Mongolia plants 140 mln trees since 2021 to combat desertification

ULAN BATOR, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has planted a total of 140 million trees across the country since launching a national tree-planting campaign in 2021, according to the presidential press office on Sunday.

The national campaign, which aims to plant at least 1 billion trees by 2030, was officially launched in October 2021, when Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh addressed the UN General Assembly and announced the country's goal of combating desertification and climate change.

As part of efforts to accelerate tree planting nationwide, Mongolia organizes tree-planting campaigns twice a year, in spring and autumn, encouraging government institutions, businesses and citizens to take part.

The latest autumn tree-planting campaign began last week. On Saturday alone, more than 1,000 people from 42 organizations planted 3,000 trees of eight species at the International Garden of Mongolia in the capital, Ulan Bator, the presidential press office said in a statement.

An exhibition providing tree seedlings and saplings to individuals and organizations interested in planting trees will also be held from Oct. 5 to 18, it said.

Under the "Billion Trees" national campaign, Mongolia is also taking measures to protect its forests from pests, diseases and degradation.

A survey conducted this year to assess the spread of forest pests across 2.4 million hectares in 16 provinces found pest outbreaks covering 256,500 hectares.

Based on the findings, pest-control measures have been carried out across 133,500 hectares using aircraft, backpack sprayers, light traps, mechanical methods and drones.

Environmental experts have noted that Mongolia is among the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Due to its geographical location and changing climate conditions, the Asian country has experienced an increasing frequency and severity of natural hazards, including forest and steppe fires, desertification, land degradation and yellow dust storms.

According to the latest national assessment released by Mongolia's Ministry of Environment and Climate Change in August, at least 81.9 percent of Mongolia's total land area has been affected to some extent by desertification and land degradation.