Inner Asia includes culturally and ethnically diverse pastoral societies situated in Mongolia, Buryatia, Altai, Tuva, Chita in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Inner Mongolia and Tibet in China. To differing extents, many of these societies have been supporting livelihoods through a culture of mobile pastoralism. Moreover, pastoralism in this region was shaped by an extremely harsh and unpredictable climate in a high-altitude plateau with differing ecological zones including desert, steppe and high mountain alpine eco-systems with diverse natural resources. 

The region attracts significant international attention due to its historically geo-political location in the heart of Euro-Asia. Public and environmental governance in the region is characterized by political ecology/economy. Implementation of any development initiative and its aim for positive outcomes necessitates a great deal of comprehensive understanding of each society; the dynamic history and its impact on the socio-economic, political and environmental institutions and the ways in which their uniqueness is addressed in current policy research and development. In other words, knowledge, ideas and information that are based on rigorously researched multi-perspective findings is essential for a policy initiative to reflect the complexity of local, national and regional situations and meet broader and multi-layered demands of its diverse inhabitants.

Development Research Institute - Mongolia and Inner Asia (DRIMIA) is a non profit organization based in the USA. It is a Mongolia and Pastoralism centered regional development research institute. DRIMIA aims to contribute to the process of strengthening the socio-economic standing and resilience of pastoral societies in the region. This can be accomplished by examining their interaction with rural and urban development in an historical and contemporary context and carrying out policy and academic research activities, consultancy, and advocacy in multidisciplinary fields. DRIMIA will support and collaborate with Mongolian and Inner Asian emerging and career researchers and scholars in the above fields to publish internationally for the purpose of involving their research works and positions in international academic and policy research and development. In this regard, DRIMIA will operate in collaboration with local, national, regional and international public and environmental governance institutes as well as other stakeholders involved in development processes. Based on this collaboration, DRIMIA will also work towards providing a public platform for sharing and disseminating blogs and news on issues of Pastoralism and Rural/Urban Development in Mongolia and Inner Asia.