Minister of Environment meets AF country director

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Minister of Environment, Green Development and Tourism D.Oyunkhorol MP Thursday received a delegation led by Ms Melony C.Lindberg, the country director of the Asia Foundation for Mongolia. Paying attention to the environmental issues, the US Asia Foundation (AF) has been cooperating with Mongolia since 2007 in the responsible mining sector. In 2010-2013, the AF implemented a first phase of a project on augmenting sides’ participation in environment reservation. The project’s main objective is to tackle environmental urgent problems by increasing a participation in it of mining companies, local inhabitants and administrations. The project’s second phase commenced in 2014, and the environmental rehabilitation method has been worked out, being harmonized with small-sized mining within the project. "It already has been tested on 73 hectares areas in eight sums and has good results, proving that such rehabilitation can be performed on small-sized mines," said Mr Jonathan Stacey, a manager of the environment project. Based on the method, it is intended to make rehabilitation plans for small-sized mines together with the local administration, he added. D.Oyunhkorol thanked the AF for realizing the effective project and programme. Underlining a requirement of putting the mining sector into economic circulation in times of the economic difficulties, the Minister said any actions should be fitted with people’s tradition of saving nature and ideology, otherwise it might provoke a conflict between mining companies and people. The Minister emphasized that Mongolia intends to realize a development of the responsible mining and to introduce the latest technologies of environmental rehabilitation. She underlined an importance of starting supporting the eco system such as planting trees and creating a multilateral national system of saving environment. There are many civil society institutions for environment reservation, but very few of them have been founded at people’s initiatives, so it is vital to support civil proposals and initiatives, the Minister said. Ms Lindberg backed positions and ideas of the Minister. Then the sides agreed to re-establish the cooperation memorandum between the Ministry and the AF in order to make the collaboration more fruitful.