Like most countries, Mongolia is also a victim of climate change and is taking steps to counter this scourge. The country is greening its environment, which seems a peculiarity, given its topography. But it is moving passionately towards creating a sanctuary for greenery in the Gobi Desert.

Greening Mongolia’s environment seems to be a peculiarity considering the vast expanse of Mongolia’s southern Gobi. Growing trees and plants to create a green oasis in an arid region may seem inconceivable, but Mongolia is bucking the trend and proving sceptics wrong.

If Singapore has a target of growing one million trees by 2030, then Mongolia has an even more ambitious target: it plans to grow one billion trees by that year.

The government manifests its seriousness by pledging to spend at least 1 percent of its annual gross domestic product (GDP) on a comprehensive national programme.

The Mongolian government has drawn up a three-stage plan for this campaign, with a preparatory phase planned for 2021-24, an intensification phase in 2024-26 and a sustainable implementation phase in 2027-30.

Mongolia needs to act quickly as desertification degrades the land’s fertility. The country is now confronting a major problem affecting over three-quarters of its total land territory. The lives of the country’s nomadic herders are now under threat because of climate change, which also erodes the nation’s food and water security.

Public-private sector partnerships have been forged to focus on reforestation and forest management, giving an impetus to the tree-planting programme. Several big firms have committed to planting 20 million to 120 million trees over the coming decade.