New pastoralist land rights data prompts policy commitments from Mongolia ahead of UNCCD COP17

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*For immediate release* - As land tenure lands formally on the COP17 agenda for the first time, Mongolia turns new evidence into action.

18 August 2026, Rome – Nearly 82% of Mongolia's territory has been affected by desertification and land degradation, according to a recent national assessment by the country's Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. It's a crisis Mongolia has placed at the centre of its presidency of UNCCD COP17, held during the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026), which Mongolia itself championed into existence. As the country welcomes participants under COP17's theme, Restoring Land, Restoring Hope, new evidence on the state of pastoralists' land rights is already shaping the government's commitments.

The timing matters beyond Mongolia's borders. COP17 is the first UNCCD conference since parties established the Caucus of Indigenous Peoples and the Caucus of Local Communities at COP16, and the first to formally include land tenure rights and a dedicated Land and People Day on its agenda. Mongolia's announcement gives that new agenda item an early, concrete test case: what happens when a government pairs the push for recognition with its own data.

Following the country's first application of a new global framework for measuring pastoralists' land tenure security, the Government of Mongolia has announced a series of commitments to strengthen land governance and tenure security for herder communities.These commitments are particularly significant in a country that sustains one of the world's largest rangeland-based livestock systems, where pastoral communities use and steward rangelands covering approximately 70% of the national land area.

Our goal is not merely to document rangeland degradation, but to prevent it, not merely to measure change, but to create positive change. Reliable data, meaningful herder participation and strong cooperation are essential to turning land data into policies that protect pastoralists and sustain Mongolia's rangelands.

Enkhmanlai Anand, Director General of Mongolia's General Authority for Land Administration, Geodesy and Cartography (GALAGC)

The assessment, jointly implemented by the International Land Coalition (ILC), GALAGC, and the National Land Coalition of Mongolia (NLC), surveyed nearly 1015 pastoralists, land experts and land officers across all 21 provinces. It has generated the first set of pastoralist tenure security data ever collected in Mongolia, helping to fill a critical evidence gap for policymakers, herder organisations and land governance institutions.

In response to these findings, the Government of Mongolia commits to the following, working in collaboration with the Mongolia National Land Coalition:

  • Develop and support approval of rangeland-use agreements in line with the 2024 Law on the Legal Status of the Association of Herder Households and amendments to the Land Law enabling herder associations to exercise rangeland-use rights through contractual agreements.
  • Establish clear legal standards for Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) concerning herders’ rangeland rights, and incorporate these standards into the revised Land Law and related legislation through consultation and technical support.
  • Consult on the establishment of a compensation mechanism for common-use rangelands, drawing on documented cases and experiences collected by the National Land Coalition of Mongolia and other relevant stakeholders.
  • Integrate pastoralists’ land-rights indicators into Mongolia’s land monitoring activities, based on the national baseline study, and establish mechanisms to regularly apply, update and strengthen these indicators and related data.
  • Strengthen the legal literacy of pastoralist herders through training for land administration officials and information, awareness-raising and outreach activities targeting herders and young people, with the support from the Mongolian NLC.

The findings suggest that Mongolia's challenge is no longer one of recognition, as the country has strong legal recognition of pastoralists’ rights to access and use grazing areas and livestock corridors, but of implementation. While the 2024 Law on Herders marked a major milestone for pastoralists' rights, regulations needed to operationalise the law remain pending, limiting its impact on the ground.

Land degradation and tenure insecurity reinforce each other. When pastoralists move confidently across their land, rangelands gain their best defence against drought. These commitments show that Mongolia sees secure land tenure not as a technicality, but as core climate policy. We hope other governments arriving in Ulaanbaatar will pick up on this experience.

Marcy Vigoda, Director of ILC

According to the findings, more than half of surveyed pastoralists were unaware that their rights are legally recognised, while around one-third of land officers also lacked awareness. Only around two-thirds of pastoralists have recognised access to all the grazing areas and corridors they need, and 77% of focus group participants believe pastoralists could lose some of their rights in the future.

This assessment confirms a widespread gap between the legal recognition of pastoralists’ land rights and their implementation in practice. These commitments are an important step towards a more inclusive, people-centred and climate-responsive land policy. Lasting progress will require pastoralists, particularly women and young herders, to participate meaningfully in shaping and implementing the land policies that affect their rights, mobility and livelihoods.

Ms. Davaasuren Odonchimeg, Vice President of the Mongolian Land Management Association