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• Environment
• Climate
• History
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• Environment

  
  With an average elevation of 1,580 m (5,180 ft), Mongolia is one of the highest countries on earth.  The Altay and Transaltai Gobi mountain ranges that arc along the western and southern borders of the country are home to most of Mongolia's snow leopards.  
  
  The northern region of the country is prairie-covered steppe.  Farther south is the Gobi Desert, much of which is arid grassland rather than true desert.  (Mongolians use the word gobi to refer to a landscape with enough vegetation to support camels, but not enough to support marmots.) 
  
  The Gobi vegetation and soils are fragile and prone to overgrazing and erosion, and expansion of true desert is a growing environmental problem.
  
  Protected areas cover about 11.5% of Mongolia's area, and encompass 18% of snow leopard habitat.
  
  
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  Climate

  
  Mongolia's climate is dry, with most precipitation falling during the brief, intense summers.  The north is generally wetter than the south, and some areas of the Gobi Desert receive no precipitation at all in most years.  Winters in Mongolia are long and cold, and permafrost covers more than half of the country. 
  
  Relatively little snow falls, but occasional instances of severe weather known as zuds can be devastating to herders.  In these storms, a blizzard is followed by warming and then by frigid cold, covering the grass with a layer of ice too thick for livestock to break through.  Tens of thousands of livestock can perish in these storms.
  
  
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  History

  
  During the 13th century, the tribal chieftain Genghis Khan united the Mongol clans and conquered an empire. Under his grandson, Kublai Khan, the Mongol Empire stretched from Korea to Hungary, larger than any other empire before or since.
  
  But the empire was short-lived, breaking apart in the decades after Kublai Khan's death in 1297.  The Mongols came under Chinese rule and did not regain their independence until 1921.  Three years later, a Soviet-backed government was installed in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, and Mongolia became the world's second Communist country.
  
  Mongolia maintained close relations with the Soviet Union for most of the rest of the 20th century, and became heavily dependent on Soviet economic aid.  With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Mongolia was plunged into a deep recession.  As the decade progressed, the government undertook democratic reforms, market restructuring, and privatization initiatives.  
  
  
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  People/Culture

  
  Mongolia is a relatively homogenous country: ethnic Mongols make up about 85% of the population, and 90% of Mongolians speak Khalka Mongol, an Altaic language. 
  
  The main religion is Tibetan Lamaist Buddhism.  During the Communist era Buddhism was suppressed, with many monasteries destroyed and monks killed.  Although the 1992 constitution guarantees separation of church and state, many people have become nonreligious or atheist.
  
  For thousands of years, Mongolian culture and society have been built around nomadic herding.  Mongolians raise horses, sheep, goats, cattle, camels, and yaks.  Horses are the most prized animals, celebrated in myth, poetry, and art. However, basic subsistence comes from the sheep, which provides milk, cheese, meet, wool, hides that are fashioned into clothes and tents, and dung that is burned for cooking and heating.
  
  The basic unit of nomadic society is the herding camp, composed of two to six households.  The herders live in circular felt tents called gers that can be quickly broken down and easily transported when it is time to move camp.  (In fact, the ger is so integral to Mongolian culture that even in cities, many people continue to live in these structures today.)
  
  Mongolia is sparsely populated, with overall population density of 1.8 people per square mile (4.7 per sq km).  Beginning in the mid-1970s, the Mongolian government encouraged migration to the cities.  Today, 57% of Mongolians live in urban areas.  Thus, the overall population density figure greatly understates the isolation of life on the steppe.
  
  
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  Economy

  
  Mongolia has one of the highest ratios of livestock to people of any country in the world, with 5.3 sheep for every person in 2000.  Nearly half the labor force is engaged in herding or agriculture.
  
  The northern part of the country also has rich mineral deposits, particularly of copper, and mining is the primary industry.  Since the economic restructuring of the 1990s, many mines and factories have closed, leading many urban Mongolians to rejoin their herding families on the steppe.  Livestock numbers increased throughout the 1990s, and this, in turn, has sparked increased conflicts between people and wildlife.
  
  Outside of the economic core in the north-central region around Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia has very little infrastructure.  The entire country has just 1,724 km of paved highways.
  
  Unemployment is low, since herding is essentially open to all, but a herder's income is barely enough for subsistence.  Most herders sell their raw wool to traveling traders they meet as they journey across the steppe, and since they never know if or when the next trader will cross their path, they must accept whatever price is offered--frequently just pennies per kilogram.  This precarious economic existence causes some herders to turn to poaching of snow leopards and other species to supplement their income.
  
  
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