Green Wall project to continue until 2020

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The implementation term of the Green Wall project, also known as the Mongolia’s Great Green Wall, was extended until 2020 on Monday by the authorities of Mongolia and the Republic of Korea. This happened at the Northeast Asia Forest Network meeting, held at the Ministry of Environment, Green Development and Tourism, in Ulaanbaatar. Present were, the Minister of Forestry of S.Korea Shin Won Sop, head of the Mongolian Ministry’s Forestry Policy Management Department Ts.Banzragch, head of the Foreign Cooperation Department B.Eroolt and the supervisor of the Green Wall project Choi Su Chon. The sides reviewed the outcomes of the project, co-implemented since 2007. Thanks to the project implementation, forest lines occupying 1346 hectares in Tov (Central) and Omnogovi (South Gobi) aimags and 640 hectares of saksaul forest were planted, as well as many other anti-desertification measures had been taken. The authorities concluded that the project made great contribution to the relations of Mongolia and S.Korea and improving of the Northeast Asia’s forest partnership. The "Green Wall" project evokes memories of the Great Wall built by the Chinese to keep the Mongols out. This wall, however, is intended to stop the growing desertification affecting Mongolia. With the "Green Wall", Ulaanbaatar aims to "protect itself and the whole world from an extremely serious problem: the sand of Gobi desert, gathered by storms of central Asia and transported towards the east", with consequences alerted in China and Korea. Traces of the desert sand have been found in Kansas of the USA too.