Dinosaurs: Restoring Mongolia's fossil heritage www.bbc.com

Eighty million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period, Mongolia's Gobi Desert was a dinosaur's paradise of vast valleys, freshwater lakes and a humid climate.

Mammal-eating velociraptors, lizard-hipped sauropods and spike-armoured ankylosaurs could have been spotted roaming in what are now the Martian red sandstone spires of Bayanzag's Flaming Cliffs.

These prehistorically favourable conditions make the Gobi Desert the largest dinosaur fossil reservoir in the world.

Over almost 100 years of palaeontological research in the Gobi, more than 80 genera have been found. But for many people living there, this scientific heritage remains unknown.

"Putting a fence up is not protection; protection is people's knowledge," Mongolian palaeontologist Bolortsetseg Minjin explains as we wind through the Flaming Cliffs in search of signs of fossil poaching.

It was here, nearly a hundred years ago, that the world's first dinosaur egg nests were found by American scientist Roy Chapman Andrews - the whip-wielding, trilby-wearing inspiration for Indiana Jones.

This discovery was a turning point in the palaeontological history of the world - the first proof that dinosaurs laid eggs.

In the space of just two years, his expedition team unearthed over 100 dinosaurs and took them home to the American Museum of Natural History where many stand today.

And in Bayanzag, renamed the Flaming Cliffs by Chapman-Andrews, little remains to mark this history.

There are no signs, maps or museums to give visitors information about these creatures. Fossil-poaching is rife and as we explored the site, motorcycle scramblers zigzagged over its prize excavation opportunities.

Unlike in America and the UK, where a finders keepers law applies if you happen to discover a T. rex lurking in your flower beds, in Mongolia, as with Brazil and China, any fossils found are state-owned and exports are strictly forbidden.

Yet, dinosaurs from fossil-rich sites like the Flaming Cliffs are still smuggled and find their way into premier auctions.

Among the 30 stolen Mongolian fossils Bolortsetseg has worked to repatriate to date was a Tarbosaurus bataar, a rare cousin of the T. Rex. It had been bought by Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage.

And an earlier BBC investigation found that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has seized $44m worth of smuggled dinosaur fossils in the last five years.

Bolortsetseg says the solution is education and dinosaur-based tourism.

It can be achieved, she believes, by inspiring the next generation of Mongolia's palaeontologists and teaching children in the communities local to these significant sites about their scientific importance.

She has excavated in the Gobi Desert for decades, starting professionally when the American Museum of Natural History had invited her palaeontologist father for a dig and allowed her to join too - but as a cook.

"After the first morning making them breakfast, they headed out to excavate so I just thought, I'll go too," she explains. Already with a masters in palaeontology in her early twenties and a prospector's knowledge of her local area - she was immediately spotting all manner of fossils and got invited back as a palaeontologist in her own right.

And now, through communities separated by thousands of miles of desert, Bolortsetseg has been driving a 37ft bus brimming with replica fossils - the originals never before seen by most Mongolians.

"Even the kids who live right by the Flaming Cliffs often have no idea about the dinosaurs that have been found here, most can't name any dinosaurs and the bus is the first museum they've ever seen," Bolortsetseg explains.

Bolortsetseg founded the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs in 2007 and crowd-funded $46,000 for the museum's workshops across different regions.

Now the mobile museum stops off along dusty, bumpy off-roads through 11 provinces of the most remote parts of Mongolia.

"Before this, I didn't know anything about dinosaurs and now these things make me really proud," says 15-year-old Nyambayar Purevdorj, who lives next to the Tugrugiin Shiree site where the famous "fighting dinosaurs" (entwined fossils of a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops) were found.

Her classmate Badmaa Monhochir agreed: "I'd seen a little bit on TV but didn't know that they really lived millions of years ago. I thought it was just a legend or a children's story.

"In order to protect these fossils, we need to start from ourselves. People who are selling fossils have no knowledge and that's why we are learning now," she adds.

Gabriel Santos, collections manager at California's Alf Museum of Paleontology, has been working on the moveable museum and says adults also benefit from this education.

"Most, if not all, of the teachers we train had no idea that some dinosaurs had feathers, so the people who live so close to where Velociraptor was first found had no idea what it looked like."

Another palaeontologist leading the workshops, Michael Ziegler from the Florida Museum of Natural History, says the aim is to train local people to give dinosaur tours themselves. "Exposure is the biggest thing, starting from the ground up. In the bus, we interacted with every student and then coming back, they brought their parents along to teach them, too."

The prospective tourism benefits generated by dinosaur knowledge are a focus for Bulgan mayor, Munkh-Aldar Tumurbat.

"Our strategy is a nature friendly tourism development without mining activities and licences in our territory," he tells the BBC.

"Eight-year-olds to their 80-year-old grandparents in our town should know about palaeontology and when and how dinosaurs lived."

Mayor Tumurbat says that annually 90% of Mongolia's tourists visit the Gobi Desert and Bayanzag's Flaming Cliffs.

Twelve years ago, there were three tourist camps and 13 mining licences granted in Bayanzag, but Mayor Tumurbat says that he has changed this to only one mining licence, which is due to be cancelled, and now 10 tourist camps. This he hopes will boost local palaeontological tourism.

"Currently, the citizens are getting very small benefits directly to their pockets by running small cafés, stores and a gas station - we need to create opportunities for our community to benefit from tourism," he adds.

The next step for the institute is building a museum at the site and teaching local people to use drones to undo the legacy of fossil poaching.

"Then they can monitor fossils at their fossil sites so they can do the protection and document the illegal activity," Bolortsetseg explains.

"We're waiting for the western part of Mongolia to have paved roads to take the bus museum to the mountains," she adds. And with half of the country's population under 35 years old, Bolortsetseg is working to introduce palaeontology on to the national curriculum within the next three years.

"We want to reach every single child in the country and spread the message that Mongolia's scientific history is part of its heritage and should not be smuggled out of its borders," she says.

Eleventh-grader Nyambayar agrees: "We need to start from ourselves by protecting dinosaurs. Then other people will follow us.

"If we have knowledge on dinosaur fossils and share this knowledge with others, then things can change."

New Governor of central bank appointed www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Last week, Parliament dismissed Governor of the Bank of Mongolia N.Bayartsaikhan from his position. On November 22, at its plenary session, the Parliament backed to appoint B.Lkhagvasuren as a new head of the central bank of Mongolia.

New Chairman of Financial Regulatory Commission appointed www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Last week, Parliament dismissed Chairwoman of the Financial Regulatory Commission (FRC) S.Davaasuren from her position.

Mongolia included among 25 countries that have no impact of terrorism www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ According to 2019 Global Terrorism Index developed by London Institute for Economics and Peace, Mongolia is included among 25 nations that have no impact of terrorism together with countries such as North Korea, Cambodia, Cuba, Singapore and Portugal.

New warning on global economic slowdown www.bbc.com

A leading international economic organisation has warned that risks to the global outlook have increased.

Mongolia parliament seeks ‘improved contracts’ for Rio Tinto mine www.ft.com

Mongolia’s parliament has delivered its long-awaited verdict on the investment agreements that underpin Rio Tinto’s giant copper project in the country’s Gobi Desert.

The State Great Khural has passed a draft resolution asking the government to seek “comprehensive measures” to improve contracts for the Oyu Tolgoi mine, according to the Parliamentary website.

The resolution also directs Ulaanbaatar to look into swapping its 34 per cent stake in the project for either royalty payments or a production sharing agreement.

The news will be something of a relief for Rio, which feared the parliament might try to completely renegotiate the agreements.

Rio is currently working on a huge underground project at the site, which will be one of the largest copper mines in the world when it is finished.

Oyu Tolgoi also ranks as the company’s most important growth project and is closely associated with its chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques.

When Mr Jacques was running the company’s copper business he pulled together the financing package for the underground project.

“We understand that the resolution, which has not yet been officially published, will be finalised according to Mongolian Parliamentary process. Once the resolution is approved and published, we will provide a further update.” the company said in a statement.

The parliamentary working group recommended in April that Mongolia review the 2009 deal, which paved the way for construction of an open pit mine, and revoke the 2015 agreement covering the underground expansion.

Rio has said previously said that it is prepared to tweak the terms of those. Analysts think it could lower the interest rate on the money it has lent Mongolia to cover the costs of developing the mine. If copper prices hold up, they estimate that it will be at least 2030 until the loans are paid off and Mongolia receives any dividends from the mine.

The underground project at Oyu Tolgoi has run into difficulties and could now cost as much as $7.2bn to complete. Rio could also waive the management services fee it charges for running the project. Swapping its stake for royalties, however, would be a much more complex undertaking.

While Rio operates Oyu Tolgoi, it does not have a direct shareholding in the mine. The mine is 66 per cent owned by Toronto-listed Turquoise Hill Resources, in which Rio Tinto has a 50.8 per cent stake, and 34 per cent by the Mongolian government

The Oyu Tolgoi mine is a crucial part of the Mongolian economy. Not only is it the country’s biggest source of foreign direct investment, it also provides thousands of well-paid jobs. The mine, however, has become a political football with members of parliament using it to advance their own interests and agendas.

Earlier this week, an administrative court in Mongolia upheld claims by a non-governmental organisation called Darkhan Mongol that Ulaanbaatar did not follow due process when agreeing the development contracts with Rio.

Rio hit back, saying that it “strongly” refuted any suggestion that its agreements were illegal.

China-funded children's hospital opens in Mongolia www.xinhuanet.com

A China-funded children's hospital equipped with 50 beds and advanced medical equipment opened in the Khan-Uul district of Mongolia's capital of Ulan Bator on Thursday.

Researchers present artifacts proving ancient Mongolians having lived in India www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Co-organized by the Embassy of India in Mongolia, and the Indian Studies Center of Mongolia, a scientific conference took place under the theme, ‘Culture and traditions of the Indo-Mongoloids of Northern India and the Himalayas, and their ancient relations and similarities with Mongolians’ on November 20.

Intergovernmental agreement on Biocombinat renovation project amended www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On November 21, Minister of Finance Ch.Khurelbaatar and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary to Mongolia Mihály Gálosfai signed the amended agreement on General Programme of Financial Cooperation established between the governments of Mongolia and Hungary on January 25, 2016 in order to increase the budgeted cost of the Biocombinat state-owned factory renovation project.

10 Mongolian companies to export their products to the U.S. market www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At the initiatives of 'Mongolian Brand Association' NGO, the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI), Mongolian Marketing Association and the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia organized ‘Let’s Export to America’ event on November 20 in partnership with the Asian American Chamber of Commerce (AACC).