Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize
At 81, Batmunkh Luvsandash, a former livestock herder on Mongolia’s vast steppe grasslands, just won a Goldman Environmental Prize for his work in winning the protection of more than a million acres of his homeland. He gave up a career as an electrical engineer to fight the takeover of pastures by the mining companies he once worked for. Armed with law books and the local knowledge of herding communities, he has won battle after battle, protecting more than half his home province. A tenth of Dornogovi, on the edge of the Gobi Desert, is under license for exploration or active mining but the mining companies did not operate according to the country’s laws or their own licenses. He monitored their operations with local herders and by 2020, over 24 local areas were protected for herding and wildlife. After the government permitted mining exploration in 66,000 acres around Khutag Mountain, they managed to get future mining there banned. The Nature Conservancy, who were advising the government on biodiversity protection, nominated him for the Goldman Prize for his work around Khutag Mountain but he sees it as being for his work over all these years with many local herders and community members.
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