For the Green Wall project in the Gobi Desert saxaul trees have been planted across 350 hectares to alleviate desertification. The project, backed by the Government of the Republic of Korea, was launched in 2007 with the purpose of planting trees in 3000 hectares of land in one decade.

The Green Wall project in the Gobi Desert has planted saxaul trees in stages of 50 hectares, 100 hectares and 200 hectares in Bayanzag, 100 km away from Dalanzadgad sum in Umnugovi. The first 50 hectares were planted with saxual trees in 2011, another 100 hectares in 2012 and 200 hectares this year. The trees planted in 2011 have grown to a height of 2m.

Local manager of the Green Wall project, Ch.Odsuren said that “We planted saxual trees from seeds in 2012. Millions of sauxal trees should have grown across 100 hectares. But the saxual seeds have not grown well. Almost half of the seeds were destroyed. Now we have used plantation. Watering the saplings needs a lot of capital. So it seems that planting from seeds is not a suitable way in the Gobi Desert.”

The supervisor of the Green Wall project, Choi Su Chon  commented that “Water is the most important thing for the planting of trees. We have found numerous ways to reduce water use for planting trees, to use less water to grow trees fast. A watering system is very essential. Currently we try a drop watering system once every four day or a week as well as an abyssinian well system. It is a challenging issue to find a water source. When a water source is found, planting trees is more possible.”

Saxual trees are small bushes only found in the Central Asia. It has a thick trunk and many branches.  Dwellers of the Gobi Desert praise this like coal as it can be used to make fire.