Short bio:

Drawing on qualitative research on mining development in Mongolia's Umnugobi province spanning 2016-2020, this paper explores the intersecting sedentary biases inherent in national and international land expropriation resettlement standards for traditional mobile peoples.

Additional details:

As mining expands in rural Mongolia, much land formerly used as pasture for mobile herders is being transformed into large mounds of dirt and deep pits in the ground. Currently the country has over 2000 licenses issued, with a majority located in the arid Gobi provinces. With most international standards suited to sedentary people, herders have been forcibly displaced from their traditional camp sites, water sources and pasture without appropriate compensation and efforts for appropriate resettlement. The lack of national legal mechanisms for traditional livelihoods to has led local government councils in the Gobi's rural districts to create conservation and protected areas to delay licensing processes and protect traditional pasture areas, inscribing the landscape with Western-oriented conservation ideals as an uncomfortable stopgap to protect mobile land rights. Drawing on qualitative research on mining development in Mongolia's Umnugobi province spanning 2016-2020, this paper explores the intersecting sedentary biases inherent in national and international land expropriation resettlement standards.