Mongolia: Country Features, the Main Causes of Desertification and Remediation Efforts - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 213

conclude that climate change will negatively impact the natural resource base in
Mongolia and will consequently further aggravate the precarious conditions in
which rural communities are living (Mearns 2004 ).

5 Government Response to Perceived Threats

5.1 Legislative and Regulatory Response

In response to these and other observations, the government of Mongolia has
started to formulate legislation and policy measures to prepare itself for the possible
consequences of climate change. In 1993, the government ratified the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and in 2001 it
approved a National Action Program on Climate Change. In addition, several policy
documents have been put in place that are directly or indirectly related to climate
change. These include:

• Laws on Nature and Environment; Laws on Meteorology, Hydrology and

Environmental Monitoring; Laws on Land; Laws on Arable Farming; Laws on
Disaster Prevention; Laws on Pasture;

• A program on sustainable development of Mongolia, 1999;

• A national program on preventing livestock from drought and dzud disasters,

2001;

• A food program on food supply, security and nutrition, 2001;

• A program on supporting development of intensive livestock-farming, 2003;

• A state policy on the development of food and agriculture; and

• Relevant annual reports on the natural and environmental review in Mongolia.

The government has also established an inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral
National Climate Committee (NCC), led by the Minister for Nature and the
Environment, to coordinate and guide national activities and measures aimed at
adapting to climate change. High-level officials such as Deputy Ministers, State
Secretaries and Directors of the main departments of all related ministries and
agencies are members of the NCC.
Mongolia is a party to the UN Convention on Combating Desertification
(UNCCD) since 1996. As part of UNCCD, Mongolia developed National Action
Plans (NAP) 1996 and 2003. The new government developed the national action
plan (2010-2020) for combating desertification that was approved parliament in
2011. Also, development of a new Pasture Law is in progress. In the implementation
framework of these two NAPs, the Government of Mongolia focused on national
capacity building for combating desertification and the creation of a more viable
policy and legal environment to take real action. The national legal framework
has been strengthened by a number of new or modified laws regarding ecosystem
management.