ULAN BATOR, OCT 9 – Mongolia has planted a total of 84 million trees across the country since the launch of the national tree planting campaign in 2021, the country’s presidential press office said today.
In October 2021, Mongolia began a nationwide tree planting campaign called ‘Billion Trees’ following an announcement by President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh at the United Nations General Assembly, where he stated that the campaign aims to plant at least 1 billion trees by year 2030 to combat desertification.
Since the implementation of this campaign, the number and size of trees, saplings, seed sources, and tree nurseries planted and cultivated each year have increased five to six times compared to the period before the campaign began, according to the newspaper office.
Desertification, exacerbated by climate change, has been a major factor contributing to the increased frequency of yellow dust storms in Mongolia in recent years, according to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
Mongolia covers an area of more than 1.5 million square kilometers, but less than 10 percent of it is currently forested. The ministry reported that almost 77 percent of the country’s territory has been affected by desertification and land degradation. – Xinhua
