Are They Losing Their Strategic Position?

by Dondog Khaidav

Traditionally, Mongolians have concentrated their hard work and continuous efforts on their land, particularly invaluable activities related to livestock: the conservation and management of pastureland, the production of meat and milk, and the development of quality cashmere.

Mongolian horsemen racing across grassland--Dondog Khaidav

However, nowadays, people work even harder to extract mineral resources from the same land such as gold, copper, silver and coal. Unfortunately, the current economic trends towards mineral resources dramatically clashes with traditional forms of income, lifestyle and culture.

Since 98 percent of Mongolian territory consists of pastureland, it is possible to think that the country is entirely grazing land. Indeed, more than 3,000 species of plants and herbs grow throughout this pastureland. Although the vegetation is sparse and the growing season short, their perfumed essence is almost divine since the soil is so unpolluted and pure.

Children and their horses, Gobi, Mongolia--Dondog Khaidav

Domesticated Mongolian animals graze selectively from these plants, breathe fresh air, and drink from clean fresh rivers and streams. Therefore, the products are very unique: meat and milk from the free-range livestock are ecological products that have excellent taste from the quality of minerals and vitamins. Moreover, cashmere from special Mongolian goats is remarkably soft and warm, unrivaled throughout the world. These and other products come from Mongolia’s basic five domestic animals; namely, horses, cattle, camels, sheep, and goats.

Young girl with a lamb, western Mongolia--Gavriel Jecan/Corbis

All herders have their own grazing land, which they supervise, and each herder family has four different areas suitable for the four seasons. Each grazing land is approximately 3,600 hectares (8,900 acres) in size. Out of these, the winter camp, is the most essential because winters can have the most damaging weather. Through their relationship with livestock and pastureland, Mongolians have been able to maintain the fragile balance of nature and people to pass down their experiences.

Currently, however, major changes are beginning to take place in the Mongolian way of life. Beginning about 90 years ago the process of urbanization began, and it has continued strongly such that now more than half of the population resides in cities. It is only in the past eight years, however, that mining has soared. There are large copper and coal deposits with large reserves. One of these for copper is the Oyu Tolgoi mine in the south Gobi region, which alone has 25 million tons of reserve ore. For coal, there is the Tavan Tolgoi mine, which has 6,420 million tons of reserve ore. After exploration was undertaken in one area after another, exploitation started at these sites. However, these deposits were discovered in the middle of grazing lands. Hence livestock needed to be relocated in order for the mines to start operations. The problem is, where should the livestock and herders go?

Foreign and domestic companies investing in large mines entered the market with much competition. Therefore, funding the costs associated with relocating livestock was and is not the challenge. Nevertheless, both livestock and the herders who moved are losing benefits so that livestock numbers are declining. For instance, 20 families who were in the center of the Oyu Tolgoi mine area were relocated three years ago. Unfortunately, half of the families no longer have any livestock left at all. Moreover, as the mine grows, pastureland will obviously be fragmented, will deteriorate, and ultimately will be destroyed.

At this point, 250,000 hectares (618,000 acres) of grazing land is incapable of supporting livestock. There is a clear trend that the size of the impact zone will increase to 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) in the coming few years. This figure means that the impact zone will then affect approximately 90,000 animals belonging to 300 herder families.

Winter camps, the core of the grazing lands, thus have been taken away from the five domesticated animals. As a result, 50 percent of the animals first removed from their familiar winter camps have already died. The herds, so selectively bred, normally have comfortable winter camps that have been inhabited for thousands of years. Their loss means that herding has lost its strategic position and is under severe threat.

Takhi (Przewalski's horses)--© joyfull/

It is worth considering whether or not livestock can wait around and survive until the mines deplete their vast reserves in hundreds of years. By that time, the grazing lands may be restored if at all with great effort. A hundred years ago, Mongolians let the takhi (Przewalski’s horse) become extinct but, only about a decade ago, reintroduced them to the land of their predecessors from European zoos. One is left wondering if seven hundred years from now, Mongolians will need to import from a foreign land rare specimens of the original five domesticated animals: species that have formed the Mongolian diet, human relationships, love of nature and so many other traditions that made the country a nation.