Livestock grazing in dzud-affected pastures The 35-year old Tsetsgee (name changed) beams as she proudly shares being the recipient of the Honour Medal of Maternal Glory for raising four children, before sharing the poignant tale of the cost of climate change and desertification in the steppes of the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia. Having grown up in Sukhbaatar, Tsetsgee moved to Omnogovi province after marrying into a family of herders who inherited the traditional occupation of...

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...

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)....