Mongolia will spend at least 1 percent of its GDP annually to plant trees, said Ya.Sodbaatar, chief of staff of the president’s office on Monday.

President U.Khurelsukh issued a decree on planting one billion trees by 2030. Mongolia aims to plant a billion trees by 2030 to combat climate change and desertification, U.Khurelsukh recently told the United Nations General Assembly. The national campaign to plant a billion trees begins today.

In this regard, President U.Khurelsukh has issued a decree on obliging the government to spend annually at least 1 percent of the GDP on combating climate change and desertification or planting trees.

Mongolia has a total land area of 1,564,116 square km and only 7.9 percent is now covered by forests.

Around 77 percent of the country’s total territory has been affected by desertification and land degradation, according to the country’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism.