ANTI-DESERTIFICATION MEETING TO RUN HERE

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A meeting of the Network on combating desertification, dust and sand storms in North-East Asia is planned in Ulaanbaatar on December 16. Environment Ministry staffers of the member-countries of the network, Mongolia, China and South Korea, together with representatives of Israel, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan will attend the meeting. Present there will also be Mr Yang Youlin, an Asia-Pacific Regional coordinator of UN Convention to Combat Desertification. The network mainly focuses on trans-boundary cooperation to prevent and control dust and sandstorms in North-East Asia. In Mongolia, 41.3 percent of total territory is Gobi desert and arid zone, 90 percent of pasture land is vulnerable to desertification and land degradation, and the ongoing climate changes have negative effects on the fragile ecosystems, the UN North-East Asian Sub-regional Program survey says.