Vol. 5 · No. 2 · 2001 · pp. 49-66 (18)
The Effects of Livestock Privatisation on Pastoral Land Use and Land Tenure in Post-Socialist MongoliaMaria E. Fernández-Giménez
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Mongolian pastoralists differ from many pastoral peoples in their political, cultural and economic roles within their state. Pastoralists constitute 20–30 per cent of the total population of Mongolia (with some estimates suggesting they account for as much as 50 per cent), contribute significantly to the nation's GDP (over 30 per cent in 1996), and most belong to the dominant Khalkha Mongol cultural and ethnic group (MBDA and Tacis 1996). Mongolian pastoralists participate in a pastoral economy that has persisted, with apparent ecological and social sustainability, through several major political-economic transitions in the twentieth century. However, the shift in 1990 to a democratic form of government and the ongoing transition to a market economy once again call into question the future of herders' livelihoods and the resources on which they rely.