Changing Taiga: Challenges for Mongolia’s Reindeer Herders

This report examines the current conditions, pressures, and transitions affecting reindeer husbandry among the Indigenous Dukha community in northern Mongolia. It documents how a long-standing livelihood system based on small-scale reindeer herding, hunting, and seasonal mobility is increasingly constrained by environmental change, unregulated mining, forest logging, tourism, hunting restrictions, and socio-economic transformation. Drawing on field investigations, interviews, community meetings, and workshops, the report describes the ecological context of the taiga, the cultural and economic role of reindeer, and the impacts of policy and market transitions since the socialist period. It outlines present challenges related to herd size, animal health, land access, food security, and cultural continuity, and records perspectives expressed directly by reindeer herders regarding their situation and needs.