Mongolia and ILC break new ground with launch of pastoralist tenure indicator pilot - ILC
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Mongolia and ILC break new ground with launch of pastoralist tenure indicator pilot
Mongolia and ILC break new ground with launch of pastoralist tenure indicator pilot
Mongolia and ILC break new ground with launch of pastoralist tenure indicator pilot
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When:
10 Feb 2026
Where:
Mongolia
Asia
Commitments:
Members:
CPR
JASIL
MLMA
MNFPUG
NAMAC
Tags:
Establishment and strengthening of local institutions
Pastoralists
Locally Managed Ecosystems
People's Data
Press release
10 February 2026
, more than 320 participants from across Mongolia joined a national training & meeting to introduce the
Pastoralist Tenure Security Indicators
, marking a major step forward in how countries measure, understand, and strengthen pastoralist land rights.
Co-organised by Mongolia’s General Authority for Land Administration, Geodesy and Cartography (GALAGC, the
National Land Coalition of Mongolia
, and the International Land Coalition (ILC)—and it represents the first national launch following the
2025 Memorandum of Understanding
between ILC, the Mongolia NLC, and GALAGC.
This moment positions Mongolia as the first country in the world to pilot the newly developed pastoralist tenure security indicators,
co-developed with SPARC and ODI
, further advancing its global leadership in rangeland governance.
Download the policy brief
Download the technical report
“A critical milestone” – why this pilot matters
Opening the meeting,
Dul Baatar,
Head of the Land Monitoring Division at GALAGC, emphasised the importance of the collaboration and Mongolia’s commitment to strengthening evidence-based land governance:
“Today marks an important milestone in our cooperation with the International Land Coalition following our 2025 MoU. Mongolia is implementing the new pastoralist tenure indicators for the first time, strengthening our ability to improve land governance with evidence-based data. As we move forward, it is essential to protect herders’ traditional knowledge, ensure their rights to pasture and water, and reflect these realities in our evolving land laws. The findings from this study will guide national policy and contribute to Mongolia’s preparations for COP‑17 and the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. I thank all participants from across the country and encourage your active engagement as we lay the foundation for the next phase of this important work.”
- Dul Baatar, Head of the Land Monitoring Division at GALAGC
Participants included officers from all of Mongolia's 21 provinces, soum land officers, government and civil society representatives and herders - ensuring the pilot is as inclusive and participatory as possible with wide national reach and strong institutional grounding.
ILC Asia Regional Coordinator
Anu Verma
reinforced the global significance of this step:
“This collaboration represents a major breakthrough; the first time pastoral tenure indicators are being piloted with a national land administration agency. Once again, Mongolia is showing global leadership, demonstrating how pastoralist realities can shape land governance beyond its borders.”
During the session, ILC’s Data and Land Monitoring Lead,
Eva Hershaw
, presented the full indicator framework developed with pastoralist organisations throughout 2025.
Pastoralists manage land differently, and traditional land tenure indicators are unable to sufficiently capture:
Seasonal movement
Shared and overlapping rights
Customary governance
The fluid boundaries that define pastoralist systems
The new indicators address this gap through three dimensions:
Legal recognition (de jure)
– whether pastoralists’ rights and mobility routes, as well as FPIC processes concerning them, are formally recognised
Process and practice (de facto)
– how governance, customary systems, and relationships work on the ground
Perceptions
– how secure pastoralists feel about their land tenure and reasons for insecurity
These indicators align with and inform monitoring of land tenure in existing global frameworks including the SDGs, the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the UNCCD, and the UNFCCC.
Throughout 2026, GALAGC, the Mongolia NLC, and ILC will work together to:
Implement pastoralist indicators for the Mongolian context
Engage diverse actors, including herder communities, in data collection
Analyse findings to inform national land policies
Present results and joint recommendations for COP17(August 2026)
This work can inform policies and plans to combat land degradation, supporting Mongolia’s commitments under Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and recognising areas with potential for community-led restoration. It will also engage and elevate herders’ traditional knowledge and voices through data in policymaking spaces, a win-win for all.
A model for the world
The launch of the pastoralist indicator pilot in Mongolia is not just a national achievement—it is a global first. The collective leadership of GALAGC, the National Land Coalition in Mongolia and pastoralist networks across the country is setting a precedent for
how countries can better recognise the land governance systems that pastoralists have sustained for centuries.
Mongolia has once again shown what global leadership looks like: grounded in community knowledge, aligned with national priorities, and connected to international commitments.
Part of the Mobility Matters campaign - data that moves policy
This pilot is a cornerstone of
Mobility Matters
, ILC’s global campaign advancing the rights, visibility, and policy recognition of pastoralists. At the heart of the campaign is a simple message:
Pastoralists have long been missing from official data systems.
When they’re invisible in the data, they’re invisible in policy.
Mongolia has taken the first step. The path is now open for others to follow!
Learn how!
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