Extractivism and Violence Against Pastoralists: A Woman Herder’s Tale of Resistance in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia

A limestone mine near a herder's home in the Gobi

“We did not know what mining could do till we saw it with our own eyes”, says Gerlee (name changed) as she shares the story of her fight against extractives in her village in East Gobi of Mongolia. After completing junior high school, she began living the life of a nomadic herder with four types of livestock but primarily focusing on camel rearing in the Dornogovi province. Pasturelands, herders and pastoralist lifestyle have a strong connection centred around livestock, she explains, as a camel herder living in the Gobi for generations.

One day around three years ago, an earthmover arrived in her village and began excavations. When the villagers enquired, they were falsely told that it was an exploration of groundwater for digging a well. In reality, it was a mining company undertaking an exploration for the extraction of coal. The villagers later found out that the land had mineral resources that would last 60 years and the company had an extraction license for 30 years.

Gerlee, who was ready to lay down her life in sacrifice in order to stop mining, was the first whistleblower who brought attention in her community to the role of mining companies in shrinking and destroying pasturelands. In her village with ten families and two women herder households, she mobilized the community by sending letters and representations to her relatives and villagers on their social media group chats.

A woman herder from the Gobi milks her camels

This resistance was not without consequence. Trucks with goons arrived at their village and attacked the herders who stood for their lands, livestock and livelihoods. Brutal violence was unleashed by mining companies as goons attacked them, intimated them in a vehicle full of police and charged them with electric batons. The herders documented this grave violation of their human rights, their free, prior and informed consent and say in decision-making on extraction that would permanently alter their way of living. They took it upon themselves to represent their voices, let the world know the disastrous impacts of mining and send a message that they will continue dedicating their lives to pastoralism.

Dornogovi province in East Gobi, which shares a border with China, has multiple mining operations including minerals like uranium, coal, iron-ore, gold, fluorspar and limestone, oil excavations, coal washing and coking plants. Due to its proximity to China, this region sees heavy movement of trucks and trains carrying raw material between the two countries. It also hosts an economic free trade zone and Mongolia’s largest solar and wind farm. Herders believe that this diversion of pasturelands for extractives, energy and infrastructure development projects comes at the cost of neglecting pastoralism that has fed, nourished and sustained the country for generations.

“We no longer believe in the state. They are working for big corporations”, says Gerlee as she shares how coal mining operations have already begun in her village with a license to operate for 30 years despite community resistance. Mining has led to soil and water pollution, food insecurity and loss of economic opportunities for herders. The region, which was a shared pastureland, summer and autumn transhumance grounds between ten households where pastoralists and save grass for winter and spring to sustainably manage land and natural resources, is now lost to mining, forcing Gerlee’s village to move to another bag (administrative sub-district) which is the traditional transhumance zone of another village. Women herders who saved expenditure on nutrition by depending on consumption of internal organs of livestock cannot do so anymore due to dust pollution damaging livestock. Sales for cashmere, a luxury wool made from goat hair, have taken a hit as 1 kilogram of cashmere that would fetch herders 1,50,000 MNT prior to mining, now only gets them 1,00,000 MNT as contractors refuse to buy raw material polluted by mining dust.

As communities bear its scars, Gerlee questions why the government blames herders for overgrazing and desertification while staying silent about mining, which is shrinking pasturelands and driving land degradation. She reminds us that pasturelands that represent the close connection of animals, herders and the earth, are not empty parcels of land. They are collectively owned and sustainably managed by communities for generations. Any decisions on altering these ecosystems cannot happen without meaningful public participation, community-led consultation and decision-making with free, prior, informed consent of herders in its impact zones. Gerlee urges this issue to be raised in the upcoming UNCCD CoP17 and the government to monitor and immediately halt destructive mining operations.

As woman herder who was forced to put her life on the line and turn into an environmental and human rights defender, Gerlee represents pastoralists of the Gobi who have come together in drawing a Red Line, an inviolable boundary that marks the limit of extraction. They make this clear in the jointly developed declaration, Nomads’ Red Line Initiative for Sustainable Pasture Rights, as they call for legal protection of pastoralists’ rangeland and mobility rights, genuine and meaningful participation of herders at all stages of decision-making, and the implementation of the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for projects affecting herders’ territories and ways of life. This is Gerlee’s Red Line- the protection of herders and their consent- their refusal to let extractives destroy their lands, lives and livestock.