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Hijaba Ykhanbai founded his Civil Society Organisation, the Environment and Development Association (JASIL, meaning “green” in the local language), in 2003 with one main goal: to improve land use and green areas in his home country of Mongolia through co-management.

In fact, in Mongolia, land management is a crucial issue. Over 90 percent of Mongolia’s grassland is prone to some level of desertification and about 77 percent of Mongolian territory has already been affected, largely due to degradation caused by overgrazing and limited pasture management[1]. With only 1 percent of the country’s arable land cultivated with crops[2], the agriculture sector is heavily dependent on nomadic animal husbandry. There are nomadic pastoralist communities across the country.

According to Hijaba, land management issues are a particular problem for these pastoralist communities due to the repercussions of the country’s move from a planned economy to a market-oriented system in 2000. The new system is still in its infancy, based on old traditions but using with new policies and legal bases, and has faced teething issues. 

To improve the situation, JASIL worked with Mongolia’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Nature, and Environment and Land Agency to establish new management systems, based on a bottom-up approach. It developed new community guidelines for community-based co-management of rangelands in Mongolia, which means that management includes the participation of diverse stakeholders, including local pastoral and forest communities. The guidelines were approved by the government in 2006 and built upon in 2009 and 2012 to include full legal and regulatory support of pasture use in the country with participation of all stakeholders.

Community is key 

Over the last decade, JASIL has worked with many stakeholders to improve and implement community-based co-management approaches, including 54 pastoral communities; 42 community leaders, of which 15 are women; local government agents; and research institutions, including the Animal Husbandry Research Institute, Institute of Botany and several Mongolian universities. JASIL was the Regional Focal Point for the Central Asia Pastoral Alliance within the Asia Rangelands Initiative of the International Land Coalition, and works on implementing activities to secure tenure rights of pastoralists and upscale co-management of rangelands in other countries of Central Asia.

After the approval of a new law on the sustainable use and protection of forests in 2007, JASIL expanded its co-management approach to silvopastoral communities. JASIL organised the allocation of forest resources to silvopastoral communities in Batsumber soum and Khotont soum, both steppe and forest ecosystems, through co-management contracts with local governments. With the aim of reducing desertification in the prairie and steppe ecosystems, JASIL also was one of the initiators of a ‘Green Wall’ initiative in Mongolia, to engage community members in afforestation activities and establish green protection belts in overgrazed areas of the country. Hijaba was one of the authors of this programme in his role as Director of Forest Division in the Ministry of Nature and Environment at the time. The programme successfully established a green protection belt in Lun soum, covering over 400 hectares.

There is no equality without equal land rights!

With Hijaba working so prominently on land rights, gender equality is impossible to ignore and he is a strong advocate for women’s equality.  Despite women’s key role in pastoral livelihoods, their contributions often go unrecognized by decision makers and herders themselves.

Hijaba’s work on co-management involves the whole community, including women and under-privileged groups, and he saw how effective action was when all members of the community participated equally. The interventions have led to the establishment of women’s groups in all communities and increased women’s participation in the decision-making for rangeland management, as well as the implementation of activities that support women’s household income generation. JASIL’s co-management arrangements helped to foster equal participation of men and women in rangeland use and indeed three women-led pastoralist groups, representing different ecosystems of Mongolia, have joined a community conservation network.

“There’s no doubt about it - land management and equality are interlinked,” Hijaba says firmly.

Fit for the future

So how can we ensure a more equal future for women pastoralists in Mongolia? The country is still very traditional, especially in rural areas and pastoralist communities, and local customs often neglect women’s voices. In fact, research shows that men are twice as likely to own property or livestock in Mongolia[3][4].

“To change the situation, we need a lot of time, effort and training, because we need to make a transformation towards sustainable pastoralist and rangeland management in Mongolia, in line with the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026,” Hijaba said.

“Sustainable management is impossible without inclusive participation” Hijaba concluded.

We second that – and are looking forward to supporting Hijaba and his organisation to improve land rights for women across vast dryland areas of Mongolia and Central Asia!