Symposium on

Nature, People, and Mining in Contemporary Mongolia

Hokkaido University

Sapporo, Japan

January 20, 2012

Julian Dierkes
“The Central Role of Resource Policy for Mongolian Development in the Past and Coming Ten Years”

The economic, political and social development of Mongolia has come to revolve around mining policy. Decisions that are made about mining – especially the selection of partners, structure of royalty, taxation and ownership regimes, and the use and distribution of income streams – will continue to dominate political discourse and have a determinant impact on virtually all areas of social relations. In this presentation, I discuss the development of democracy, mobile pastoralism, and inequality in terms of their relationship with resource policy.

Mikiya Nishimura
“The Rhapsody of the Taiga in Mongolia: Gold and Money”

Tsaatans, the reindeer herders, have been thought to be very poor people by Mongolians. However, they are getting wealthier than Mongolian nomads. Tsaatans have started to derive income from foreign visitors and mine workers (because of having reindeers). Today, Tsaatan people are in the rhapsodic situation of much money and gold. But to make more money, they have to change the way of their living in Taiga. In this presentation, I will report some changes in the purpose of keeping reindeers and the way of seasonal migration and discuss the impact of money and gold on the livelihood of Tsaatan people.

Dalaibuyan Byambajav
“Gold Mining and the Origins and Consequences of Social Mobilization in Mongolia”

While the extensive discovery and extraction of mineral resources in Mongolia have come to dominate the national development discourse, there is an increasing public concern over the environmental and social effects of mineral extraction. Over the past decade, we have seen an apparent increase of the local conflicts over land, water sources, and the livelihood of local people and protest actions in the country. Both academic and popular writing have failed to present a nuanced understanding of the emergence and trajectories of these conflicts. By tracing the trajectory of a local protest movement (road blockade) in the Tsenkher district of Arkhangai province, I will examine the origins and consequences of anti-gold mining social mobilization in Mongolia.

Namiko Abe
“The Expansion of Insect Damage and Regeneration in the Mongolian Larch Forest Considered from Dendrochronology”

In recent years, the large-scale insect damage has become a major problem in Mongolian forests. It could be considered that the factors such as climate change and the surrounding environment facilitate the insect damage. Tree-ring analysis is used to examine the process of the decline and recovery of the Mongolian larch forests affected by the insect damage.

Ryo Takiguchi
“The Environmental Problems in Contemporary Ulaanbaatar: A Movement for the Improvement of Living Conditions in Ger-district”

Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, has experienced great changes since 1990. Examples of these changes include the population growth, the rapid rise in the market of real property, and the environmental issues such as air pollution. Ulaanbaatar has become one of the worst city of the environmental pollution in the world. This presentation focuses on a ger-district in Ulaanbaatar where a movement for the improvement of living conditions and the solutions for the environmental problems has been facilitated by the Government of Mongolia and international aid organizations.

Chifumi Ono
“Land Use and Contemporary Pastoralists in Northern Mongolia”

Both settled-pastoralists and mobile-pastoralists have used a valley as their common land throughout the year in a village located in the north of Ulaanbaatar. However, little is known about how these pastoralists manage their common land. We conducted interviews among the pastoralists in August, 2011. In this presentation, I will discuss the actual situation of land-use in the valley and the problems resulting from the interaction between settled-pastoralists and mobile-pastoralists.

Shin Miyazaki
“Long-term Hydrometeorological, Ecological and Dendrochronological Monitoring over the Larch Forests on the Permafrost in Northern Mongolia”

To clarify the heat, water carbon exchange process and dynamics by comprehensive approach, we started long term monitoring of the eddy-correlation based flux observations, the hydro-climatic observations, the phonological camera monitoring and sap flow measurement at the 25-m height tower and forest around the tower in the Udleg (48 15’43.7” N, 106 50’56.6”E, altitude: 1264m) over the larch forest in Research Forest of NUM in northern Mongolia since 2009. We’ve also carried out the tree-ring observation to get the stand history (age, growth rate, fire, drought etc.) and dendrometer observation to get the diameter growth of larch trees.

Mamoru Ishikawa
“Representing and Enhancing Environmental Literacy to Share Knowledge – The Changing Environment of Mongolia”

Environmental literacy means the ability to appropriately read and utilize environmental information, to anticipate rebound effects, and to adapt according to information about environmental resources and system and their dynamics. This would be a key concept to share knowledge between societies and scientists in the context of potential human-environmental system to function and evolve in a sustainable manner. Under this framework I would like to provide the matter of arguments for sustainable Mongolian socio-natural environments.

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