August 6, 2024 — AFoCO held the Inception Workshop for the World Bank Technical Assistance (TA) Project titled “Mongolia Green Resilient Landscapes” on 6 August 2024 at Bayangol Hotel, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. As the very first project activity, the Inception Workshop played an important role in setting the stage for the subsequent activities. To faciliate productive discussions among project stakeholders and potential collaborators, the Inception Workshop was conducted in two sessions — Session I: Project Inception Meeting and Session II: Knowledge Sharing Session. The Workshop welcomed guests from the National Forest Agency of Mongolia, the Mongolian Billion Tree Fund, the OLOLT Climate Change and Carbon Market Development Center, Seoul National University and professors from Mongolian Universities.
BACKGROUND
In June 2020, Mongolia embarked on an ambitious journey to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as part of its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). The country’s goal is to unconditionally lower national GHG emissions by 22.7% by 2030, with the potential to increase this reduction to 44.9% through additional conditional measures, including those in the forestry sector. Forestry has been identified as a key sector for carbon sequestration in Mongolia’s climate strategy. To support this, the Government of Mongolia launched the Billion Trees National Movement (BTNM) in September 2021, following the COP26 summit in Glasgow. The initiative aims to plant one billion trees within the next decade. The BTNM reflects Mongolia’s long-term commitment to green growth and sustainable use of natural resources, particularly through the development of Green Resilient Landscapes.
The BTNM is a crucial component of Mongolia’s climate strategy, but its success depends on overcoming several challenges. One major obstacle is the lack of comprehensive data and technical tools needed to assess the carbon sequestration potential of Mongolia’s forests. The 2018 Technical Assessment of Mongolia’s Forest Reference Level identified the development of country-specific tree growth values as a critical area for improvement. Moreover, there is a pressing need to enhance technical capacities in carbon accounting among forestry professionals, and to develop financial models that consider the carbon finance potential of BTNM interventions.
To address these challenges, the World Bank, with funding from the Korean Green Growth Trust Fund, has initiated a Technical Assistance (TA) project for the National Forest Agency. This program aims to develop the tools and capacities needed to assess the carbon sequestration potential of BTNM interventions and to create investment plans that incorporate carbon finance.
PROJECT COMPONENTS
The “Mongolia Green Resilient Landscapes” aims to support the development of the tools and capacity needed to assess the carbon sequestration potential of and develop sample investment plans that incorporate carbon finance for different silvicultural interventions under the BTNM by operationalizing carbon finance opportunities in the forest sector. It consists of three components —(1) Develop carbon accounting tools and guidelines for different interventions under the BTNM; (2) Mainstream Knowledge for incorporating carbon finance in BTNM interventions; and (3) Develop investment plans for key BTNM interventions incorporating carbon finance potential. The project will last for 18 months and conclude in January 2026.
NEXT STEPS
The Inception Workshop saw resentatives from AFoCO, Seoul National University, and OLOLT Center present about their respective component activities. A technical discussion among the project stakeholders, it was agreed that the project would focus on the restoration of degraded forests, agroforestry primarily while considering other BTNM interventions. For 2024, the Tehcnical Partner for Component 1, Seoul National Univerisity’s Smart Forest Laboratroy, will conduct a gap analysis to develop a ‘Forest Data Improvement Plan’. The Plan will aim to address the data gaps required to assess the carbon sequestration potential of different interventions of the BTNM.
The project consortium will gather in quarterly Project Coordination Meetings to provide updates on project status and identify risk/issues related to project implementation and explore ways to address them
