Contested Space,Contested Livelihoods: A Review of Mongolia's Pastureland Management and Land‐Tenure Reform

In the early 2000s, the discovery of significant minerals wealth in the Gobi Desert marked the beginning of Mongolia's economic boom. Rapid GDP growth however challenges long‐held assumptions about place and land rights, leading to contested and sometimes contradictory outcomes, which are embedded in evolving perceptions and realities of land‐tenure rights, development rights, and local livelihood sustainability. Framed within the debates surrounding natural resources development and the contradictions in scale and user rights, this essay identifies three distinct periods of land‐tenure debate in Mongolia. In each period, pastureland management debates are influenced by different narratives, including those of development economists, scholars, NGOs, and local voices. This essay draws on an extensive review of policy documents and contemporary literature to consider the multiscalar implications of rapid national growth on internal population redistribution, land‐use rights, and the underlying importance of place.