Oyu Tolgoi donates 600,000 USD for afforestation benefitting the Tuul River

The non-governmental organization (NGO), Ikh Ust Tuul, celebrated the August 6th launch of the second stage of a project to afforest 2,400 hectares of land at the Tuul River’s tributary. The project is in its second year in Mongolia.

Oyu Tolgoi joined the project this year and announced a donation of 600,000 USD, or over 900 million MNT, towards the project. President and Chief Executive Officer at Oyu Tolgoi, Cameron McRae, said during the ceremony, “The Tuul River is an inseparable part of Mongolia that supplies water for almost half of Mongolia’s citizens. We’d like to express our sincere gratitude for the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Green Development [MNEGD], Ikh Ust Tuul NGO and Tree Global Mongolia NGO for carrying out such a significant project.”

The donated funds will be spent for afforestation at 2,400 hectares of land in Shar Shuvuut of Erdene soum in Tuv Province. Minister of the MNEGD, S.Oyun, also said, “Mongolia spends five billion MNT for afforestation every year. However, most of the funds are used for fighting against forest insects, pests, and for supporting environmental cooperatives, while only one billion of it is used for the afforestation of 8,000 to 10,000 hectares of land, which is not a remarkable amount at all.

Increasing the forest reserve is not an activity that the government can pursue alone. Therefore, we are focusing on attracting investment from private sector companies to form other economic leverage for the project.”

Ikh Ust Tuul NGO’s CEO, A.Oyunsaran, said, “Investment from companies will turn into larch forests and will recover the Tuul River’s flow, which will supply water for all Mongolians.”

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