A TEERS-Canada and Mongolia Rangers Project To Help Protect Darkhan, Mongolia from Sand Drifting By Creating a New Forest To Be Known As the Forest Munkh TseTseg - Forest of the Heavenly Flower
The Location
In the faint orange morning light the countryside is both beautiful and silent. When day breaks the frighteningly clear blue skies dominate heavens over Darkhan.
Situated in the North Western part of Mongolia close to the Russian Border it is the second larest city and coldest city in Mongolia.
In a 10 year span -1985 to 1995 - the equivalent of 65 years worth of tree growth were lost. Of the 73,600 hectares of forest destroyed during that period, only about 10 percent were destroyed by fire.
The Project
Our project goal is to reforest 500 hectares or about 500,000 trees.
The city lies downwind of the Soviet built coal fired generating station which dumps tons of fly ash and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere daily.
Damaged
According to the environmental analysis laboratory study, the industrial area of the city is heavily polluted with non-organic wastes. Its flora layer shrunk and the entire area is suffering from soil erosion, making it prone to dust storms.
Reforestation
Reforestation will replace forests devastated during Russian regime and to help protect Darkhan from sand drifting, reduce erosion along the banks of the Kharaa River.
Soil erosion and sand drift are cited as the key environmental problems in Darkhan. Pollution and erosion of 1 m2 of land has reached 30.0 percent on average and the rate of erosion is considered to be high.
The Kharaa river running adjacent to Darkhan is 2.5 to 4.0 times more polluted than the permitted levels. The flow and direction of the river has begun to change, because forests and river embankments are being destroyed.
