With an area of 1.5 million square kilometers, Mongolia is among the largest countries on Earth, ranking 18th in size. Its vast land encompasses pristine boreal forests, mountainous ecosystems, and several types of grasslands known as steppe. Inhabited by 3.3 million people, Mongolia is also one of most sparsely populated countries in the world, which makes it a good choice for biodiversity conservation.

However, over the past three decades, Mongolia’s environment has been facing multiple threats, including mining and infrastructure development, overgrazing, fossil fuel exploitation, desertification, and climate change that manifests as unprecedented increases in air temperatures and abnormal pattern in precipitation.

Climate change is impacting forage reserves, the composition of plants, and the diversity of the rangelands. Likewise, it has led to a constant increase of natural disasters like drought and dzud, a harsh climatic situation that causes mass death of livestock either due to starvation or extreme cold.

An additional source of pollution is the day-to-day activities of people, and their approach to the environment.

For example it is common to find empty bottle of vodka in the riverbeds that turn dry in the summer. On the hills, there are altars of plastic packages and cans standing next to the real altars erected to pray to the sky god Tenger, a key figure in Mongolian shamanistic beliefs. Outside the villages, in the middle of the steppe, you can find open-air landfills. Just a few kilometers from their houses, the inhabitants of those villages amass the waste they produce during the winter and burn it. In the surroundings, it is possible to see residues of deformed plastic for many months after.

According to a local expert, the root cause of this is the lack of environmental awareness among the Mongolian people. Batsuren S. is a 37-year-old environmental engineer who graduated from one of the top Mongolian universities and completed specialised graduate studies at a famous institute in Southeast Asia, where she now works as a researcher. She asked to keep her last name and the name of her alma mater confidential. She explains:

People in Mongolia don’t realize that their actions have consequences. If they leave a bottle in a meadow, this bottle may reach a river, or be eaten by a yak and cause its death. But people are not educated to think this way. They just say: “I want to have a beer,” or some vodka, or some water. And they drink, then leave the bottle in the grass.

Mongolians are a young people — which means they aren’t fully self-aware, at a social level, and don’t have a deep understanding of how vulnerable nature is, Batsuren claims, linking the issue to a recent change in lifestyle:

People here have been almost exclusively nomads until a few decades ago. They started gathering in cities only recently, and even nowadays, approximately half of the population lives in the traditional nomadic way. In the past, nomads’ trash could be abandoned in nature without worrying too much. It consisted of carcasses of animals, furs, wood, and natural fabric used for clothing. After a few weeks, the environmental agents would consume it and let it return to what it was before without any damage for the soil.

Nowadays, the waste has changed and turned into glass, plastic, metal, gasoline, chemicals. But for people who don’t know the dangers related to them, understating the impact of dumping these products in the nature isn’t as simple.

According to Gala Davaa from the NGO The Nature Conservancy, most of the people are aware about climate change, to a certain degree. Especially the younger generations. As he explains:

A part of the new ruling class of Mongolia is extremely concerned about it. And the herder communities also understand that some change is happening. They observe nature every day, and see that it behaves differently from the past. A lot of information is circulating through the internet. However, the institutions aren’t reaching out to the public in systematic way. And while people do agree on the importance of protecting nature, they still have a limited understanding of the ways to do so.

As he explains, in 1998, the Mongolian government approved a Public Ecological Education Program, to be implemented between 1998 and 2005. But nobody put up a plan to translate it into concrete actions for long-term results, thus the positive but uneven results that were obtained initially are now fading out.

According to Gala:

Between 2019 and 2020, the government designated 32 new protected areas, for a total of 4.9 million hectares. It also committed to put under national protection 30 percent of the country’s total land. They already achieved the result of protecting 21 percent of it, which equals to almost 33 million hectares. On top of this, 31 additional million hectares are now designated as locally protected areas. All this took a lot of effort, yet, because of the absence of an organic program to spread information, many people remain uneducated, even among the scientific community. The country suffers [from] the lack of a science-based nature conservation approach, and the public tends to oversimplify matters related to the environment.

For both Batsuren and Gala, the only way the situation can improve is by changing the mentality of the people. And for this to happen, institutions and the government have to commit to a policy of improved environmental education.

As Batsuren concludes, “they [the government] need to keep launching extensive information campaigns, spread awareness more evenly and systematically, and push people to give more attention to the environment.”

March 20 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's Heath Ministry on Sunday confirmed 39 new COVID-19 local infections over the past 24 hours, the lowest daily number since March 6, 2021, raising the nationwide tally to 468,619.

Meanwhile, no new deaths were reported in the past day, leaving the country's COVID-19 death toll unchanged at 2,108, the ministry said.

Currently, Mongolia has a total of 2,468 active COVID-19 cases.

So far, 66.8 percent of the country's total population of 3.4 million have received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, 1,030,054 people have received a third dose, and 111,944 have received a fourth dose voluntarily.

Mongolians have basically returned to normal daily life due to high vaccination coverage and declining daily infections. Notably, the Asian country has resumed in-person classes for all levels of educational institutions and fully opened its borders to foreign tourists, who are no longer required to have a PCR test or to quarantine.

The Ulaanbaatar city government will introduce a parking space standard in the capital city and more pedestrian paths and parking lots will be created with the demolition of unauthorized fences, said Deputy Governor of the capital city B.Odjargal at a meeting to discuss solutions to traffic congestion. The measure is expected to reduce traffic congestion by 16 percent.

“92 percent of citizens surveyed gave a negative rating on public transport services. The sector is on decline. Therefore, efforts are underway to take comprehensive measures to solve the issue”

According to the Deputy Governor, buses in public transport service will be upgraded as the first step. 10 double decker buses will be added to the 36 such buses currently in service. We have announced a bid to buy 250 buses with funding from this year’s budget. Talks are underway with manufacturers to bring 500 electric buses to the country as well.

A joint meeting of the Government of Mongolia and UN Mongolia took place on March 17 at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with participation of representatives from government organizations, private sector and civil societies and UN Mongolia. The meeting was chaired by the ministry’s State Secretary N. Ankhbayar and UN Resident Coordinator Tapan Mishra.

The meeting discussed the progress of developing the ‘United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023-2027’ to be implemented in Mongolia. In particular, the UN Mongolia presented a comprehensive and consolidated mapping of the potential contribution, capacity, expertise and resources by each UN agency in the country to contribute to the implementation of the UNSDCF.

In the next five years, Mongolia-UN partnership will be implemented in three key priority areas: human development and well-being, green, inclusive and sustainable growth, people-centered governance, the rule of law and human rights. More than 20 specialized organizations and UN agencies including UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, UNFAO and UNESCO will collaborate to ensure the activities reflected in the Cooperation Framework.

Participants shared their views and expressed interest in working together over the next five years to be more effective, to be non-recipient partner, to ensure equal participation of parties, to continue youth engagement, to achieve tangible results, to strengthen evidence-based policy capacity as well as to streamline budget planning and allocation.

The United Nations is working to finalize a draft Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Mongolia to be implemented from 2023 to 2027 in April this year and present it to the Government.

Activist investor Pentwater Capital Management, the largest minority shareholder of Canada’s Turquoise Hill with a 10% stake, has rejected a $2.7 billion bid for the copper producer by Rio Tinto as too low.

Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto on Monday proposed to buy out the 49% minority shareholders in Turquoise Hill for about $2.7 billion in cash, paving the way for direct ownership of a massive copper-gold mining project in Mongolia.

“It is highly improbable that Rio will be successful at its current bid price and equally improbable that Turquoise Hill shares will ever fall back to the levels they traded at prior to Rio’s offer,” the investor said in a letter to Turquoise Hill’s independent directors seen by Reuters on Friday.

Turquoise Hill is a single-asset company holding 66% of Oyu Tolgoi, one of the world’s largest known copper and gold deposits, 550 km (342 miles) south of Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar. The government of Mongolia owns the remaining 34%.

The Toronto-listed miner has a market capitalization of $5.4 billion, after its share price rose by 32% since Monday, in line with the 32% premium offered by Rio Tinto in its non-binding C$34 per share offer.

Rio paid $63.70 per share for its existing 51% stake in Turquoise Hill, according to Pentwater.

“If Rio believes that its current $26.90 proposal is compelling for Turquoise Hill shareholders, Pentwater would be pleased to purchase part of Rio Tinto’s stake in Turquoise Hill for that price,” it said.

SailingStone Capital Partners, another minority shareholder at 2.4%, said on Tuesday “an additional premium to compensate minority shareholders for losing access to an asset of this quality seems eminently reasonable.”

Turquoise Hill and Rio have had long-running disagreements over funding for the $6.93 billion expansion of the mine as costs and timelines overran, but they reached a deal, which included a rights issue, in April.

Rio Tinto in January settled a long-running dispute with Mongolia over the economic benefits of the project, waiving $2.4 billion in debt owed to it by the Mongolian government.

Pentwater Capital last year filed a class action in New York against Rio Tinto for damages, alleging it concealed the project’s problems from investors for months.

(By Clara Denina; Editing by Jason Neely and Chizu Nomiyama)

It’s getting harder to deal in some of the world’s most important commodities as everything from geopolitical turmoil to exchange snafus prompt traders to rush for the exits, rapidly draining liquidity.

Prices of materials like crude, gas, wheat and metals have become alarmingly erratic as a gulf emerges between buyers and sellers who are facing big financing strains. Markets have been roiled on fears about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constraining commodities flows, though in many cases rallies were quickly followed by a drop in prices.

The London Metal Exchange’s embarrassing weeklong suspension of nickel trading is an example of a market grinding to a halt after extreme price moves. Liquidity is nonexistent as some dealers try to close positions amid a glitchy reopening of trade in the critical metal.

The volatility is particularly difficult to navigate because some moves appear to defy fundamentals, with hedge funds exiting long-term bullish bets just as supply looks the tightest in years. Merchants are finding it harder to snap up any cheap cargoes because of huge margin calls and credit line caps.

“Volatility as an asset class is enormous now, and on top of that you have some serious operational issues,” said Ilia Bouchouev, a Pentathlon Investments partner and adjunct professor at New York University. “It’s a vicious loop where volatility forces companies to reduce positions, which means what’s left in the market is forced trading. That in turn contributes to even more volatility.”

Metals mayhem

Ructions from the Ukraine war have been compounded by a historic nickel short squeeze. The LME suspended trading as prices surged 250% to a record, canceling almost $4 billion of transactions.

That caused uproar among investors who stood to profit from bullish bets prior to last week’s closure — and snags with the reopening have hardly improved the mood. Many previously bullish investors are now in a long queue of sellers enduring sharp price drops while they wait for buyers.

By late Thursday, almost $3.3 billion of nickel was on offer at the limit-down price, but there wasn’t a single bid on the LME’s order book. Just two trades took place that day in the electronic market. The illiquidity is a worry for consumers who use nickel in stainless steel and electric-vehicle batteries.

There are signs of contagion as trading in other metals also slumps. That’s bad news for manufacturers and end users as it could leave them exposed to more violent price swings.

There are signs of spillover in specialist instruments LME traders use to manage price risks. Three long-standing participants in the options market said it’s become much harder to secure quotes from dealers in recent days and that trading spreads between contracts is increasingly erratic.

In aluminum, dealers say scarce liquidity is sparking wild moves in prices between key contracts, such as the cash-to-three-month spread. For that spread, which was at about $17 on Thursday, bids and offers are now frequently hundreds of dollars apart.

Traders say the gap is due to electronic bids that were likely placed by algorithmic traders, because in practice the spread shouldn’t reach such extreme levels. But with low liquidity and many specialist traders and hedge funds stepping back, those low-ball orders are often the only ones to appear on the screen.

Crude chaos

There are clear signs traders are pulling back. Combined open interest on main crude and refined product contracts have hit the lowest since 2015. Almost 1 billion barrels of contracts were liquidated in a period that saw Brent post 16 consecutive $5-a-barrel intraday swings — its longest such run ever.

“When prices can move $10 per barrel in either direction three times a day, no one can warehouse overnight risk and market makers are disappearing,” Energy Aspects analysts including Amrita Sen said.

Clearinghouses have boosted initial margins — the collateral traders put up to finance their positions. In the case of gasoil, that meant traders had to stump up almost twice as much cash to trade the same amount.

Traders said they’re scaling back positions and not holding them for as long due to the volatility.

Gas tumult

On one day this month, benchmark European gas traded in a range of 140 euros ($155) a megawatt-hour — more than the contract costs now. With the swings spooking traders, open interest is near a two-year low.

Even before the Ukraine war, Europe’s gas and power markets were extremely turbulent due to concern about a winter supply crunch. Surging costs forced German energy giant Uniper SE to borrow $11 billion to pay down margins calls. German utility Steag GbmH and Norway’s Statkraft AS also had to boost liquidity.

Skyrocketing gas prices “require significant cash,” said Alfred Stern, who runs Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG. “So far, we were able to manage that in quite a good way, but it has been significant in the last couple of weeks here, lets say in the three-digit kind of millions that we had to inject.”

Crop trading

Chicago wheat volumes soared at the start of the war in Ukraine as prices climbed toward a record, but have this week slumped. In Kansas City wheat — the type closest to what Russia grows — open interest hit the lowest since 2015.

(By Mark Burton and Alex Longley, with assistance from Michael Hirtzer, Isis Almeida and Vanessa Dezem)

At today's regular meeting of the Cabinet, a decision was made to issue a loan of MNT 400 billion with a 3 percent interest rate for the development of the agricultural sector.

Specifically, MNT 100 billion will be disbursed for the circulation of agricultural products, MNT 50 billion to vegetable farmers, and MNT 190 to wool, leather, and cashmere factories.

The Cabinet also submitted a resolution to the State Great Khural to amend the livestock taxation in order to develop intensive livestock breeding in agricultural areas within the framework of the ‘New Revival Policy’. The draft provides for a tax of up to MNT 10,000 on each livestock in agricultural areas.

An its regular meeting on March 17, the Cabinet decided to allocate MNT 5 billion from the Government’s reserve fund for the expansion of the area along the Mongolia-China border line to increase transportation.

24,700 sq.m area will be paved to expand a container area in the Mongolian side at Zamyn Uud-Erlian border checkpoint. In this regard, lifting equipment, forklift, and truck crane are required to buy. As a result, it will become possible to increase the number of containers to be transported through the Zamyn Uud-Erlian border checkpoint by 2-3 times, and create the condition to import large-scale freights.

Cabinet meeting in brief:

-Governor of the capital city and Mayor of Ulaanbaatar D.Sumiyabazar was assigned to commence major construction works in 2022, including the introduction of public transportation service /LRT/ to be implemented in the Ulaanbaatar city and the construction of new ring roads as outlined in the ‘New Revival Policy’, and ensure preparation to implement those projects within the framework of a public-private partnership, and report it to the Cabinet within this month.

-Corresponding ministries were tasked to introduce the progress of the construction of Zuunbayan-Khangi railway every two weeks, and take measures to import materials required for the railway construction from China in a short time.

‘Artssuuri-Nariinsukhait-Shiveekhuren Railway’ and ‘Choibalsan-Khuut-Bichigt Railway’ special purpose companies will be established to implement the Artssuuri-Nariinsukhait-Shiveekhuren, Khuut-Choibalsan, and Khuut-Bichigt railway projects with the involvement of ‘Mongolian Railway' state-owned shareholding company.

At its regular meeting on March 16, the Cabinet ordered Minister of Road and Transport Development L.Khaltar to meet with and select from foreign and domestic investors interested in cooperating on the projects to be implemented under ‘design-build-operate-transfer’ concession agreements.

The special purpose companies will be granted concessions, get relevant permissions to implement the projects and carry out the construction works in collaboration with the private sector with the selection of investors to fund and cooperate on the projects.

Mongolian Railway company will transport on the railway upon the completion of the construction and when the concession agreements expire, the ownership of the basic structure of the railway will be transferred to Mongolian Railway.