This is not the first time that issue of protection and restoration of Saxual trees is being considered. Mongolia has been recorded as a country with small forest resources. Mongolian forests consist of 140 species of trees, shrubs and woody plants, of which coniferous and deciduous forests constitute 75.2 percent, and Saxaul forests 24.8 percent. The first extensive ecological research on Saxaul trees and oasis in the Gobi Desert started in the 1960ies.
Study reveals that Saxaul forests usually grow in the arid and semi-arid regions and the desert of Mongolia, where they are the dominant endemic brush type plant. The importance of the Saxaul forest to Mongolia is that they help to stabilize the active sand dunes and reduce the effects of sand storms. A decrease in the area of saxaul forests from logging and firewood gathering is one probably cause for why sand storms are becoming more harmful in Mongolia. And almost 80 percent of Saxaul forest is situated sparsely in territory of 5 -6 provinces in Mongolia.
As Mongolia”s first “Desertification Atlas” summarizes 72 percent of total Mongolian territory has been affected by desertification to differing degrees, of which 23 percent was classified as slow, 26 percent as medium, 18 percent as much degraded, and 5 percent as highly affected. Mow there is a great need to change the people’s mentality towards the community-based natural resource management.
At the international meeting on sustainable Saxaul forest management, the chairman of Soil Conservation and Combat Desertification Department, D.Batbayar said “Ministry of Environment and Green Development supports an individual, an entity and a community that plant Saxaul trees with technical assistance in 2014.”
