In June 2011 four civil society organisations...CEE Bankwatch Network..., urgewald..., Bank Information Center...and Oyu Tolgoi Watch...traveled to Mongolia's south Gobi desert. The purpose of the visit was to better understand the environmental and social impacts of the development of the Tavan Tolgoi and Oyu Tolgoi mining projects in the Gobi. What they discovered was that the pressures from mining placed on the desert's scarce natural resources was driving the Gobi's traditional herder's to the edge of survival.