herders entering tourism . So I am meeting with training providers, tour operators and organising workshops to complete training needs analysis. Then I will be arranging training of trainers, trying to develop capacity of business development service providers at regional level.

2) Second area of work is more academic, designed to influence policy and guide future interventions if any by donors. Value Chain Analysis is the fashionable paradigm for international development studies at hte moment. The methodology derives from the work of Michael Porter from Harvard Business School in 1980s and I am arranging a study looking at how value chains vary between market segments. In other words do Japanese western or domestic tourists spend their money in different ways, and linkages with the local economy, how much money filters down to herding communities.

3) The third area is developing work already started on responsible tourism certification scheme. This project started 2 years ago and stalled because of conflicts within the group and I have been trying to bring the partnership back together again. In some ways very similar to partnership working in UK except that here with less well developed institutional framework personal disagreements and conflicts are more open.

I am fortunate to be working in an efficient well run international ngo where everyone speaks English and in an industry where most people also speak English. Other volunteers are less fortunate I also enjoy the differences to western Europe and working in southern England: the main economic development problems are rural and partly at least ecological, how do you manage the rangeland to provide secure livelihood; environmental concerns, desertification, overgrazing have a real connection with life styles. (One of my most depressing recollections of working in UK was an opinion poll of residents concerns about the environment. The condition of pavements and dog fouling where considered the most serious environmental problems).

Working in a foreign country relying on an interpreter always has its challenges. I find peaks and troughs of elation and concern are greater. I am pleased to have the chance to use a far wider range of skills and competencies than I was able to use on a day to day basis in the UK.

Spring is late

2008-04-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

Spring comes late to Mongolia. I walked down by the river this afternoon 26 April to look in scrub for migrants but there were few about. Black-eared kite, Daurian Redstart, Pine Bunting and White Wagtail. On my trip to countryside on 15 April wheatears were suddenly all over steppe, well the males any way, three species, isabelline, northern and desert and Black kite were overhead but. I have seen few migrants in and around UB, a dark phase booted eagle was notable.

The drive to Tetserleg was interesting; birding from a speeding landcruiser can be like a video game, a quick identification before the bird disappears. At first the flocks of larks were challenging. Mongolian lark was easy, a big long winged bird with a large wing panel (almost like a redshank) but nevertheless a frustrating way to see a new species, with no chance to check finer plumage details , or to be sure that none were the similar but in Mongolia scarce white winged lark. Similarly I assume the large herring type gulls were in fact Mongolian Gull but from landcruiser i was unable to check critical identification features. The plumage difference of other larks less obvious, but white trailing edge to secondaries was skylark, and I soon worked out the shore larks. There were short-toed larks but could have been one or all of three species

As well as the larks the journey was great for raptors. Black Vulture probably commonest raptor but also saw 1 griffon vulture, 2 rough legged and 8 or 9 Upland Buzzard, 1 Steppe Buzzard. In Tetsereleg I was delighted to get excellent views of goshawk. First in the evening flying up a valley and then the next day a huge female appeared from nowhere to take a Daurian jackdaw from a flock about 20 metres from me, it perched on the ground killing its prey for a few seconds before flying of. In southern England goshawk is a rare bird, and inexperienced birders often try to claim a sparrowhawk as a goshawk, but it really is one of those birds that when you see a goshawk it is so different from a sparrowhawk there is no doubt. I also saw hen harrier marsh harrier and I think a pied harrier but the view was not good enough to be sure it was not an eastern marsh harrier.

There has been a change in the jackdaws over the last month. In the first half of April most were almost white bellied adult Daurian, Then in Arkhangai the dark bird predominated, and now back in UB the dark first year birds predominate and most of the pale adult birds seem to have moved on.

Escape from UB at last.

2008-04-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

At last a trip to the countryside, escape from UB. A four day trip to Arhangai, 500km to west of UB, in the centre of Mongolia . Mercy Corps have several tourism business clients and I was going to assess the businesses, look at training needs and familiarise myself with countryside tourism.

We travelled in style, a Toyota land cruiser with MC driver and interpreter, Deegi; in the land cruiser it only took 6 hours compared to the 8 or 9 in a Russian jeep or a bus. They are building the road to the Arkhangai and the west of Mongolia, and though the sub base is down only about one third of the road is surfaced. There are still few roads in Mongolia, and there is major investment to provide roads linking the major regional centres. Away from the main centres there are no roads, just tracks across the countryside.

We skirted the northern edge of the Gobi passing sand dunes and camels; everywhere the landscape is heavily overgrazed. I knew that overgrazing and desertification are important issues in Mongolia, but was still astonished at how overgrazed and dusty the landscape was; occasional dust devils whirled across the landscape, clouds of dust marked the journey of other vehicles, and overtaking was difficult, where exactly was the vehicle in the dust cloud ahead? In 1991 there were 20 million or so animals now there are more than 40 million. With the collapse of the communist government and withdrawal of Russian support many jobs disappeared and people took to grazing livestock, many without experience. Now there are lots of poor quality animals at a time when markets are demanding quality. The overgrazing has other implications, desertification is an issue as dust storms threaten Beijing, there is also a knock on effect on wildlife as grazing extends up the hillside, the forests are destroyed by grazing, wild herbivores are threatened, wolves, snow leopards and other predators start taking more livestock, so are hunted more and the grazing pressure simplifies complex habitats. In addition climate change seems to be hitting Mongolia harder than most countries with the recorded rise in average temperatures nearly double the global average.

Mongolia must be one of the few countries in the world where people do not look forward to spring It is a difficult time for herders; the landscape was littered with dead animals, great for the black vultures and ravens, but a tough time for herders. When dry summers are followed by severe winters there is often mass starvation of animals. In 2001 and 2002 more than 10 million animals died. The Mongolians have a word for such hard springs Dzuvd.

Now back in UB the weather is windy, blowing dust everywhere with rapid changes in temperature. One day it was 25, the next day it was snowing.

Living in UB

2008-03-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

Ulaanbaatar is reputedly the coldest (mean temp -2C) and one of the highest capital city in the world and will be my home for the next year. It’s a young city, first founded in 1639 as a Buddhist monastery, but not really a modern city. Skyscrapers are going up bu it is still a communist inspired city with apartment blocks, a great central square, but also a poor city, broken roads and pavements, dusty side streets and courtyards.

But it also has the dynamism of a capital city, and a reasonable cultural life ranging from to opera and ballet for £2.50, to a limited selection of films. There are innumerable restaurants, Mongolian, Chinese, Korean, American, Ukrainian where it is easy to eat well for less than £3.0.; the British embassy runs a bar in the embassy compound for a couple of hours on a Friday evening, and Dave’s bar is run by an englisman and has a quiz night on a Thursday evening. I have not ventured into the many night clubs and karaoke bars.

It is a small city, population about 1 million and it is possible to walk most places tho buses (all journeys 10p) and trolleybuses (5p) are quicker. The roads are congested, many 4 X 4s. and crossing the road is an adventure, a game of chicken waiting for cars to give way.

My flat is embarrassingly smart, by far the smartest of any of the volunteers living in UB. It is a brand new building, and I am on the top -10^th floor with great views over the city. (It is the creamy orange building in photos, other pics taken from my window)Although Mongolia is a country of clear blue skies, the air in UB is heavily polluted, from power stations and low quality coal burnt in the many gers on the edge of town.

My flat

2008-03-28T03:15:00.001-07:00

Winter Birds

2008-03-25T03:45:00.000-07:00

Ulaanbaator is a city of crows and sparrows in winter. The first bird I saw was a crow over the airport at dawn, soon to be followed by magpie and raven. The carrion crows are of the eastern race,orientalis and are noticeably larger and longer winged than British birds, some birders claim it is a separate species. I am surprised that I have not seen any hooded crows here. They were common in Kazakhstan, as winter visitors in the south and resident in the north. Ravens seem as much at home in the city as in the mountains. In comparison magpies are comparatively scarce in the city centre but seem commoner in the villages. However I was astonished that chough are common city birds here, not the western Palaearctic specialist of coastal and mountain grasslands, but a city bird, prospecting for nest sites in the communist apartment blocks and feeding on dusty urban wasteland. These birds are meant to be of race orientalis which have shorter tail and longer tarsus, I guess UB at 1400metres counts as mountainous. Equally surprising was when I looked up to look at a flock of jackdaws calling overhead I saw the white bellies and realised they were daurian jackdaws.

Both house and tree sparrows are common on the dusty parklands, great tits have been singing since mid February and occasional flocks of waxwing and red throated thrushes stop off in the few large trees in the city centre. On the edge of town, accessible on foot or by bus is the river with willow scrub and hills with larch forests.

The river is frozen, its bizarre to walk on river, but there are azure tits feeding with great tits. A quick walk to the woodland brought willow tit, a pale looking race, black woodpecker, arctic and lesser redpolls, nuthatch and siberian accentor.

I have seen peregrine, kestrel and merlin in the city, and upland buzzard just outside. A trip to Terelj saw 2 black (hooded vultures)

The weather is getting warmer now and I look forward to return migration over next three months. I have established contact with Mongolian who is interested in ringing and hope to go out with him in June (he is currently out of the country)

week3

2008-03-07T18:41:00.001-08:00

First impressions February 08

2008-02-20T00:07:00.001-08:00