IYRP 2026: WAMA Statement of Solidarity with Mongolian Women Herders

On the occasion of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralism (2026), as global delegates gather in Mongolia for the IYRP Global Pastoralists Gathering and UNCCD COP17, we the Women in Action on Mining in Asia (WAMA) stand firmly in solidarity with Indigenous and pastoral women.

Across Asia, our communities face the devastating impacts of the extractives industry that continues to plunder our ancestral lands and natural resources without our Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). As Indigenous and pastoral women, we are the carriers of ancestral ecological knowledge and practise sustainable livelihoods. Yet, we share a common struggle against the plunder of our natural resources, destruction of our knowledge systems and food sovereignty, and the heavy burden placed upon women by the climate crisis driven by irresponsible and irreversible extraction of minerals in all our lands.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our Mongolian herder sisters on the frontlines of extractivism, we recognize that herders represent the living cultural heritage of nomadic pastoralism in Mongolia. Their vital roles as providers of food and livestock raw materials, and as custodians of rangelands, water resources, and critical ecosystems, are under severe threat from mining, energy, and infrastructure projects. Women herders witness daily the irreversible plunder of their rangelands by mining corporations that destroy pastures, impair livestock health, pollute rivers, and impose severe safety and health risks. Driven by collusion among mining companies, International Financial Institutions, and state instruments, Mongolia’s mineral resources are being rapidly exhausted without the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of herders or the public.

In response to these shared realities, we come together as WAMA to declare that we:

• Stand united in our struggles to oppose the destructive impacts of mining, infrastructure projects, and corporate greed.

• Demand accountability from state, corporate, and international financial institutions towards us women in Asia.

• Call for an immediate end to all forced relocations of herders for ‘developmental’ projects, recognizing that these impact herder women and children the most.

• Demand full recognition of customary ancestral herder boundaries, as well as summer and winter places, as inviolate and undisturbed areas where herders can peacefully practise their pastoral life.

• Demand meaningful consultations and the implementation of fair and just legislations on land, minerals, environmental impact assessments, and mineral resource policies, alongside herder-sensitive laws on environmental, social, and cultural risk assessments.

• Call for legally binding corporate accountability on environmental and human rights violations within Mongolian law, fully aligned with the international principles of human rights and justice.

• Demand that women's knowledge and customary practices of nurturing nature and ecosystems be recognized and promoted as the most sustainable nature-based solutions.

• Affirm that true sustainable development can only be achieved through a women-centered, community-led, and community-consulted process of transformative and distributive justice.

• Demand that our governments refrain from current models of extractivism and end the criminalization and delegitimization of our rights to our ancestral domains, pasturelands, and knowledge systems.

• Demand the implementation of the Human Rights Defenders Law to guarantee the recognition and protection of Women and Environmental Human Rights Defenders, particularly women herders.

• Urge that this International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralism be the catalyst for the empowerment of Mongolian Herder Communities and allowing them to protect their ecosystems against Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought (DLDD), while promoting their rich pastoral heritage and biodiversity for the well-being of all humanity.

The Nomads' Red Line Initiative

To safeguard these rights and ecosystems, WAMA fully supports the “Nomads' RED LINE Initiative for Sustainable Pasture Rights,” which was jointly developed by herders living in areas affected by mining, energy, and infrastructure development projects in the Gobi region, alongside civil society organizations advocating for their rights, livelihoods, and environmental protection.

Amplifying the voices of these communities on the ground, WAMA reinforces their key demands, urging:

• The COP17 Conference of the Parties to make a decision recognizing pasture ecosystems as crucially important for achieving ecological stability, biological diversity, food security, carbon sequestration, and land degradation neutrality in drylands.

• The Parties to support increased access to funding for community-based, participatory restoration activities under the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Green Climate Fund (GCF), Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Fund, and other international and regional funding mechanisms to promote Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), ecosystem restoration, and sustainable pasture management.

• The Parties to support the integrated use of the UNCCD reporting system (PRAIS), the Science-Policy Interface (SPI), remote sensing technology, scientific information systems, and the traditional knowledge and practices of local communities to assess land degradation, ecosystem changes, and restoration results.

• The guarantee of nomads' livelihoods, culture, and traditional rights and the protection of cultural heritage and national food security.

• Legal mandates to ensure that herders hold primary decision-making rights over their pasturelands based on their Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

• Legal guarantees in line with international human rights standards.

WAMA formally endorses the Nomads' Red Line Initiative for Sustainable Pasture Rights and extends our unwavering support for national and global efforts to honor and protect the pastoral way of life.