Project Overview

Mongolia’s pastoral rangelands are under pressure from rapid economic and environmental change. Expanding mining activities, land degradation, and shifting livelihood strategies are transforming landscapes that have supported pastoralism for centuries.

The Trans-Net project (Coping with New Transformative Challenges to Land Use in Mongolia) investigates these developments through an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research collaboration between Germany and Mongolia.

Running from September 2025 to August 2028, and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Trans-Net aims to generate the scientific knowledge and partnerships needed for sustainable land management and social resilience in Mongolia’s mining regions.

Analyze how mining affects land use, ecosystem health, and livelihoods;

Assess the resilience of livestock systems and pastoral economies;

Identify sustainable pathways for rangeland management and policy reform;

Strengthen academic capacity through graduate training and institutional collaboration;

Develop the foundation for a DAAD-funded SDG Graduate School in Mongolia.

Trans-Net combines methods from remote sensing, ecology, livestock science, economics, and anthropology. Fieldwork is concentrated in the Zamaar mining region, while national-level mapping extends the analysis to other mining zones.

The project integrates data from satellite imagery, ecological surveys, household interviews, and policy analysis, ensuring a holistic view of Mongolia’s changing land systems.