Rising Voices » Nomad Green

Nomad Green: Concerns On Ulaanbaatar

Rezwan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:52:26 +0000

The environmental citizen journalists of Nomad Green are voicing their opinions on issues surrounding the degrading environment in Mongolia. The articles are originally posted in Mongolian language and some of them are being translated in Chinese and English.

City University student Munkhtsatsral. B reports (translated by Bolorerdene) that Global warming started to affect in Mongolia since 1970 and these natural disasters occur most in Mongolia:

Wildfires: 15% of Mongolia's landscape consists of forests which are prone to wildfires. In 1998, 132 wildfires occured.

Dust storms and Blizzards: In 1996-1997 there was a blizzard that caused 600000 cattle to freeze and affected 20% of Mongolia’s land.

Drought: One-fourth of Mongolia becomes affected by drought in every 2 or 3 years.

And also there is heavy rainfall and flood.

Traditional dwellings in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, are responsible for 60% of the city's air pollution during the long winter months. Image by Andrew Cullen. Copyright Demotix.

Bulgantsetseg.N. argues that the Mongolian dwelling Ger (Yurt) is a traditional habitat which is strongly related to the Mongolian cultural features, living condition, weather condition and other reasons. Although it is the main cause of pollution in the capital Ulaanbaatar, they can be used in countryside.

Mongol ger is not just a habitat that poor people live in. it looks like a simple consumption in our everyday life, but it is not as simple as it is seen. This is real historical evidence that shows Mongolian traditional culture in early days. That is why Mongol ger should be used for people like herders in countryside, so that Mongol ger won’t lose essential things itself.

Bolorerdene E points out that the increase in pollution in Ulaanbaatar in the last 10 years is severe, not only because of air pollution. Bolorerdene comments:

Every year there’s 600 thousand meter cube trash, 25% is paper, 17% organic, 34% is plastic, can, bottles, and ash. The 20% of dangerous trash is exposed and without any attention, so the government should take an immediate move against this.

Urantuya.M. talks about citizens' consciousness regarding proper disposal of garbage and using fumeless fuel for a greener environment.

Bayarmaa.J. draws attention to another problem in Ulaanbaatar:

The detergent facility of Ulaanbaatar must filter the dirty water before throw water out to the Tuul River; they just throw water with chemical toxic substance out to the Tuul River straight away because of technical error for the last years. The fishes in Tuul River have been destroyed by big number by people’s wrong action.

Read the Nomad Green website for more updates.

Nomad Green: More Awareness On Preserving The environment Required

Rezwan — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:12:59 +0000

Deforestation, rapid urbanization, exploiting natural resources, deteriorating air quality are some the threats on environment Mongolia face these days. The citizen journalists of Nomad Green, the Rising Voices Grantee in Mongolia are writing about these issue raising concerns and providing suggestions to stop degradation of the environment.

Plastic surgery department freshman student Byambadolgor M. opines that Mongolians should stop littering and start caring for the environment. Movie Drama sophomore student Munkhtsatsral B describes:

There are 200 people cleaning Ulaanbaatar everyday but there are 2000 people throwing their rubbish in outside not even put in a trash can. [..] I am ashamed for throwing garbage. I am feeling ashamed from our country, our citizens and myself.

Wildlife in Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Image by Julie Laurant. CC BY-NC-ND.

NBB university junior year student Mungunshagai N. informs that there are five kinds of endangered mammals in Mongolia - Gobi bear, wild camel, leopard wild sheep, Mongolian antelope and musk deer. They are threatened by the change in environment and poaching of the hunters and everybody has to try hard to save them. Budragchaa S. takes an interview of Mr. Erdenebayar, the manager of “Gobi Bear” NGO, who says:

There were over 30 Gobi bears in 1960-1970 and the number decreased to 25 during 1980-1990. Its number has been decreasing year by year. [..] only 12 number of the animal remains (now).

Mr. BatsaiKhan, Zoologist. Image courtesy Nomad Green

Mongoloo translated another interview with Mr. Batsaikhan, a zoologist. He says:

If Steppe wolf called as “Antelope’s white” become extinct, the natural system of recovering and treating itself would be collapsed.

Russian Language department freshman student Tuul D reminds that grass and plants are Mongolian steppe’s real wealth. But desertification is decreasing the grazing lands and the plants are dying. Another cause of degradation of grasslands and rivers are gold mining by amateur gold miners aka Ninjas. These people dig dirt, live as outlaws and seek gold from old/used mining fields.

Bathishig Sh. from “Siti Institute” University tells that Mongolia has 3811 lakes, 7000 springs, 3500 rivers, 187 glaciers and 139 underground water resources. The water on surface are being destroyed for some people's own benefit. Bathishig tells:

Even animal drinks water by not destroying or making dirty, so we have to consider it. Don’t we have consciousness differentiating us from animals?

Journalist Enkhjargal. Ch. draws attention to the growing air pollution in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. The government is taking steps to force use of less environmentally damaging fuel for heating, thus reducing 50% of the present pollution. However more awareness among population in this regards is required.

Pearly Jacob, a freelance journalist, narrates how Mongolia is facing the challenge of providing equal access for the disabled.

Shiliin Bogda, Between Dariganga and Erdenetsagaan, Photo by Otgoo

One of the most active citizens’ journalists of Nomad Green is Ms. Bor. She reports:

Approximately 10 Licenses to explore and operate radioactive mineral resources in all soums (districts) of Sukhbaatar except Munkhhaan and Tumentsogt soums were issued by Government of Mongolia. Exploring and operating operations will be run in 1 million hectare land or 12% of total area of Sukhbaatar province. It is a deliberate devastation.

Architecture freshman student Enkhbayar Erdene-ochir reminds:

If we continuously doing these damages to our nature, we will be getting closer and closer to the time when we regret for (absence of our) beautiful nature.

Nomad Green: Essay Competition On Air Pollution

Rezwan — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 21:06:58 +0000

Nomad Green, the Rising Voices grantee from Mongolia encourages citizen journalists to report about the degradation of environment in the country.

Mongolia's environmental woes are many-folds. Adverse effects of climate change like desertification, and man made situations like polluted rivers from mining waste and air pollution pose a great danger. According to a recent report of UNEP titled “Urban Water Vulnerability to Climate Change in Mongolia”:

Extreme temperatures and natural disasters such as droughts, flooding and heavy snowfalls are becoming more frequent and annual average temperatures have increased by 2.1° Celsius since the 1940. [..] The study's climate scenarios suggest that the country will have to get used to having much less water in the future.

Otgonsuren Jargal at an workshop of environmental journalists of Nomad Green in Ulaanbaatar. Image courtesy Nomad Green.

In this circumstance the Mongolian environmental activists face tough challenges. Otgonsuren Jargal, editor in chief of Nomad Green reports that:

Mongolian greens are continuing their struggles. Today some of them went to the court. People are fighting against mining activities which destroy the land and cause many rivers to be disappeared in Mongolia. Mongolian greens can not be patient when global political and business leaders see Mongolia only as a source of money and the map of Mongolia has become a paper where they plot their business plans.

Keith Herman Snow posts the story at Conscious Being:

In early September 2010, a small band of Mongolian citizens armed with hunting rifles opened fire on gold mining equipment owned by two foreign mining firms operating illegally in northern Mongolia. One of the four armed activists was Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, a 2007 winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize — the ‘Green Nobel' — awarded annually to pivotal environmentalists taking a stand around the globe. [..]

Now he is denounced and shunned by the same foreigners who recognized him as a hero. This is a story about the killing of the earth, the killing of truth, the killing of hope — and the killing of the nomad's way.

Otgoo writes further:

If someone blame us for “shooting bulldozer’s tracks” there is no action to detest. It is really little thing we have done. There is nothing wrong because we won't regret even we are dead while fighting. [..]

the government does not pay an attention to this problem. So we are taking initiative and going to organize this event. If they do not understand it, we will go to the end.

Erdenebayar T, a member of Nomad Green, reports that from 1st of January 2011 launched an essay competition to reward the deserving citizen journalist and contributors.

There are five winners of the essay competition in the first two months which had the theme - ‘Air pollution’.

Traditional dwellings in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, are responsible for 60% of the city's air pollution during the long winter months. Image by Andrew Cullen. Copyright Demotix.

The winners are as follows:

‘Air pollution –Our enemy’ D.Monkh-Erdene pupil of the 1st high school in Sukhbaatar district

‘Although children can not decide an air pollution issue, but they are available of not throwing a waste away' O.Lkhagvadulam pupil 1th laboratory high school in Sukhbaatar district

‘Let’s give a healthy social and fresh air to our young generation’ B.Uuganbayr 4th course student of Mongolian State Educational University

‘It is not easy to get rid of an air pollution’ (Japanese experience) G. Dovchindorj teacher “Etugen” university

Are we breathing a carbon or an air?’ G.Tegshjargal editor in TV8 station.

An workshop of Nomad Green. Image courtesy Nomad Green

Read the Nomad Green Blog (in six languages) for more news about the threat to environment in Mongolia.

Rising Voices: 2010 In Review

Rezwan — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:57:27 +0000

2010 was an eventful year for Rising Voices and its community. Théophile Kouamouo, one of Francophone Africa's leading bloggers and the project leader of the Rising Voices grantee Abidjan Blog Camps, had been arrested for publishing a newspaper report and was released after spending two weeks in prison. HiperBarrio from Colombia won the First Community Journalism Award given by Antioquia University in the category of Best Community Web platform.

The community bade farewell to the outgoing Director of Outreach, David Sasaki and welcomed the new Director Eduardo Ávila.

This year Rising Voices, in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, awarded microgrant funding of up to €2500 to three Egyptian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to train citizen media to underrepresented groups in Egypt so that they can voice their opinions.

Now let us look at some of the notable news of the grantees community we featured in the Rising Voices website in 2010.

Featured Bloggers:

Throughout the year we interviewed bloggers from different Rising Voices projects and here is a list of those features.

Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar

Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
Olzod Boum-Yalagch from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
Saki Golafale from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
Nat Nyuan-Bayjay from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
Nora Catalina Urquijo from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
Yesenia Corrales from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
Edgar Andres Yana Lisme from Voces Boliviana in Bolivia
Getutza from Blogging The Dreams Project in Romania
Tahina Rakotomanarivo from FOKO in Madagscar
Ahmed Awadalla from Exploring Taboos project in Egypt
Randa AbulDahab from the Women of Minya Day by Day project in Egypt
Sara Abd Al-Maktari from the Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques (EWMAT) project in Yemen
Award Winning OLPC (XO) laptops Bloggers from Uruguay - Part 1, Part 2

The New Grantees Of 2010:

Barcamps And Conferences:

Otgonsuren Jargal presenting Nomad Green at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 in Chile. Image by Krzysztof Pawliszak/GV. CC BY

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 took place in May at Santiago Public Library in the capital of Chile. Four Rising Voices projects were presented during the two days of the summit. Here is a two part report (Part 1, Part 2) highlighting the presentations and the reactions from the members who attended the conference.

Photo of Catalina Restrepo speaking at BarCamp Santa Cruz. Photo used with permission by BarCampSCZ.

Catalina Restrepo of the HiperBarrio project in Medellín, Colombia was invited to speak at BarCamp Santa Cruz, Bolivia in January. The event also featured Hugo Miranda of Voces Bolivianas from Bolivia.

This year members of HiperBarrio were invited to the Campus Party in Colombia and was told to do something different, use the pin hole camera technique to record the activities of CampusBlog.

Contests:

In February the Best Of Malagasy Blogs (BOMBS) 2009 awards were announced. Several bloggers from FOKO, the Rising Voices grantee in Madagascar, won the awards.

Empowerment Of Women:

With the help of a Rising Voices microgrant, the project “Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques” is teaching blogging to female politicians, activists, and human right workers in Yemen to bring them in global conversation.

Ghaida'a Al Absi, the project leader, says: “EWAMT project is like a candle with other candles, which are lighting up the darkness in Yemen.”

Blogger Ahmad Awadalla of “Exploring Taboos” project conducts sexuality education workshops in Egypt and wrote about discussions about the topic of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with his students.

Language:

Ruben Hilary of Voces Bolivianas project, with some local volunteers of El Alto, Bolivia, established the virtual community Jaqi Aru. The goal of the Jaqi Aru website is highlighting and spreading Aymara language in internet through creation of digital media contents, which involves translation, use of multimedia and social media tools.

Culture, Travel And Lifestyle:

Bus shaped balloon at the Festival de globos de La Loma 2010

The citizen journalists of the Rising Voices grantee Hiperbarrio shared some photos and videos of the Balloon festival of La Loma (Festival de globos de La Loma 2010).

Nine citizen journalists from Nomad Green in Mongolia visited Taiwan to learn more about Taiwan's social and environmental issues and local cultures and receive citizen media training.

Sustainability:

Hiperbarrio from Colombia finally got its legal identity this year as a nonprofit corporation. This allows the organization to continue to grow as they can be hired by public and private institutions for outreach activities. According to an agreement between the EPM Foundation Network and HiperBarrio from Colombia, citizen media outreach activities in 3 new communities in 3 libraries of Medellín (Villatina, La Esperanza and EPM) were started in 2010.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded Ceasefire Liberia project a $10,000 grant to start a new arm called Ceasefire. This project will focus on creating a citizen media project for African immigrant and African-American youth in Staten Island based on the Ceasefire Liberia model.

Thanks to the bloggers of the different projects of Rising Voices we could read many stories from Liberia, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Mongolia, Romania, Colombia, Yemen, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Bolivia, Ukraine, Uruguay, etc. Some Rising Voices bloggers also participated in and contributed for the Blog Action Day 2010 and the One Day On Earth initiatives. We hope to continue hearing from them. The ‘Introduction to Global Citizen Media Guide' has been translated in Macedonian and Albanian.

We wish the members of the Rising Voices Community and our readers a happy and prosperous 2011.

Nomad Green: Mongolia On The Brink Of Eco-Catastrophe

Rezwan — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 21:35:40 +0000

A winter sunset at White Lake, Mongolia. Image by Flickr user Karina Moreton. CC BY-NC-ND

Mongolia is a land locked country with long and freezing winters and hot and drought prone summers. The Environmental problems it faces include desertification, deforestation due to overgrazing, inadequate water supply, air and water pollution. The citizen journalists of Nomad Green are trying to raise awareness about the environmental degradation in their country targeting the Mongolian citizens and the global readers.

Hoh.Mongol writes about the silent environmental migration happening in the Gobi deserts of Mongolia:

As a result of degradation of pasture land, herders say that they can’t return to their soums where they had been living. This is one of the examples of eco-flee.

Hoh.Mongol also elaborates how the global warming can bring eco-catastrophe in Mongolia.

Tumenbayar reports how Mongolian antelopes are facing extinction due to environmental degradation and desertification. Badamgarav points out that illegal hunting is one of the threats for the antelopes. Mongolian Saiga Antelopes are being killed for raw material of Chinese medicine.

At the present moment, Mongolia is one of the world's 110 countries battered by desertification. Badamgarav elaborates how Mongolia is becoming bare due to desertification:

The total forest of Mongolia is 19.0 million hectares, out of them 13.4 million are real forest. It is only 8.6% of Mongolian total territory. Therefore, by the UNDP standard Mongolia counts as a country rare by forest resource. By the current official statistics 1.6 million hectares forest of Mongolia had been annihilated. Of course climate change is a cause, but there are so many human factors such as stealthy cut and freight, and forest fire. [..]

The fire comes sometimes due to drought disaster, but most of them were caused by human inconsiderate proceedings.

A Ger house with chimney in Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Image by Flickr user PnP! CC BY-NC-ND

But does the future look so bleak? The Nomad Green members are also optimistic about facing the challenges. Tamir discusses about newer ways of fighting air pollution through the smoke emanating from the stoves in Ger houses. He mentions about the invention of an young Mongolian engineer, an electric stove for Gers, which will eliminate the use of burning fuels and can also be used to cook food and dry clothes. The electricity could be coming from renewable energy.

Bor interviews Gombojav Jamba, the former vice Chief of Great Khural of Mongolia and the head of NGO “Bogdkhan mountain’s natural complex”, who says that reforestation and gardening is the way to decrease poverty in Mongolia.

Read the Nomad Green Blog (in six languages) for more news about the state of environment in Mongolia.

[Video] Interview with Olzod Boum-Yalagch of Nomad Green

Eddie Avila — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:15:12 +0000

Olzod Boum-Yalagch is an official advisor of Nomad Green, the Mongolian citizen journalism project based in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. In this video, Mr. Boum talks about how citizen journalism can help raise awareness and eventually lead to solutions for the environmental damage taking place in the country. For the past two years, the diverse team of citizen journalists has been writing about some of these pressing issues from everything from disappearing lakes to the stress on the land caused by over-grazing by goats.

Mongolia is a country known for its nomads who have roamed the vast landscape for thousands of years. Mr. Boum hopes that one day these families can also take part in this participatory information exchange where they can tell about their traditional lifestyle and many of the hardships that they face, especially those that are being caused by environmental damage.

Nomad Green: Saturday Roundtable Discussions

Eddie Avila — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 06:36:43 +0000

Every Saturday in the new downtown offices of the Nomad Green project in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, the citizen journalists gather to learn new skills to apply to their blogging work. New participants also gather to learn about the project and learn how to get started adding their voices to the Nomad Green website. An added component to these Saturday workshops is the presence of a local community leader who accepted the project's invitation to be interviewed by the citizen journalists and participate in a roundtable discussion. The first guest for this series of interviews was the former Finance Minister of Mongolia, Y. Ochirsukh, and whose visit was documented by Byambatuvshin [mn].

Roundtable discussion with Y. Ochirsukh. Photo by Otgoo

On Saturday, October 16, N. Algaa, the Executive Director of the Mongolian National Mining Association was the special guest and took part in a small roundtable discussion about the balance between promoting the mining industry and protecting the environment. He admitted that his responsibility lies with working with the various mining operations in the country, but invited Nomad Green to work with them to raise awareness about the environmental issues, since he readily admitted that Mongolia faces serious environmental issues such as desertification. Algaa added that the mining industry employs many Mongolians, and which is vital in providing an economic benefit in a country where many live below the poverty line.

Roundtable discussion with N. Algaa

However, many of the citizen journalists were skeptical and believed that the National Mining Association could do even more based on its stature within the mining community. They added that rehabilitation is not enough, but that there should be proactive strategies to protect the environment while recognizing that mining does play an important role in Mongolia's economy.

Nomad Green citizen journalists with N. Algaa following the roundtable discussion.

The dialogue was cordial and constructive, and many of the Nomad Green citizen journalists continued to chat with Algaa after the formal roundtable concluded.

Nomad Green: Thinking Beyond Mining in Mongolia

Rezwan — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 22:11:49 +0000

Horses in Mongolia. Image by Flickr user pcbirdtw. CC BY-NC-ND

Mongolia always gives people the impression of running wild horses on huge steppe, warriors beyond challenge, and nomadic life by following water and grass. (Nomad Green)

In the past decade Mongolia has undergone dramatic change and people are gradually embracing urban life abandoning traditional nomadic life. We can experience this change from the blog post of Gerelmaa, teacher and designer, and a citizen journalist of Nomad Green, the Rising Voices grantee from Mongolia. Gerelmaa spent one month in Teshig soum of Bulgan province, her birthplace and notes:

Every family has own livestock animals. Most of people don't use the money to buy something so the goods' price is getting high. The local people's need is simple. They use some goods such as flour, meat and dairy products and barter the goods. For example, they barter one sheep for 75 kg flour. [..] There is no other stores in the center of soum so local people never hesitate to barter the goods.

Every family has some kind of vehicles such as Russian UAZ 3469 and motorcycles and some kind of technologies such as solar panels and aerials.

Local people watch television when they have free time. Mostly they watch news, weather forecast, and especially Korean drama on television. (Read the rest here)

In the past two decades Mongolia saw a rapid investment in mineral resources mining sector. The foreign companies are eying on Mongolian natural resources and the “world politic and business leaders see Mongolia as ‘money' totally” - as Otgonsuren Jargal, the chief editor of Nomad Green informs. She asks: is there ANY interesting thing except mining in Mongolia?

The outside world understand our country as “Minegolia” than Mongolia. [..]

in the last 20 years Japan provided much help and support to our country, which is considered as a way to get to our mining resources. So Government's position is that Japanese will be main country to co-operate in the uranium filed. Otherwise in return of help during last years it is possible that our uranium mining license would be given. Such talk has been held between government officials of the two countries.

Dumping of mine waste in Mongolia. Image by Flickr user Sidetranked (Alex Yule). CC BY-NC-SA

Meanwhile the extreme mining and other practices has created many environmental problems in Mongolia. Onon Ultz writes that River Onon, an important freshwater resource from Mongolia, has become polluted and the color of its water has turned light green:

The result of a recent investigation shows that Ashang River from Russia is polluted and the river water is pouring into Onon River. [..] This river has been polluted by disastrous mining activity in the region of Kirin in the Inner Baikal of the Russia according to garrison army and local communities.

Ganaaer talks about the stinking mud generated from stagnant rain water, which is irritating the residents in Ger district in Ulaanbaatar. The blogger talked to a resident who said that the authorities are not paying heeds to this problem and the solution is buying and applying sand or soil - which they cannot afford.

A participant looking at Nomad Green site @workshop in UB. Image courtesy Portnoy Zheng

Erdenbayar T. informs that the goat herding has risen in Mongolia (from 19% in 1990 to 44% in 2010 of the total livestock in the country - 42 million at present). So why is it bad?

It rapidly debilitates pasture quality. The scientists remind that the goat is a harmful animal for the pasture, keeping such a huge amount of goat is bringing certain negative effects. But herders have been breeding more in order (to) subsist their family livelihood by (selling) it’s cashmere.

Year by year, grazing capacity keeps diminishing and some places are facing desertification gustily.

Otgonsuren Jargal writes about the illegal logging practices in the woods of Mongolia and its consequences:

Two decades ago 10 percent of Mongolian territory was covered by forest. Nowadays forest decreases to only 5-6 percent of total territory because of the theft of wood and fire.

There are central wood markets in every district of Ulaanbaatar. There are 3 wood markets in the Baganuur district. The wood is sold illegally there.

A participant at a Nomad Green Workshop in Baganuur rural area. Image courtesy Portnoy Zheng

Ideree shares her frustrations:

Every person talks about the desertification, air pollution and drying water in Mongolia. It is sad that they don’t do any things to combat these issues.

But she is optimistic that the environmental activists can lead the way to the future in tackling these issues.

Read more posts of the Nomad Green Bloggers to learn about their concerns and struggles.

Nomad Green: Why The Mongolian ‘Ninjas' Keep On Digging?

Rezwan — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:55:13 +0000

Ninja gold miners digging in evaporated river. Image by Flickr user chenyingphoto. CC BY

Gold production in Mongolia is growing rapidly and it saw a seventeen-fold increase between 1991 and 2001. But the real boost came in July 2001, when a Canadian company called Ivanhoe Mines found a large gold and copper deposit at Oyu Tolgoi (turquoise hill). Foreign investment in the country on explorations soared. And the great Mongolian gold rush began with mining companies from around the world coming to the Gobi desert.

But not only the mining companies, this gold rush has also changed some of the lives of the Mongolian poorest. Thousands of people, called the “Ninjas”, have left home to take up digging and sifting for gold full-time. Otgonsuren Jargal writes in the Nomad Green blog:

A Ninja gold miner. Image by Chenyingphoto. CC BY
“Ninja”–or artisan miners–in Mongolia means people who dig dirt, live outlaws and seek for gold on old/used mining fields. There are around 5000 artisan miners working in Uyanga soum (village) of Uvurkhangai aimag (province) in Mongolia, today.

There was some false information saying that the number of ninjas was decreasing in last few years. Actually the number increased to 10,000 during summer season at the area where Ongi river starts which is the range named Taats coming from Khangai mountain.

The average ninja earns about $10 in a week. Lured by this small fortune, they consist of not only destitute, many students on summer break come to search for golds in potential locations with their parents to help pay tuition. But their work damages the environment. Otgonsuren Jargal explains:

Image by Chenyingphoto. CC BY
The evaporation of Ongi river made many who live in Gobi suffer for past ten years. Mongolia is the most effected area from desertification, especially in Gobi, the water is a really hard issue at this moment. The Ongi river was the only one water resource of Gobi's life. But, there are more than 10,000 ninjas digging dirt at the very beginning of this river and destroying and poisoning the source of water.

A group of journalist including Nomad Green members and Italian journalist Gabriele came to this place to report about the artisan miners.

Many people were working here and there between dump, picking up some dirt and washing them in the pools among the hills. You can see a lot of ghers /traditional Mongolian yurt/ of different shapes-round and roofless and tumbledown etc. These were the accommodation of ninjas.

Here is the video they produced:

They saw that excavators were destroying the highest dump which is called “Eifel” by local people.

The rest of this big mountain will be diminished if they continue digging for another 10 years.

The gold rush is not going to end anytime soon. The Gold price across the world have reached an all-time high at $1100 an ounce and it is predicted to rise further. Christian A. DeHaemer at Wealthdaily puts it this way:

You may not be aware of it, but there is a new gold mine in Mongolia. In fact, it is the world's largest — a mine bigger than the state of Ohio!

The spending on this mine will double the GDP of Mongolia. That's right — double… which means Mongolia will become to Central Asian minerals what Dubai is to Middle Eastern oil.

So the Ninja miners will not be stopping any time soon.

The droughts in Mongolia are a big problem which decreases production of wheat and other crops. However Mandah shares an expert opinion:

Mungunbaatar, coordinator of “Rain richness” state manufacturing agency says “Having rain by shooting rain clouds has great economic efficiency”.

Meanwhile the Nomad Green citizen journalists continue to write about their trip to Taiwan. Botanist Dorjgotovariungerel writes how environmentally friendly the Taiwanese people are. Dorjgotovariungerel thinks that the irresponsible action and processing of Mongolians have already brought desertification and land degradation in the country and they could use the examples of the Taiwanese people to turn things around.

Lunch at Tea firm. Image by ariungerel, Nomad Green.

Dorjgotovariungerel also writes about the experience of the Nomad Green team who visited a tea garden and factory in Taiwan.

They cook all meal in the tea such as bean, cans and rice. All food was very delicious.

Nomad Green: More Workshops in Mörön, Khatgal and Ulaanbaatar

Rezwan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:19:35 +0000

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Mongolia has a high growth rate in Internet penetration and its broadband index is really high - with average speeds of 7.3Mbps, Mongolia is at No. 35 of world ranking. While the urban areas have broadband many rural areas in Mongolia have no power or internet.

Workshop in Mörön, the administrative center of the Khövsgöl province

Nomad Green, the Rising Voices grantee in Mongolia is training local citizen journalists how to use blogs, digital video, podcasts, and map mashups to report on environmental news. They are also expanding to faraway places from the capital Ulaanbaatar to bridge the gap of digital divide between the urban and rural areas. From June 23 to July 3, Nomad Green arranged workshops in the North Eastern Khövsgöl Province. The region is well-known for its natural beauty and Lake Khövsgöl is one of Mongolia's major tourist attractions. The team included the project organizer Axiou Lin, chief editor Otgoo, and devoted environmentalist and advisor Boum.

Workshop in Khatgal village in the Khövsgöl province

Portnoy, the project manager of Nomad Green writes:

The team visited the biggest lake in Mongolia-Lake Khovsgol, and met with local environmentalist and nature protectors. The natural environment of this aimag is also under severe pressure from mining business and desertification, just like most other aimags (provinces) in Mongolia.

Murun and Khatgal are the two major administrative and business towns in the aimag. We were very excited to spread our message this far and enroll new citizen journalists with high ambition.

Workshop with the children in Ulaanbaatar

On July 3rd the team came back to the capital Ulaanbaatar to conduct a special workshop for kids which was organized by students of National Taiwan University. Portnoy writes:

We taught these kids how to become small citizen journalists by drawing what they saw in their daily life. Education is considered as one of the most crucial issues along with environmental protection. NomadGreen wishes to combine those two issues and make kids the initiator of change in their families.

More photos here courtesy Portnoy:

1) Workshop in Mörön (Murun) city in Khövsgöl Aimag (province)

2) Worshop in Khatgal village on the southern tip of Lake Khövsgöl

3) Workshop in Ulaanbaatar for children with the help of NTU students.

Here some of the posts of the Nomad green bloggers are highlighted.

Bolorerdene writes (translated by Mongoloo) about the value of nature that we do not realize. The blogger reminds:

One of the Mongolian famous poets Choinom said “The more you know the life value, the more you receive the life favor. If you don’t realize its importance, you would be blown like dust”.

Batzul (Bazu) writes about his experience of visiting the stadium for World games in Taiwan. Although the stadium has Solar panels, he learnt that “producing solar panel makes pollution and uses a lot of pure water.” Moreover cleaning of roof panels requires a lot of time, energy and resources. That is why Solar panels are not yet a cost effective alternative energy.

Please read more of their posts in the Nomad Green site.