Building Mongolia’s Grassroots Environmentalism

Some 800 representatives from 160 Mongolian communities and environmental organizations gathered in Ulaanbaatar on May 14 and 15 to compare notes and strengthen relationships between grassroots environmental groups and the national government. The National Forum of Communities for Natural Resource Management was sponsored by Mongolia’s Ministry of Environment, Green Development, and Tourism (MoEGDT), and supported by several international organizations, including the United Nations Development Program, the Food and Agricultural Organization, the German Agency for International Cooperation, and the World Wildlife Fund.

The first day of the forum featured an outdoor fair with information booths on Chinggis Khaan square that offered a striking display of Mongolia’s environmental community and an implicit appeal to government agencies to take a more active role in enforcing environmental laws. Speaking at the opening ceremony, the head of the MoEGDT, Ms. D. Oyunkhorol, emphasized the crucial conservation role of indigenous people, calling them both users and essential stewards of the natural environment, and she highlighted efforts by grassroots communities and partnerships to rehabilitate lands degraded by mining.

The second day of the forum, held at the Government House, had a more formal character. In his opening address, President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships in protecting the environment and combating climate change. He also emphasized the need for bottom-up management of natural resources that starts at the grassroots and affects decision-making at higher levels. He called environmental conservation a globally accepted culture, and appealed to current users to make a fundamental shift to “green” behavior.

The day continued with two sessions discussing best practices and capacity building for “environmental communities,” local populations that work together to protect their environment. Mongolia’s first, pioneering environmental communities were established in the 1990’s in Selenge and Arkhangai provinces to conserve forest resources. There are now nearly 1,700 environmental communities in Mongolia, protecting some 8.2 million hectares of land. Many forest protection communities have joined forces to combat illegal timber production. Communities in Uvs province in western Mongolia have worked to preserve pasturelands of threatened argali sheep and to dig a 12-kilometer channel to carry water to black-tailed gazelles living in protected areas.

Prominent among forum participants were members of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) associations. Mongolia has an estimated 100,000 artisanal miners, who work independently and make up nearly 20 percent of the rural workforce. Due to environmentally destructive mining practices, artisanal miners were long marginalized by Mongolian society, preventing them from achieving their full economic potential, or, ironically, from developing more sustainable environmental practices. But in 2010, the government legalized artisanal mining as an official occupation, recognizing the rights of artisanal miners to work and to organize themselves into formal business partnerships. They now contribute $110 million annually to Mongolia’s export revenues, and account for 25% of the gold on deposit at the Bank of Mongolia.

The Asia Foundation and the ASM Federation, an umbrella group for artisanal miners, served on the panel on building the capacity of environmental communities. It was suggested that, since 90 percent of Mongolia’s lands are under the observation of herders and other indigenous inhabitants, those populations should play a role in protecting them by forming environmental communities. But while the law now provides clear incentives for environmental communities, the panelists noted that these incentives are not widely known, and that environmental communities still need higher legal standing to be effective and sustainable.

Since 2013, The Asia Foundation has been working with multiple stakeholders to mitigate the environmental impacts of artisanal mining. The Engaging Stakeholders in Environmental Conservation II project (ESEC II), funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, works to improve the environmental responsibility of artisanal miners through the use of Frugal Rehabilitation Methodology (FRM), a formal system of technical and biological measures to repair ASM-damaged lands. Developed in a series of pilot projects, FRM is designed to be economically affordable, socially acceptable, and ecologically viable.

The participation of artisanal mining partnerships in the forum was a significant recognition by MoEGDT of the ASM sector’s necessary role in environmental conservation. Ms. Tuya, board member of the ASM Federation, a partner of ESEC II, stated: “Since the formalization of ASM, we have undertaken a number of environmental initiatives with local communities. Thanks to these efforts, we are now seen as reliable potential contributors to local development.”

The forum concluded by drafting recommendations for various stakeholders, including the Parliament of Mongolia, the MoEGDT, international organizations, and local governments. Top recommendations included amending environmental laws as necessary, updating regulations for the co-management of natural resources by multiple stakeholders, improving incentives for environmental communities, and identifying opportunities for international collaboration. The recommendations are currently being reviewed, and will be submitted to the appropriate government agencies.

Khandarmaa Ayush is logistics and communications coordinator for The Asia Foundation’s Engaging Stakeholders in Environmental Conservation II project in Mongolia. She can be reached at [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and not those of The Asia Foundation.