/зохиогчийн эрхээр хамгаалагдана/

1-Current Situation.  2-Articles,

1. Mongolia is facing a rapidly growing environmental disasters mostly due to irresponsible human activities.... As the socialist era during which the state supervised environmental issues ended in 1990, control over natural resources was left in a vacuum and in an anarchy. 

As a result of irresponsible mining, uncontrolled timber cutting and logging, wild fires and global warming and the lack of enforcement of environmental laws, the environment and ecology in Mongolia has detiorarated.

The environment and nature protection laws impose very soft responses on their breaches. A gulf exists between lawmaking in Ulaanbaatar offices and their application on open field. The fault for Mongolia’s environmental degradation is mostly human.

Gold rush has brought a great concern for people who love nature. Gold mines leave their damages behind. In early 1990, almost all most factories in towns and cities were closed down leaving their employees unemployed, without means to earn for their living. Across Mongolia, thousands of these former workers, and low-paid government employees as well as  many nomads gradually found themselves in position to illegally scavenge the country's old gold mines for leftover nuggets and gold dust. Use of mercury by the mushrooming gold mines in last decade has created a major public health hazard. In areas where the gold is wedded into hard rock, people use mercury to release it and there are tons of mercury in the soil, in the air, in people's clothes, in their food and inside their bodiesHigh levels of particulates and other pollutants pose serious health risks, as indicated by the increasing number of young children with respiratory diseases. For example, Hongor county in Selenge Aymag, has been heavily contaminated from toxic spills.

Sewerage coverage is one of the lowest in Asia , causing widespread contamination of surface and groundwater, both in Ulaanbaatar and secondary cities.

The burning of soft coal by thousands of suburban families and factories in Ulaanbaatar has resulted in severely polluted air in winter months. Waste collection and management covers very little of the waste stream.

Deforestation rates have risen since the mid 1990s from around 40,000 ha annually to around 60,000 ha. Now only 12.4 million ha of closed forest remain. Since 1990, more than one half of the forested area, has been effected by wild fires, while 10.7 million ha of this amount was burnt in 1996 alone. In 1996, 368 fires occurred effecting 14 aimags (provinces), more than doubling the figures for normal years of fire occurrence. The continuing trend of fire in has been highlighted post 1996 by the fact that 239 fires occurred in 1997.

The number of livestocks increased from 25 million in 1990 to 40 million in 2008. This led to overgrazingand increased pasture and water competition with wild fauna. Goats, the animal who eat roots of grasses have outnumbered sheeps in herds and contribute to desertification. The government is introducing some conservation and development programs. Overgrazed pastures, and efforts to increase grain and hay production by plowing up more virgin landhas increased soil erosion from wind and rain. Most recently, with the rapid growth of newly privatized herds, overgrazing in selected areas also is a concern. 

Mongolia has been hit especially hard by global warming, with temperatures rising, on average, twice as fast as the global average - winter temperatures have jumped 3.6°C over the last 60 years. Numerous rivers and lakes dried out in this country.

According to the servey of the WWF Representative Office in Mongolia , in the last decade, the number of rare animals has decreased so rapidly that several species are close to  dissappearance. In 1980s, there were nearly 40.000 wild sheeps 140.000 red dears, but 13.000 wild sheeps and 10.000 red deers were counted during the 2004 cencus. Illegal hunting is going on. Chinese and Koreans buy a large amount of wild and endangered animal's parts, skins and organs.

Grasslands:The continued ecological health of Mongolia 's grasslands is vital for both livestock and wildlife. Livestock grazing is the primary human use of natural areas in Mongolia. 35 million livestock graze 117 million hectares of pasture, approximately 75% of the nation's territory. Economic hardships resulting from the present socioeconomic transition bring increased pressure on grazing lands. Especially in desert steppe regions where soils are thin, excessive grazing leads to erosion of topsoil, compaction of subsoil, and eventually to the replacement of the most edible plant species by less edible species. According to research estimates, 25% of Mongolia's pastures are threatened by degradation. Due to overgrazing, the diversity of plant species in areas near town centers has fallen by as much as 80%. Maintaining careful herding practices and teaching traditional pasture conservation measures to young people will help to ensure that future generations continue to benefit from 's semi-nomadic grazing tradition and rich natural heritage.

Forests:Forest lands cover 10% of Mongolia 's territory, approximately 17 million hectares. Though most forests are in the northern and central , the saxaul forests that cover 4.5 million hectares in the south are especially important for maintaining fragile desert steppe and desert soils. Clear-cut logging, where all of the trees in an area are removed, and firewood gathering contribute to erosion and desertification. Forests are important watersheds and prevent erosion

Water sourcesGround water levels have dropped in Mongolia recent years in many desert and desert steppe areas due to drought and intensified human activities. As a result, many springs and wells, important sources of water for humans, livestock, and wildlife, have dried up.

Mongolia's natural resource administrators and managers urgently need new equipment, and training to improve biodiversity conservation.

POACHING AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES:Largely due to their value in Asian medicine markets, several of 's most endangered species are highly sought after by poachers. Species at risk include musk deer, poached for its valuable scent glands, brown bears, killed for their gall bladders, saiga antelope, illegally hunted for the supposed medicinal properties of their horns, argali mountain sheep, poached for their magnificent horns, elk, hunted legally and illegally for their antlers and antler velvet, and snow leopards, killed for their pelts and bones.

2009 оны эхний байдлаар уул уурхайн салбарт нийт 5202 лиценз хүчинтэй байна. Энэ нь 49.4 сая га талбайг эзэлж байна. Монголын нийт нутгийн 31 орчим хувийг сүйтгүүлэхээр өгчээ гэсэн үг. Эмгэнэл.