Left Behind- the Mongolian Herders Living at Home With Mum

Apr 23, 2019 | Narangerel Yansanjav
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“I am one of the woman-headed households in this soum. I have been a herder for many years. For me life is still good, because I have a grown-up son who can help me. He became a herder when he was just 8 years old.” 

These were the words of an elderly widowed herder, Suren, whom I met in Tsenkher soum on a research trip for the Women's Land Tenure Security (WOLTS) project last year. She was explaining that women herders who have adult sons are better able to continue being herders than those with no children or only daughters. The Mongolian herding lifestyle is under enormous pressure and families are finding surprising ways to cope. In Tsenkher those pressures include a growing population, land degradation from mining, and land-use conflicts over access to pasture.