In August 2024 Issat Turi, Aksel Falkanger and Tsogsaikhan Pürev travelled to Tsagaannuur to work with Khongorzul Mungunshagai, youth representative of Dukha peoples, and to discuss the development of a Dukha communication center, protection of the taiga and peatlands in Mongolia.
The result of this field work is a report “Indigenous Reindeer Herders’ Dukha Communication Centre. Feasibility Study”. The purpose of this study is to outline need to create a knowledge hub, an Indigenous reindeer herders’ Dukha communication center in Tsagaannuur in Mongolia. Mapping the needs for the center, and the specific programs the center should host.
Today Dukha indigenous reindeer herders in Mongolia have no institutions for the protection of their language, culture and traditional knowledge, and protection of the vanishing taiga with peatland. Climate change, biodiversity and nature loss, combinded with melting of the permafrost and burning of the taiga and tundra are increasing challenges for indigenous reindeer herders. Dukha youth from Tsaganuur usually travelto Ulaanbaatar for education, but there might be a risk that few return home because of lack of institutions for Dukha peoples.
There is a hope that the new center will be a knowledge hub for education and training for the entire
circumpolar north, like ICIMOD is for the Himalaya. The study also tries to outline some of the principal legal and regulatory requirements of constructing a knowledge hub and communication center in Tsagaannuur, and the consequences of different design options in this regard. The basis for the feasibility study are interviews and onsite visits conducted during a field trip to Mongolia, as well as some online research conducted afterwards.
See the full report here.