Law and Disorder in Mongolia: Local Implementation of Mongolia's Land Law

Abstract

"With the dismantling of herding collectives in Mongolia in 1992, formal regulatory institutions for allocating pasture vanished, and weakened customary institutions were unable effectively to fill the void. Increasing poverty and wealth differentiation in the herding sector combined with the lack of formal or strong informal regulation led to declining nomadic mobility and increasing trespassing and out of season grazing--a downward spiral of unsustainable grazing practices. In 1994, Mongolia's parliament passed the Land Law, which provides for the issuance of land possession contracts (leases) over pastoral resources such as campsites and pastures. Implementation of leasing provisions began in 1998-1999. This paper examines the implications of land lease implementation at the local level, including differing interpretations of the law by various stakeholders, the potential impacts of leases on poor herders access to resources, and the potential role of pasture land leases in rangeland co-management institutions. Changes in herders' patterns of resource use since 1995 are explored based on a 1999 resurvey of herding households studied in 1994-1995."