This review analyses forest-steppe vegetation dynamics in western and north-central Mongolia during the Holocene with respect to the extent of natural and anthropogenic drivers of vegetation change and deforestation. Under the influence of the highly continental mountain climate, the environmental conditions for the establishment of forest and forest-steppe vegetation are harsh. The spatial distribution of forest and steppe is controlled by several climatic and topographic factors. Human activities such as tree logging and grazing by nomadic livestock are another important factor limiting the distribution of forested areas. Based on selected pollen, macro-charcoal, and coprophilous fungi concentrations from two example forest-steppe sites, one in a region with high anthropogenic influence and the second with very low anthropogenic impact, general changes in the forest and steppe vegetation over the last 9,570 cal yr BP were reconstructed. Based on the presented multi-proxy data, it can be concluded that during the early and mid-Holocene, it appears most likely that the vegetation dynamics in both regions are defined by supra-regional climate variability. Whereas during the late Holocene, small-scale variations, regional climatic trends, and the local human activities may have had a greater impact on the forest-steppe ecosystems of Mongolia than large-scale climate patterns.