Basic characteristics

Mongolia is a landlocked country located in Central Asia. It borders the Russian Federation to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south. It is the 18th largest country in the world with an area of 1 564 116 km2 (UNdata, 2021). The capital is Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia is divided into 21 aimags (provinces/counties), which are in turn divided into sums (districts) (WHO, 2012).

Despite the large size of Mongolia, the population is not very high - the population is 3,278,292 (The World Bank, 2020), which also leads to a low population density of about 2.1 inhabitants/km2 (UNdata, 2021). The official language is Mongolian. The Human Development Index (HDI) is 0.737. The literacy rate is 98.4% (HDR, 2020).

Economic situation

Mongolia is gradually becoming a modern and vibrant economy with remarkable economic growth driven mainly by the mining sector, which still has huge potential in the country in the future. The trade regime is increasingly open and the new regulatory framework is becoming more efficient, and above all, facilitating the development of an ever-growing private sector (The Heritage Foundation, 2016).

Since the adoption of a new constitution in 1992, Mongolia has transformed from a closed society dominated by the Communist Party to an open society with a dynamic and pluralistic democracy. This transition has been accompanied by the gradual introduction of free market reforms and relatively well-maintained political stability. While Mongolia has steadily improved international relations with the US, Japan and South Korea, it still manages to maintain strong ties with Russia and China. The most important economic sectors are agriculture and mining (The Heritage Foundation, 2016).

Mongolia is dependent on coal and copper ore exports, so the growth of this sector is affected by global commodity prices. The government is seeking to diversify the economy by boosting tourism and domestic consumption. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the economy experienced a significant contraction in 2020 (GDP growth was -5.2%). In 2021, the economy restarted, with GDP growth of 6.1%. GDP growth was driven by demand for minerals, mainly from China, and investment in mining development projects. The main risks to the Mongolian economy are therefore its considerable vulnerability to external shocks, particularly in relation to the development of the Chinese economy, where 87% of Mongolia's total exports go (MOFA, 2021).

The mining industry is crucial to Mongolia, with mineral extraction accounting for 24% of GDP and 67% of industrial production (Czech Embassy in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), 2015). Minerals account for about 80% of exports and mining provides about 40% of total government revenue. The manufacturing sector contributes only about 11% of GDP (UNDP, 2016). Examples of mined commodities include gold, copper, hard and lignite, uranium, silver, iron ore, molybdenum and rare earth elements.

The agricultural sector employs nearly 30% of Mongolia's economically active population and contributes about 14% of GDP. Livestock plays a key role in Mongolia's economy and is essential for employment and export earnings. Livestock production accounts for about 70% of the sector's total output and there are more than 70 million livestock such as sheep (32.3 million), goats (29.3 million), cattle (4.7 million) horses (4.2 million) and camels (0.5 million). Livestock numbers have grown rapidly in recent years. In 2018, the sector produced 475 thousand tonnes of meat and 940 million litres of milk. Both milk and meat production have seen steady growth since 2010 (Representative Office of the Czech Republic in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), 2015; FAO, 2018).

The agricultural area is 1,133,750 km2 according to FAOSTAT in 2019, which means that almost 90% of the country can be used for agriculture and mainly grazing (FAO, 2019).

Mongolian agriculture can be divided into 4 categories (FAO, 2001):

1. Extensive grazing, which is a traditional semi-nomadic grazing system in which camels, horses, cattle, sheep and goats graze together.
2. Mechanized large-scale production of cereals and fodder crops.
3. Intensive farming of potato and other vegetable products using mechanization and simple productive methods.
4. Intensive grazing with housing of dairy cows, pigs and chickens.

Social situation

There is currently a trend of population growth in Mongolia. In 2020, the average annual population growth rate was 1.8%. Along with it goes the trend of abandoning the traditional nomadic and pastoral life and moving to the cities for the possibility of a better life and the vision of getting rich, with the urban population growing at 2.1% per year in the same time span. This massive influx of people into the cities with limited accommodation capacity has resulted in the building of huge slums in the suburbs, which are made up of traditional Mongolian dwellings - yurts. In 2021, up to 68.5% of the population lived in cities, most of which is concentrated in Ulaanbaatar (UNdata, 2021). Other larger towns include Erdenet, Darchan and Choibalsan, but none of these have populations over 100,000 (Brinkhoff, 2015). The employment rate in Mongolia averaged 66.1% in 2020 (UNdata, 2021).

A brief history

Man the wise settled in Mongolia approximately 40,000 years ago. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongolian Empire, which became the largest empire in world history. Later, Mongolia came under the administration of China and did not regain its independence until 1921, when the People's Republic of Mongolia was established and came under strong Soviet influence. In 1961, Mongolia became a member of the United Nations. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a relatively peaceful democratic revolution took place in 1990, leading to a multiparty system, a new constitution in 1992 and a transition to a market economy. This transition led to a shaking of the foundations on which trade with Russia had stood for 70 years, which fell by 80% and had a severe impact on people's lives (UNDP, 2016).

Mongolia's problems

Mongolia is currently facing a number of challenges that take many forms and have a range of impacts. Among the biggest social problems is urbanization, with people abandoning their traditional nomadic life and moving to cities in search of a better and more comfortable life. Cities, especially Ulaanbaatar, have limited accommodation capacity and new buildings are growing only slowly. Large slums are springing up around the perimeter of the city, where people live in traditional yurts in squalor.

The country's infrastructure is also problematic. In Ulaanbaatar, for example, there is a glitzy little centre with representative buildings and a good transport network, but just a few streets away, the asphalt road is full of holes, buildings are dilapidated or left unfinished, and in the outskirts of the city, the road is already unpaved with huge potholes, and yurts stand in place of houses.

The climate is also causing major problems in agriculture. Climate stress, especially late and early frosts, can cause crop losses of 10 to 30% (FAO, 2001).

Access to development aid is also a problem for the local population, especially in the area of water resources, which Mongolia has a problem with and depends on due to the arid climate. A number of wells have been built in the Gobi Desert by foreign companies in the past, as well as the protection of springs. Today, many of these sites are degraded, pumps are broken, wells are filled in or contaminated, fences around springs are broken by cattle, and unique water sources are thus degraded or degraded.

Desertification appears to be the biggest problem in general, caused and encouraged by many interrelated factors that are significant enough problems in themselves. These may include climate change, permafrost thawing, illegal logging and overall deforestation or overgrazing.

The nature of the landscape

The character of the landscape of Mongolia, which is largely on a plateau, can be fairly well expressed by the nature of the ecosystems here.

Finch (1996) identifies six main ecosystems in Mongolia. These are alpine ecosystems, taiga, montane foreststeppe, steppe, desert steppe and desert. The high mountain ecosystems are characterized by extreme living conditions, are still partially covered by glaciers and occupy approximately 5% of the land area in the north of the country. The taiga covers about 5% of Mongolia in the northern part of the country, mainly in the mountainous areas, and is made up of mixed forests. Mountain forest covers about 25 % of the area of Mongolia, mainly in the central part of the country, and forms a transition between low mountains and grasslands, consisting of grassland and scattered forest. Steppe covers about 20 % of the area of Mongolia in the central and southern parts and is composed of grassland. The desert steppe covers about 20 % of the area, mainly in the south of the country, and is characterised by rocky desert with sporadic vegetation. The desert ecosystem is represented by the Gobi Desert.

References

• Brinkhoff, T., 2015. Mongolia: City population [online]. 9. Březen 2016. https://www.citypopulation.de/en/mongolia/

• FAO, 2001. Seedpolicy and programmesfortheCnetral and EasternEuropeancountries, Commonwealthof Independent States and othercountries in transtition: proceedingsoftheRegionalTechnical Meetin on SeedpolicyProgrammesfortheCentral and EasternEuropeancountries, Commonwealthof Independent States and OtherCountries in Transition, Budapest, Hungary, 6-10 March 2001. Rome: Food and AgricultureOrganizationofthe United Nations, 2001. ISBN 9251046778.

• FAO, 2018. Mongolia at a glance [online]. 20. května 2022. https://www.fao.org/mongolia/fao-in-mongolia/mongolia-at-a-glance/ru/

• FAO, 2019. FAO Country Profiles: Mongolia [online]. 20. května 2022.  https://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index/en/?iso3=MNG