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S.Oyun: Our ministry is working to set the grounds for green development policy of Mongolia


Oyun Sanjaasuren, Member of Parliament, Minister of Environment and Green Development of Mongolia was interviewed on environmental policy of Mongolia. 


-A strategy is set by the Ministry Environment and Green development every year. In accordance with this tradition, 2013 was announced as the Year of Supporting Environmental Education. Why was the issue of environmental education raised up to this level?
-By announcing 2013 as the year of environmental education, our Ministry is aiming at promoting  the concepts of sustainable development in all sectors of society, and developing green development concepts and nature-friendly attitudes for the mass public.Historically, Mongolians have a beautiful tradition of treasuring the nature and consuming natural resources with care and appropriateness. The gest goal for this year is to deliver this tradition and culture to the youth and practice hereditarily. For generations this culture of treasuring the nature has been hidden in our ancestors’ wisdom.

-What has been planned in the scope of the year to support environmental education?
-The plan for the year has been divided into different categories such as public education and forums, meetings, lectures, competitions and awareness raising education through public media especially designated for children and youth. In general, of all the work has been planned, some already started being done. For example, our Ministry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ministry of Education of Mongolia and Science and Development agency of Switzerland for implementation of a project titled “Supporting Sustainable Development of Mongolia” .
Within the scope of this project, we will work for  increasing the education and knowledge of the youth on environment and building environmentally friendly mindset to the children of all primary and secondary school age.
Our partners will cooperate in developing a curriculum with insights of a sustainable development. In addition, the parties will be open to cooperate with organizations with different backgrounds such as education, culture, sports, tourism, media, traditional religion and civil society in order to  enlarge the framework of the project.

-Is there any project that is ready to be implemented or already started?
-In cooperation with Arts Council of Mongolia, a project “Each Waste is not Waste” will start soon. Within this project, a series of TV lessons on what a waste is, how a waste can be reduced, how it can be segregated and  how waste can creatively be used will be taught to children and youth. Also the project will be intended to support teachers’ skills on education of nature and environment combined with art.
A TV show with the same title has been prepared for the purpose of protecting nature and environment, reducing the waste and giving the  public an understanding on re-use possibilities of the waste.
Additionally, organizations and entities can contribute by turning their office into a green office which will help us with the reduction of greenhouse gas and global warming. The very first TV show is aired from our offices at the Ministry showing examples on how energy saving lights could be used, how flowers should be planted for the children’s room at home and how staff can save papers before printing.
This summer “National Geographic” magazine is implementing a project called “National Geographic Kids Mongolia” in cooperation with our Ministry.  In cooperation with international children’s camp “Nairamdal” and an “Association of the Camps” various interesting activities such as photo taking session, funny photo competition, trainings on taking care of pets, and programs such as raising awareness on environmental issues in an easy and fun way will be organized. And, of course, we will be cooperating with the media through all this.

-Green development is quite an interesting topic nowadays. Your Ministry is responsible for the green development of Mongolia. What is a green development?  
-Briefly, green development is to develop any industries and services in an environmentally friendly way, consume the resources with a thought to inherit to the future generation and install saving minds to every person in the society. Today every country is working to implement development strategies that are thoughtful of the far future, practical, approachable and suited with fundamental features of the country.  In terms of these, the Reform Government of Mongolia has changed our Ministry’s name to Ministry of Environment and Green Development and made it a primal Ministry.  
It means the Government is setting a ground for green development. Our Ministry is working to build concepts, strategies, programs and action plans for “Green civilization” to have it approved by the Government within this year. As a result, Mongolia will change development trends and reach sustainable development with implementation of above mentioned issues.

-Climate change is  affecting Mongolia. What could you say about a policy to adapt to the change?
-Specialists and researchers have been warning there is lower capacity for the global system to overcome ger risks at current crisis of energy, food and finance.  Greenhouse gas is increasing in the atmosphere; income inequality and financial insufficiency are the gest risks in the coming decade in the report of Global Economic Forum.
Thus, we are supporting climate adaptable development for the purpose of adapting to climate change and combine excretion of greenhouse gas with green development policy. Warming in Mongolia is happening at a pace that is three times faster than the world and it is leading to more dryness.
This affects not only agriculture and lives of the herders but also increased movements to Ulaanbaatar city from rural areas. This brings negative consequences to the citizens of the city such as air and soil pollution, pasture deterioration around the city, unemployment and social service overloads.
In this situation if we adapt to climatic change and combine the policy of green development with excretion of greenhouse gas, it will be beneficial to both Mongolia and the world. Therefore, we consider there will be an increased possibility to find international financing for the introduction of adaptation technology, and cooperation will be more effective.    Particularly, green technology to innovate fridge that will use renewable energy and work in the condition of Mongolia has been planned by Ministry of Nature, Environment and Green development in cooperation with Japan.
This is a project that is both socio-economically and environmentally friendly  and through this project herders will be able to control the number of their livestock in accordance with the pasture capacity and the number of livestock that could be lost during the zud will be reduced and also using the new fridge where meat of the livestock shall be stored, and pasture ecosystem shall be improved.
We have much work planned, being done and to be done in the future like those. If we properly set the ground of green development, we can reach sustainable development.   

-Could it be understood that green economy is a ground for green development?
 -Green economy in short  is a way to reach sustainable development while eliminating poverty.
 Our Ministry is proposing a base for future policy of green development suitable for Mongolia with above mentioned strategic documents.  
There are many tasks to achieve.  Green financing, investment, loan mechanism and green jobs,  green educatio, develop biotechnology, information technology and renewable energy,  implement a principle of 3R (Reduce, Re-use and Recycling) ,re-use it and produce a new product after remanufacturing it in the fields of energy, infrastructure, agriculture, construction and urbanization. All this cannot be done by the Ministry only. It will happen with help and participation of all ministries  adhering to the same policies and directions.

-Is Mongolia able to create a nomadic lifestyle under the auspice of green civilization? I am asking this question because I think Mongolia still remain unique in this era of globalization?
-We set up a policy that is based on the rich national heritages of nature and culture of Mongolia and develop them as a green civilization development zone.
We are planning to make Mongolia a center of the green cultural development and create national cultural landmarks. Particularly, mountain range of Altai and concave of Great Lakes  are true cradle of a nomadic culture. Concave of Great Lakes is the mother land of nomadic culture and it shows the beauty of nature as cultural landmark. If we can turn the following places into cultural landmarks we have a good chance to be the country where there is a uniqie combination of culture history and pure nature. For example, Burkhan Khaldun and Onon-Baljir can be the symbol of our historical landmark where the Great Khans were born and ruled us and where they have white deers as the areas’ totem,Gobi as another cultural landmark, Khuvsgul lake as a natural and cultural landmark with the Reindeer culture. If we can turn all these places into landmarks with their own unique characters, all this will be considered as our national brand. Mongolia is the only country where there is true nomadic culture in Central Asia. We are working with positive thoughts that brands such as wild nature and culture, organic meat and milk, cashmere, wool, molt and textile products shall represent us internationally.

-Now I would like to clarify policies of your Ministry. I have heard that the Ministry would have administration offices that are responsible for river basins. When will this be a solid work?
-True. Administrations shall be established for a total of 29 river basins. The administration responsible for Tuul river basin has been established and started its activity. Thirteen administrations are planned to be established this year and the rest within next year. Currently preparation work is being done.

-How about the Ministry’s policy towards protecting animals?
-According to the natural law, animals’ life depends on healthy and safe living environment. In other words, if a living condition and spreading area deteriorate and shrink they face dangers to die directly. Illegal hunting, inappropriate utilization and illegal trades due of animal’s parts directly affect loss of animals’ lifespan.
Several forms of basic protections were reflected in the Law on Animals in order to prevent the animals from loss, impairment and dangers. Firstly, protect their  living environment and spreading area, and free migration ways of the animals that migrate for the purpose of maintaining normal growth of the animals in nature, Secondly, acclimatize the animals to the area where they were before or for historical period. Thirdly, prevent from animals’ detriment during industrial and other process.
Fourthly, provide the animals with additional feeding and salt, and support them depending on features of the area at the difficulties of nature and weather. Fifthly, restrict utilization of animals. Sixth, generate an appropriate use of animals based on their resources.
Generally, hunting is prohibited for any case. Hunting for the purpose of research and hunting with license shall be accepted. Our Ministry is against with studying very uncommon animals in the way of hunting. But catching them up, sampling of their blood and hair and hanging collars with alarms to study their movements are accepted. Many countries in the world have different kinds of research methods without hunting the animal. This will be supported and introduced to Mongolia.

-Any action against animal deterioration has taken place?
-Yes. I would like to mention two examples. For the past years, wild sheep of 50-70, sometimes 150 and about 300 mountain goats were annually hunted by foreign hunters and a lot of money went to the budget of the country. But starting from 2013, 15 wild sheep and 32 mountain goats shall be accepted to be hunted  according to the procedure approved by the Government. In order to raise local people’s participation in protection of wild animals, all fees for the permission of hunting shall  go to the budget of the soum.
Hunting of wild sheep and mountain goat was reduced by 5 times after the procedure. Legal environment states that 50% of the fees for hunting shall be spent for protecting the wild sheep and improvement of the pasture management. Particularly, 14000 USD shall go the budget of the soum for hunting one wild sheep. It means that the local people will have good opportunities to improve the pasture, generate open water holes and decrease illegal hunting with all 7000 USD.
 Therefore, a schedule for hunting 15 wild sheep and 32 mountain goats in hunting zones was done by Ministry of Environment and Green Development. Starting from 2013, export for falcons has been prohibited for 5 years.

-Although Ministry of Environment and Green Development sets policies on the protection of nature and environment, the enforcement is managed by the General department for Specialized Investigation. This seems to be causing many disorders such as negligence, failure in implementation of the policies , and failure to prevent from many avoidable problems?
-The role and duties of General Department of Specialized Investigation may be discussed by the Parliament’s spring session.. Today, our Ministry is in charge of developing policies on nature, environment and green development and maintaining their implementation. But the enforcement part and the monitoring part remains out of the control of the Ministry. Implementation function for Forest and Water policy has been transferred to our Ministry during the term of this Government. It would be more  appropriate if  the Ministry is in charge of the controlling and enforcement of the policies.
In other words, our Ministry should be given the authority to monitor the  implementation of the Law on Nature and Environment.

-You are a politician who talks about good governance. Can we also find relevance of good governance in environmental sector?
-Participation of each citizen is very essential to create good governance in environmental sector There is no single person who can survive without using the resources nature. Yet the resources are limited. Our generation of this very era is obliged to leave the resources to the next generation. We are going for a system that is responsible and transparent. Citizen’s participation is very important in all kinds of improvement. Moreover, adults should pay more attention to children’s growing mindset and set an example for their attitude towards nature. Sometime even the adults should be learning from the children, too.

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