After wrapping up several reports, I wanted to get out of the city and visit the great outdoors for a break. I got the chance to visit a country called Mongolia. Pictures of beautiful grasslands, friendly nomads, and falconry that I had seen in the media so far came to mind. I left lightly with my camera, but the vast grasslands and Milky Way of Mongolia that I visited in person were not the real image of the country. Mongolia was seen suffering from extreme desertification.
The total forest area was reduced to less than 8%, and 1,166 lakes and ponds, 887 rivers, 2,096 streams, and 60 hot springs disappeared. The images I saw in the media were very different from reality. Mongolia was suffering from desertification. In spring, sandstorms beyond imagination sweep across Mongolia. A huge sandstorm rising over 100 meters high is created. The land where trees used to grow dries out and becomes sandy, and sandy land cannot reflect sunlight and instead absorbs it. As temperatures rise, forests disappear.
In addition, as cashmere products became popular, the number of goats increased exponentially, which became a problem. Unlike other livestock, goats eat even the roots of plants, so the more goats that were not managed, the more dry the pastures became. In addition, the indiscriminate development of many large corporations also became a problem. Desertification was accelerating due to haphazard development without proper planning.
The image of Mongolia was fixed with wide grasslands, the Milky Way, and friendly nomads. Behind what is shown in various media, there is a completely different world. The six-day trip for a comfortable rest in 2022 became report coverage to record the problem of desertification.
