Elecnor Deimos improves the resilience
of Mongolian herding communities through satellite-derived services

Sibelius projects, in which Deimos Space UK participates, will provide greater dzud-resilience for herders by developing and providing Mongolia’s national agency for meteorology and environmental monitoring with new and upgraded satellite-based environmental products and improving their distribution

15th of February, 2018

Deimos Space UK, the British branch of Elecnor Deimos, is working in the improvement of the dzud-resilience of the Mongolian herding population by integrating satellite derived environmental information into existing government and insurance networks, in the frame of project SIBELIUs, led by eOsphere Limited. SIBELIUs has been featured in a news story about UK space firms tackling global challenges published by the UK Space Agency.

Some 30% of the Mongolian population is dependent on livestock herding. These herding communities can be devastated by extreme weather events known as “dzuds”, usually comprising a dry summer, adversely affecting pasture growth, followed by a cold winter with deep snow. A typical dzud can impact many tens of thousands of herders, often leaving them in extreme poverty, with associated impacts for the wider economy.

SIBELIUs will provide greater dzud-resilience for herders by developing and providing Mongolia’s National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring with new and upgraded satellite-based environmental products and improving their capacity for distributing products to key stakeholders supporting herding communities.

The project is supported by the UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme. The UK partners include eOsphere, Deimos Space UK, University of Leicester and the Microinsurance Research Centre. They will be working with the already mentioned National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring of Mongolia (NAMEM), the Agricultural Reinsurance JSC (AgRe), the Mongolian Ministry for Agriculture & Light Industry.

Mongolia’s herding communities can be devastated by extreme weather events known as “dzuds”, usually comprising a dry summer, adversely affecting pasture growth, followed by a cold winter with deep snow.

A key aspect of the project is to channel the benefits of these improved products through three existing networks:

• The Mongolian Index Based Linked Livestock Insurance scheme (set up by the World Bank in 2006).
• Otor Grazing Reserves which provide emergency grazing for use in dzud.
• NAMEM’s existing network of regional centres.

Work with herders at selected case study sites will analyse their information requirements, to better understand barriers to uptake of previous insurance products, and to ensure their voices and priorities are heard in the development and distribution of new satellite-based environmental products.