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This article explores the history of notions of land ownership among Mongolian pastoralists in a historical context.In the 1990s the Mongolian state implemented a series of reforms designed to create a competitive market economy based on private property. These included the wholesale privatisation of the pastoral economy and the dissolution of the collective and state farms. The Asian Development Bank and other international development agencies advocated new legislation to allow the private ownership of land. This remains a highly controversial issue in Mongolia, particularly with respect to pasture land which remains a public-access resource.This paper reviews the history of conflicting notions of rights over land, and explores the ways in which indigenous concepts are rooted in pastoral practices and institutions which have long histories on the Mongolian steppe. Historically, mobile systems of pastoral land-use in Inner Asia were based upon the flexible use of pastures by pastoralists within an established framework of use-rights, but this access was very clearly subject to regulation by district authorities.This historical context explains the fierce resistance the Mongolian government has encountered in trying to introduce legislation that would permit the private ownership of land so as to bring Mongolia into line with international economic orthodoxy. These economic orthodoxies are being introduced by agents of neo-liberal policies such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB). [author]
