ULAN BATOR, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia on Friday launched a national program to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on nomadic livestock husbandry, the government's press office said in a statement.
Within the framework of the program, titled "New Cooperative-Wealthy Herder," the government is expected to take measures to improve the livelihoods of herder families through cooperatives and increase the value of livestock and livestock-derived raw materials and products.
More than 3,100 people representing herders and cooperatives across Mongolia attended the launching ceremony of the program to exchange their views on the current and future state of the nomadic livestock husbandry and measures to be taken under the program.
Extreme wintry weather, known as "dzud," has killed more than 7.1 million head of livestock across Mongolia last winter and this spring.
Dzud is a Mongolian term to describe a severely cold winter when a large number of livestock die because the ground is frozen or covered in snow. The frequency of droughts and dzud caused by climate change has been increasing in Mongolia, according to experts. ■