Author: Ariell Ahearn, University of Oxford

With over 1,000 licenses issued across the country, a wide range of mining operations are transforming Mongolia’s rural cultural landscape. The Gobi region is teeming with both mega mines and smaller scale operations. The Gobi also has excellent conditions for renewable energy and is poised to be a site for major investments in this industry. Solar and wind farms are already starting to appear in Omnogobi and Dornogovi provinces, reflecting Mongolia’s commitment to reduce its dependence on coal power under the National Energy Policy 2015-2030 .

Yet, in the face of these major investments and developments, discussions about the traditional land rights of nomadic herders have been stifled. Although the Mongolian government has some legal provisions to protect the environment, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment Law of 2012, it lacks a strong resettlement and social welfare policy and adequate safeguards against forced evictions.

To address this regulatory gap, the ESRC-GCRF-funded Gobi Framework project (2018-2021) has drafted national guidelines for social impact assessment as part of a government task force initiative from Mongolia. The working group was established in 2020 to study and develop proposals on the impact of mining, including existing resettlement and compensation practices.

Since the mid-1990s, the land rights crisis of nomadic herders has been unfolding quietly across the country. Rural pastures are owned by the state, and industrial licensing processes – both for mining and renewable energy projects like wind and solar – nullify the traditional rights of pastoralists to mobile land use. An example is the territory of Dalanjargalan County in Dornogovi Province, with two-thirds of the territory taken for mining.

Climate change has a complex impact on the Mongolian drylands. But herders’ vulnerabilities also stem from political and economic policies, which include a lack of government capacity, the informalization of the economy, legal complexity, and an emphasis on urban service delivery and market policies. free, responding to sedentary and urbanized livelihoods.

The rapid intensification of surface mining has fractured and physically destroyed pastures. Mining overburden, heavy truck traffic, dust, waste and ranchers’ concerns about the availability of potable water are making rural areas increasingly risky to livestock welfare.

The transformative effects of surface mining intersect with the impacts of climate change, putting pressure on fragile and variable steppe and Gobi ecosystems. The industry is only loosely regulated and enforcement is difficult. The vast majority of mines are limited only by national laws and regulations. They are not required to meet international standards such as the International Finance Corporation Performance Standards, as their funding comes from private sources.

While mining laws in Mongolia require an environmental impact assessment process, they lack attention to social impacts and international standards for the resettlement of traditional mobile herders. As herders are not considered indigenous by the Mongolian government, free, prior and informed consent processes are not a legal requirement. A regular review of human rights in Mongolia by a UN Special Rapporteur in 2019 and by the UN Human Rights Council in 2020 identified concerns about the negative impacts of mining projects on the rights of breeders.

International standards for resettlement and restoration of livelihoods are not included in the Mongolian mineral law. Article 41 of the law makes licensees responsible for repairing the damage they cause. But companies tend to define project-affected people as those who have an officially registered winter camp within a fixed distance of an infrastructure or license area. In some cases, registered spring camps are also included. This excludes many pastoralists who do not have officially registered winter camps but who are still legitimate occupants based on customary land use practices and common beliefs.

This oversimplified mapping practice misrepresents the dynamic mobile livelihoods of pastoralists as fixed points occupying a small patch of land. This also leaves out many ranchers who may use a designated permit area seasonally. By not formally accounting for the loss of pasture or other natural resources, the livelihoods of pastoralists are put at risk.

Our research under the Gobi Framework project revealed that failure to recognize herders outside of the narrow lens of registered households in winter camps sows the seeds of communal conflict. Conflicts are common between displaced and non-displaced herders, with displaced herders being rejected as ‘sold out’ and driven out by new host communities. In many cases, households formally designated by companies as “project affected people” have been shunned and ostracized by pastoralists in the same district. Their ability to negotiate access to pasture in other areas is limited due to this social rejection.

For those affected by the project, some mining companies provide monetary compensation while others provide in-kind goods to pastoralists who lose their winter campsites located in license areas. Compensation amounts vary widely and arrangements are often protected by non-disclosure agreements. In other cases, herders report being threatened with forced eviction by companies.

The land dispossession faced by traditional mobile pastoralists in Mongolia and the contribution of mining-induced displacement to urbanization processes need urgent attention in this era of climate change and the risks that result for rural livelihoods.

Ariell Ahearn is a senior lecturer in human geography at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.