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Good practice Imported

Mongolia's “Billion Trees” Movement — Ulaanbaatar's Urban Afforestation Push

Mongolia · Ulaanbaatar · See the Mongolia profile · See the Ulaanbaatar profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 89% 27/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Mongolia's state-led campaign to plant one billion trees by 2030 has planted about 128 million trees so far, with Ulaanbaatar city adding a dedicated 120-million-tree urban-forest target across botanical gardens and green belts, though progress trails the original pace.

84 million
Trees planted nationwide (self-reported, 2021-2024) (2021-2024)
114.6 million
Trees planted nationwide (self-reported, by Oct 2025) (by October 2025)
127.9 million 8.3% of billion-tree target
Cumulative planting (independent outlet estimate)
120 million trees
Ulaanbaatar urban afforestation target
1 billion trees
National target (by 2030)
608 million trees
Mining companies' pledge (by 2030)

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Government of Mongolia — National Committee for the “Billion Trees” National Movement
Period
2021–2030
Keywords
afforestation, urban forestry, climate policy, public-private tree planting

Context

Mongolia's government declared a national 'Billion Trees' movement in 2021 to combat desertification, dust storms and land degradation, targeting one billion trees nationwide by 2030 under a three-phase plan, with a commitment of at least 1% of GDP annually.

Activities

Ulaanbaatar, home to nearly half of Mongolia's population, was assigned an urban afforestation target of 120 million trees; in 2025 the city began planting across eight sites, including the IGM Botanical Garden, a 'Green Wall' river-corridor strip in Khan-Uul district, and district botanical gardens in Bayangol and Nalaikh.

Results

State news agency Montsame reported 84 million trees planted nationwide from 2021-2024, rising to roughly 114.6 million by October 2025; independent outlet Qazinform put cumulative planting at 127.9 million trees (8.3% of the billion-tree target), and Mongolia's 21 largest mining companies have pledged a further 608 million trees by 2030.

Conclusions

These figures are self-reported planting counts from state and allied sources rather than independently audited survival or growth data; the pace — roughly 13% of the target after nearly five years — trails the original schedule, and no public third-party verification of seedling survival in Ulaanbaatar's arid, water-scarce climate was found.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — Government commitment of at least 1% of GDP annually.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Three-phase plan: 2021-24 preparation, 2024-26 intensification, 2027-30 sustained implementation.
Staffing & skills
Government of Mongolia — National Committee for the 'Billion Trees' National Movement, Ulaanbaatar city government for urban afforestation sites, 21 largest mining companies as pledged co-funders

Conditions for success

  • Committed funding of at least 1% of GDP annually
  • Multiple planting sites and mining-company pledges (608 million trees) supplementing state planting

Common failure modes

  • Self-reported planting counts, not independently audited for survival/growth
  • Pace trails original schedule (roughly 13% of target after nearly five years)
  • No public third-party verification of seedling survival in Ulaanbaatar's arid, water-scarce climate

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Own resources / municipal budget

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Data sources

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